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Solidoodle's latest 3D printer is friendly to newcomers
As much as 3D printers have evolved in their short history, they still tend to look like they were made for hobbyists, by hobbyists. You'll see boxy frames, sometimes with exposed parts -- and you may have only limited help if something goes awry. Solidoodle isn't happy with these intimidating designs, so it's launching a fifth-generation peripheral (the Press) that's kinder to first-time users. The 512-cubic-inch printer comes in a friendlier, enclosed design that looks more like a mini fridge than the raw machinery of Solidoodle's previous models. The spool is protected to prevent plastic filament jams, and the printing bed automatically calibrates itself -- you won't have to adjust it every time it's uneven.
MIT students modify a 3D printer with a height-measuring laser
It's happened to all of us: you queue up a print job, your old desk printer starts up and it unceremoniously jams halfway through. It's easy enough to resume a botched print job when you're dealing with paper, but what do you do when you're printing in 3D? A small team of MIT students may have an answer: a depth sensing scanner cobbled together from a laser and a simple webcam.
Live from the Engadget Stage: Solidoodle CEO Sam Cervantes
In a show full of 3D printers, Solidoodle sets itself apart in one key area: affordability. The company has offered up a series of sub-$1,000 models, including, most recently, the Solidoodle 4, introduced a few months ago. January 10, 2014 1:00:00 PM EST
Solidoodle 4 keeps 3D printing under $1,000 (video)
Sam Cervantes didn't stand on his new printer when he brought it by our offices the other day. He thought about it for second, a nice reprise of the day he introduced us to its predecessor late last year, but, well, he'd only just pulled that first unit out of the box for the first time, and he didn't want to scuff up its finish or dent the new enclosure. As to whether the new 3D printer could sustain the weight of a full grown man, he certainly thinks so. It's still got that steel structure, after all. Maybe we can convince him to put on a show at CES in January. Structural integrity questions aside, the latest printer from Solidoodle is a nice looking thing, certainly. As the Brooklyn-based company began looking to expand its sales footprint beyond enthusiast-based direct marketing, it no doubt realized that it would have to produce a product that could live on store shelves comfortably next to, say, a laptop or an HP printer. It sounds silly, sure, but big box stores aren't particularly interested in stocking products that look as though they might have been built in someone's garage. For all its charms, the Solidoodle 3 had a certain home-brewed quality to it. The new printer goes firmly in the other direction, with a metal enclosure that wouldn't look too out of place in a lot of homes.
New Zealand man creating Aston Martin replica on desktop 3D printer
When we first got a desktop 3D printer at Engadget headquarters, we made a Weighted Companion Cube. And then a Mario figure. What can we say? We like to start small. Ivan Sentch, a programmer living in Auckland, is a bit more ambitious with his projects -- he sat down and started printing a replica of a 1961 series II Aston Martin DB4 on his second-generation Solidoodle, piece by piece. Sentch has been working on the project off-and-on since Christmas of last year, and is now finished with around 72 percent of the body. Once finished, he'll make a fiberglass mold of the print. Check Sentch's blog in the source link below for some insight into the process.
iMakr 3D printing store opens in London, carries Solidoodle and more
The notion of a physical store dedicated to 3D printing is still new to us, and Solidoodle's Asia-focused plans didn't give much reassurance that we'd see more shops in English-speaking countries all that soon. iMakr may have just come to our rescue by opening what it claims is the world's largest 3D printing store in London's Farringdon area, occupying 2,500 square feet across two floors. The showroom has both workshops as well as printers to buy on the spot, including the Solidoodle 3; we've reached out to get the full selection, although iMakr's online channel already sells MakerBot's Replicator 2 and a few less immediately recognizable brands. We're still far from having a 3D printing store on every corner, but the London store gives the retail concept some legitimacy.
