The first truly consumer 3D printer should be incredibly intuitive, easy to own, and seamless by design.
…And That’s Why We Made The Micro
It is the most affordable 3D printer that can be used right out of the box. Perfect for beginners and experts alike, just plug in the printer, download or create models, hit print, and watch your custom creations form right before your eyes.
The Micro is Designed For Everyone
They had a goal of raising $50,000 on Kickstarter – and have raised $1.8 million already.
Seeing this printer makes me like my short positions in 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD) and Stratasys, Ltd. (NASDAQ:SSYS) (owner of the MakerBot line of consumer printers) even more, as it shows what a ferociously competitive space this is – a little start-up with a handful of people appears to have created a massively better, cheaper 3D printer than what the market leaders have on the market – AND they’ve quickly and easily raised nearly $2 million to bring it to market.
Whitney Tilson on 3D System’s products
For comparison, I typed “3D printer” on Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s and Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ:SPLS)’ web sites and the first links were to 3D Systems Corporation (NYSE:DDD)’ consumer models, the Cube (2nd generation), the CubeX Duo and the CubeX Trio. I immediately noticed two things:
1) Most models (each color has a different listing) had no reviews – and the most I found were 18 reviews for the silver-colored one. That’s very few for a product that 3D Systems is really hyping (there were only 5 reviews across three colors on Staples’ web site), which reinforces my view that sales of this product are minimal; and
2) The reviews for 3D Systems’ three consumer models are catastrophically, almost comically bad – I’ve never seen such a high percentage of customers so absolutely livid. Which raises the question: what does this say about the rest of 3D Systems’ business? Is it possible that the consumer printer business is a disaster, but the rest of the company is a well-oiled machine? I suppose, but I don’t think it’s likely.
Here are the reviews on Amazon for each model:
The 18 reviews I found for one color (silver) of the Cube, which costs $1,087, are mixed at best (averaging 2.9 out of 5):
1. When I received the printer the top panel was cracked in half, one of the material cartridges was jammed beyond repair and was therefore useless, and at some point during transit or more likely because of the use of subpar materials, the metal locating piece under the glass platform decided to become unglued. Of course it was impossible to stick it back on in the exact same spot so I basically had to guess. Kind of like trying to hit a pinata except way less fun.
2. The platform angle is waaaaay off-level so many models were ruined. There’s no way to correct this through traditional means so I finally fixed it by gluing a couple pennies underneath the rubber feet of the platform. That’s right, I had to GLUE freakin’ PENNIES to my $4,000 3D printer.
3. During almost every build, the material nozzle would accumulate a glob of molten plastic that would eventually dislodge itself and become part of the model. I tried in vain on multiple occasions to prevent this by using an Xacto blade to clean said nozzle which is fine if it wasn’t constantly zig- zagging around in a seemingly taunting manner. Best case scenario is you salvage the build. Worst case scenario is one or more of your fingers will be crushed to death. There’s no way to pause and resume. Well, technically there is but the machine for some reason forgets where it left off.
I’ll end here not because I’ve listed every god-awful thing that’s wrong with my Cubex Duo but because I have to go back to fixing it. Last night the remaining cartridge (still half full) decided to stop dispensing material so I was greeted this morning with a half built model. Do yourself a huge favor and add years to your life by staying away from this atrocious machine. Or if you do decide to buy, make sure to get your Xanax prescriptions filled before hand.
Our CubeX is currently sitting as a paper weight until we get some spare time to rewire and reprogram the machine to use the Rambo board and Repetier host. We are also working on an extruder redesign to accommodate a standard nozzle for finer print resolution. Its a shame to let good hardware go to waste.
Save yourself!!! DONT BUY ANYTHING FROM CUBIFY LET ALONE A CubeX…
– you can’t ever get any product (they lock you into their proprietary cartridge system and they can’t fulfill any orders (always stating a ‘supply problem’ – took 5 months to get 2 cartridges – imagine spending $4000 on a printer you can’t get supplies for)
– when you DO finally get a cartridge from them, those don’t work either, because the design is so bad the filament breaks in the cartridge, the sensors don’t see the cartridge, etc.
– the filament costs 3 times as much as it should (if you could use regular filament)
– the software is primitive and constantly crashes
– if you look at it the wrong way the display or motherboard will short out and you have to wait for a new one.
To heck with their “no refund” policy, I shipped mine back after NEVER getting one single print to work and disputed the charge with the credit card company = full refund.