I am the co-owner of Gizmo 3D Printers,

I am the co-owner of Gizmo 3D Printers, but hopefully this post will be seen as something cool and not just marketing.

Some months ago I posted a video to show the speed of my printer after the Carbon3D TED talk. I have been working hard on the code to make it better and now we are starting to take videos of the things we are printing.

Here is a video where we print something in 19 minutes that would normally take 5+ hours on an FDM machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGITuLyEyg8.

Next video will show how we destroy the part. It is interesting how much weight this hollow part can take before it crumbles.

After that we will post a video printing a design from Paul Braddock http://www.paul-braddock.com/3d-prints/

Ja boet… its a lekke printer. You guys sell in SA?

sci-fi movies are full of good videos
better is specs and warranty :wink:

Unfortunate there are 2 words rather prominent on your website that make many people on here turn off. “Patent Pending”, to which my standard 2 word reply is Keep It.

Patents cause trouble for hobbyists, and it keeps an idea out of reach of everyone else for 20 years, unless you pay the fee. Which really causes problems for open hardware.

The post itself is probably considered spam since it’s promoting the poster’s business.

In the US, it’s still technically a violation to use a patent it in a DIY. Chances of getting sued for it is very low, but it’s still non-zero. Then another issue is that patents can and have protected things of dubious patent-ability.

We can very easily get into a patent flame war on here but I think best not. People have different opinions on it. I am fine with that. I can post more cool videos in the future if people are interested. I have something planned that, if it works, will be ultra cool I think.

@christophe_malvasio Since we will launch on a crowd funding platform and it will be backing a project and not buying a product, the first release will most likely not have a warranty. Same as any other crowd funding project. Difference is we won’t take 2 years to ship like most others, because we will have gone through the full process twice before releasing on crowd funding. But, the machine does have very strong parts. Frame made from 40mm x 40mm aluminium, most steel parts are 2mm or 3mm mild steel or stainless steel. Z ballscrews is 20mm. Many steel parts are welded together. I think you will be hard pressed to break anything on the machine. I will have beta testers playing with machines soon so that we can show how independent people use the machines.

@Michael_Scholtz We will launch on crowd funding first and after that sell to the world. My mother still lives there. Maybe she can become our distributor for South Africa :slight_smile:

No warranty on crowd funding? Are you not confident in your own product?

@Alex_Bolderoff ​ Do other 3D printer manufacturers give warranties on crowd funding platforms? It is not that we don’t believe in our product. We are too small to offer warranties this early. I can understand that this might be a deal breaker for some people but what you can do is wait to see the reviews of the reputable beta testers that will be shared before the launch.

@Mark_Rehorst it is a good idea. Thank you. We could add a warranty as something you can add to your backing at an additional cost. I am completely happy with that. I think Makerbot support was $300 when I bought my 2x. So 10% might be the way to go

@Kobus_du_Toit I was asking if others offer warranty, I’m asking if you are confident in your own product? @Mark_Rehorst is right when he say’s the warranty would impact your business, @Kobus_du_Toit but wouldnt you think that the money you invested into warranties wouldnt pay dividends?, in the sense of more sales? It is saying that i should take a big risk on my part, but you are not willing to take any risk at all. the warranty also keeps companies like you on their toes, it means you need to further look into better quality parts (motors, electronics, contruction material, contruction methods, DOA, etc.), as you have already applied for a patent surrounded this technology, i assume you have absorbed these cost from future sales, why cant you do the same for warranties? Sometimes it’s not the point of making the cheapest machine ever, it’s about the support after you give the company the money. It’s about having confidence in your own product, and then customers, like me, would have confidence in what i’m buying.