Visualized: A walk through the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo
We didn't find much in the way of news at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo here in NYC (and, we're sad to say, our press badges were just old-fashioned 2D printed), but there was plenty to look at, thankfully. Between the slew of business and consumer devices and the boatload of printed objects, the event was part business conference, part art show. And while the real star was the still-fresh world of desktop home printers, plenty of companies brought out their big-gun industrial devices (including at least one really sweet giant 3D scanner). Peep the gallery below to check out some of the eye candy from the event.%Gallery-186504%
Solidoodle 3D printing stores set to bring 'upscale fashion shopping' to Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan
Looking for an "upscale fashion shopping experience" in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan or Belarus? Solidoodle's got your back. The company is set to launch 3D printing stores in those areas, featuring its low cost 3D printers and "lifestyle" items created on said devices. The Russian store is set to be the first to open this summer. The company also used its press conference today to announce plans to sell printers in Brazil, Canada, Korea and Japan, as well as a join initiative with Georgia Institute of Technology's Mars Society to test the devices in "harsh environments like Mars" (places like Utah, apparently). More info on the announcements can be found in an exceedingly enthusiastic press release after the break. Update: Solidoodle shot us a note to let us know that the retail locations won't be offer existing printers, but rather a "yet-to-be-announced model" from the company. A 4D printer, perhaps? Fingers crossed.
Solidoodle 3 is an $800 3D printer that you can stand on, we go hands (and feet) on (video)
Companies will go to fascinating lengths to demonstrate their belief in a product, but there was still something refreshing in watching Solidoodle founder Sam Cervantes climbed atop his company's latest creation, beaming. After all, the announcement of a $500 printer back in April left us wondering what sorts of corners the company would have to cut to offer a product at a fraction the cost of what Cervantes' former employer, MakerBot, has brought to the market. Asked whether Solidoodle had to make any compromises to hit such an impressive price point, the one-time aerospace engineer stood by his product's build quality. And then he stood on it. Announced in November and due out next month, the company's latest product doesn't quite hit that price point. Solidoodle had to drive cost up a fair amount to double the last generation's build platform to 512 cubic inches. Still, $799 seems like chump change for entrance into the nascent world of home 3D printing, particularly for a device that is built as solidly as Cervantes claims. The team popped by our New York offices to drop off and stand on the Solidoodle 3. Cervantes was quick to point out that the printer is still firmly in prototype mode (in fact, it's the first prototype to leave the confines of the company's headquarters), with his team doing its damnedest to get the product in the hands of customers by early next month. A quick glance at the rear of the printer confirms this -- there's a fair amount of exposed wiring back there and the spool of plastic hangs on an exposed PVC pipe.
Solidoodle 3 goes up for pre-orders with 512 cubic inches of 3D printing prowess
The potential for home 3D printing has regularly been limited by size; even MakerBot's Replicator 2 can only go so far in matching our ambitions. Solidoodle sees that deficit as a chance to make its name in a still very young industry. Its new Solidoodle 3 printer covers an extra two inches in every dimension than the Solidoodle 2, doubling the printable area to an extra-large 512 cubic inches. The 8-inch by 8-inch by 8-inch space isn't as long as what's inside the MakerBot challenger, but it's larger overall and improves on Solidoodle-built ancestors with a newer spool that cuts back on tangles in the plastic filament. Should any projects be too big for existing 3D printers' britches, the Solidoodle 3 is up for pre-order today at a size-appropriate $799. Do brace for a long wait, however: at 8-10 weeks before shipping, the company doesn't expect any deliveries until January.
Former MakerBot exec launches Solidoodle sub-$500 3D printer
Let's be honest -- we all want a a 3D printer to call our own, right? Price has always been a significant barrier to the dream of printing pretty much everything your imagination can conjure (barring some hardware limitations, of course). For its part, MakerBot has made some significant strides toward tearing some of those barriers, and now Solidoodle, led by that company's former COO Samuel Cervantes, is looking to take the trend even further. The company's current self-tilted model starts at just under $500. The printer, which is now up for pre-order, can print plastic pieces up to 6" x 6" x 6", and "all you need to supply is a computer and power." Also, interestingly, "a 200-pound man can literally stand on top of the machine while it's printing. " So, that's a bonus. Check out a video of the printer in action after the break.
