New Matter updates

[NewMatter]

New Matter will be accepting pre-orders for the MOD-t pretty soon on the New Matter web site (you can sign up for e-mail notifications now), and should start shipping those orders shortly after the Indiegogo campaign units are shipped.

[curious aardvark]

Any ideas on timescale before you get an EU shipping point ?

Otherwise between the horrendous postage from the states and the criminal import tax into the eu, they're just not worth buying.
You're looking at - probably - double the actual us cost.

[Duck]

I had to look it up on the indiegogo site, but it suggests April/May 2015 for shipping to backers - can any backers confirm?

I haven't seen any videos on YouTube yet other than the prototype running from way back when.

[Feign]

Just ran a search on Youtube for "New Matter CES 2015" and it came up with several videos of the MOD-t printing, as well as some tech blog interviews and stuff like that.

Here's a good example from GamerHub:

[curious aardvark]

Ah - so the bed moves x&y.
And on screws by the look of it.

I like it.
Although why they were using that level of infill is beyond me :-)

[Duck]

And on screws by the look of it.

Not quite, they are straight-cut gears (think of a spline shaft), just very long. The bottom of the bed contains a rack making up one half of the rack and pinion. If you only spin one of the two shafts, it the opposite direction's rack will just slide along the gear with no translational movement. It is a great idea - it makes both guidance and locomotion all in one simple system with very few moving parts.

[curious aardvark]

That makes more sense - and very neat.

[Feign]

Sorry I'm a bit late on it, last week's update was introducing one of the NewMatter Store's 3D modellers, and going over the printed pencil-top toy. I've been paring down the updates to just the details on the progress with the printer itself (the actual email updates each have a small bio on one member of the New Matter team to accompany the technical portion).

This latest one however indicated that there might be a whole series of updates that are introductions to the artists populating the New Matter Store. So while technical content is a bit light, they at least have some interesting previews of pieces that will be in the store.

Pencil Top by Hugo Pilate.

Oh, also they got an article in USA Today, which isn't a bad thing at all.

[Feign]

Well, this week's update was huge and has several parts. (which I'm presenting a bit out-of-order, and one part is already covered in Eddy's post on the $6.5 million in Series A funding that the company just received from investors.)

The main part of this announcement from a technical perspective is the factory tour and the first parts off of the production tooling. As a first part, the goal here was more to assess the manufacturer and get a realistic view of their capabilities moving forward. Consider that while injection molding a part takes seconds, manufacturing the molds for each part takes from three to six weeks. Thankfully, not every part of the MOD-t is injection molded, but there are almost certainly a few more molds for this factory to make before mass production goes forward at full speed.

These are non-cosmetic sample parts, meaning they’re not in the final color of plastic, but are instead being used to validate that the molds produce parts to our geometric specifications. My experience is that these first shots rarely turn out right the first time, and molds always require some touch-up. But these parts were gorgeous – far better than my expectations. This really confirms that we’ve got a competent partner fabricating these components, and gives me a lot of confidence moving forward with the many more tools the MOD-t requires.

It also thoroughly and definitively answers one question that's been on lots of minds: "When is the MOD-t getting delivered?" Well, I'll just skip all the details and go right to the meat of this.

The dates above also reflect eight weeks for shipping (roughly five weeks on a ship and another three to get through customs, to the warehouse, and distributed to your address).

There are reasons for the delay almost entirely on the manufacturer's side of the process. In the manufacturing world, a miscalculation (aka, a factory overrating their ability while trying to get a client) of about three to six months is pretty common. I'm not happy about it, (And I'm sure the New Matter team isn't either) but I'm not at all surprised.

Lastly, while it wasn't a specific bullet point, it was mentioned that the MOD-t will very likely hit retail later this year for close to $400 (I would assume that means $399) If it seems like a price jump from the crowdfunding price, consider that these guys will have to pay their investors, distributors and retailers in addition to the cost of simply making the product. Bits like that add up pretty quickly.

[curious aardvark]

What's the point of announcing retail if they're not even shipping the early models till september ?

The general public like to buy thing and get things. Not buy things and then wait a few months.

This could well be the first mainstream home 3d printer, but not if they announce retail before it's ready to ship in quantities.