Another day, another 3D printer kickstarter - this one even got featured on @HACKADAY .
While their printers look well-made, produce nice-looking prints and probably have no problem lugging a router motor around, i fear that the guys running this kickstarter are not up to the task of following through with the project. For example, even though they list eleven people as part of their team, only two appear to be dedicated to the project. Why is the ophthalmologist even listed?
Then, even though i never thought i’d say this at some point, i think that their printers are too cheap to reasonably produce them and to provide proper customer service. Their lowest-end printer costs about the same as an @Ultimaker 2, but likely is two or three times as expensive to manufacture.
What’s your opinion? Is @Kickstarter turning into guaranteed-to-fail-starter?
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/breytblat/3dmonstr-large-industrial-grade-quad-extruder-3d-p
Kickstarter is a bit of a mixed bag, but it’s definitely a buyer-beware and buyer-educate-yourself sort of place.
I’ve backed a number of projects and I’ve been very happy with them, but I’ve also avoided backing a few for the sorts of reasons you mention (their pricing doesn’t seem sustainable, the team seems too small for the project they’ve given themselves, something just feels kind of off about the situation) and while some of those I avoided came off just fine or mostly fine I did manage to avoid a few serious failures too.
I like crowdsourcing in theory, but in practice it allows too many people to make their first business foray on someone else’s dime and to bear too little of the risk themselves, resulting in people rushing into situation they’re not ready for or going in with an overly rosy view of what’s going to happen only to get bitten for not planning like a pessimist.
I think it’s a “Backer beware” environment. It is, after all, a sort of micro-investment system. Evaluating the “pitch”, as you have done, is what all potential backers need to be capable of.
I met Reyblat at the Sf maker Faire. He did not seem like someone who wanted to create another Makerbot or Stratasys. His prototype worked even then. If you want to make something BIG in one piece and do not mind waiting a while let him build something that will do it for you.
All that and it still has vertical banding and acceleration ripples in the corners.
The more small companies making machines and components the better. Strength in numbers is important when battling dinosaurs.
I agree with @Billy that the more competition the better, but as I’ve started too many times by now, it is definitely a high risk environment. Like a SkyMall of angel investment. I’m personally taking some time off of Kickstarter and the like as most products I’ve received have been incredibly late and under performed. The only campaign that I was satisfied with was the panucutt Viki LCD, which I smoked within days of receiving :-(. I was part of the pebble campaign which was a year and a half late and which only now is even close to racing the functionality promised.
People just needed to realize they are Super early adopters and often times are buying alpha products
I would avoid kickstarter projects that just provide a sales pitch for their great idea; and a sales pitch is just what you get from 3DMonstr.
I’m sure this kickstarter is genuine, but with the lack of details about infrastructure, logistics, manufacturing, assembly, operating space, skill sets, and all the other things that you would expect that demand large investment, I can’t be confident that this printer can be delivered on time.
The pitch says 4 months to finalizing the production configuration and build test machines, and then manufacturing and shipping will begin 2 months after that.
That means estimated delivery is July and not May as stated in the perks.
They are offering at least a multi nozzle printer and there is no multi nozzle print examples. And where does the Arduino Uno fit in.
As a rule of thumb, if there are holes in the pitch, don’t invest.