Deltaprintr: a quick, tall 3D printer for under $700 (video)
The trio behind the Deltaprintr launched their project with a noble enough goal: creating a 3D printer that was cheap enough so as to actually be affordable for college students like themselves. The result comes in $685, preassembled. Not too shabby, so far as these things go. And with the project currently about halfway through its Kickstarter campaign, the online 3D printing community has clearly taken a bit of a shine to what the team is attempting to do -- in fact, it took roughly a week for them to top $100,000 out of a $195,000 goal. They haven't been able to maintain that clip, but with around $130,000 and 15 days left, things are looking pretty solid for the Brooklyn-based crew.
So, aside from price, what makes this thing different? For starters, there's an easy calibration process for the print heads -- which, as anyone who's spent any time with a consumer device can tell you, isn't always the case. In fact, you can set the machine to auto-calibrate. The printer's also quicker than many of the units we've seen and is capable of some high-resolution prints, with the default set at 100 microns (you can get even higher res, but that'll take longer, naturally). The platform is also reasonably modular. Thanks to the fact that the peripheral uses fishing line instead of belts, you can actually double the height for around $15 in additional parts, if you don't mind tinkering. And the printer works with PLA plastic, so there's no need for a heated bed (though, if you're doing a quick print, you might want to stick some tape down for traction).
Having sold out of the more inexpensive kits, the base price for an unassembled version on Kickstarter is currently $500. You can find that link below. The above, it should be noted, is still a prototype, so you can expect, you know, fewer exposed wires in the final.
