I’m really excited about 3D printing, but not excited about the lead times when purchasing one. Has anyone purchased a 3d printer in the last month that didn’t take at least 2 weeks to ship?
Lulzbot is shipping usually within a day or two http://www.lulzbot.com and Printrbot is about a week or two http://printrbot.com/. Can you imagine what it must have been like to send a check in with a paper order form and wait patiently to receive your Apple I motherboard? It must have been maddening. Honestly patience is needed for DIY 3d printing so this helps to add perspective.
It’s going to be hard to get one quick as they have received a lot of interest. I looked into the 3D Systems Cube and at the time it was about 7 days backordered
Maybe you can get a used one quick. Ask around.
I have found myself building my fifth printer model. I cannot keep them all, so I build them and learn and sell them off later.
Lulzbot should have some ready to roll. I talked with them last week.
3D printing is an exercise in patience. It takes a long time until you get decent prints. After shipping comes assembly and worst of all, calibration.
@Shachar_Weis One week shipping I can live with. 6 - 8 weeks is another thing. I love to tinker and I’m looking forward to assembly and calibration. It appear most of these manufactures are overwhelmed with orders. Seems like a good business to be in.
@Miguel_Sanchez that’s a very cool way to learn. Which models have you built? On average how long does it take you to build one?
Building it is just hours, sourcing parts is where the problem and the wait is 
Prusa i3 builds in just 4 hours!
Workshops are a way to get the kit, build it yourself and start printing in just a weekend or so.
Eliot, I actually run IC3D and we’ve built several doz printers for people who don’t want to spend the hours and just start printing. We provide our own user manual, warranty, and 1-1 support. If I can help answer any specific questions, just PM me. Thanks
I don’t know of any mass producers of 3D Printers who would offer an off-the-shelf delivery.
Our experience at TVRRUG in doing group builds is that RepRap gives builders an opportunity to get the ‘best in class’ parts at the time parts are ordered. This is a constantly moving target as new hot ends, beds, motors and other parts become available on a weekly basis. Kit suppliers want offer the lowest price and the latest proven parts in their kits.
Many components are best value when bought in quantity, such as nuts and bolts, motors and PSU’s shipped from abroad. We found a good group size is 30.
We made several major part changes between our first and second group builds, based on experience and new availability of parts. For instance, a new linear bearing supplier was used as a percentage of the first batch had to be rejected due to sticking. A new hot-end was ordered as the previous design had been superseded. We were able to use leftover parts where the previous minimum quantity of parts allowed (e.g. 3mm nuts & bolts in a variety of lengths)
Another factor in bulk ordering is raising the funds for a big order when a smaller number of kits are on paid order downstream, and where this will leave components in stock that may not be wanted for future kits. All these factors leave customers vulnerable to JIT fails, so customers expections are set to longer delivery times rather than the minimum achievable.
Pp3dp, http://3dprintingsystems.com have the UP Plus (afinia) and the UP Mini ready to ship of the shelf.
@3D_Printing_Systems woah, very sleek design. I didn’t know about your company or models. You have a lot of options. Thanks for sharing.
Hey @Mike_Beardmore , I see your point. I will admit my idea of a 3d printer falls into the same bucket as other appliances. Most shops are printing units on demand.
Thanks for reminding me about bulk ordering. I haven’t checked out my local Hackerspace. They made be doing something like this that I can hop on.