Kickstarter 3D Printing

This post is courtesy of Internet of things blog Hack Things.

The crowdfunding world loves 3D printing. 4 of the top 10 all-time Kickstarter technology projects are 3D printers: Form1, 3D Doodler, Printrbot and the RoBo 3D printer. And there have been many other successful 3D printer campaigns as well. Here is a Kickstarter 3D printing summary.

It’s been a good week for 3D printers and related paraphernalia. Joe interviewed the guys working on the Photon 3D Scanner earlier this week. Since then they’ve hit their Indiegogo campaign goal (congratulations!).

At $450 fully assembled, the RigidBot is at the extreme inexpensive end of the spectrum for 3D Printers, but with capabilities and build volume usually reserved for much pricier machines.

The Filastruder turns plastic pellets into ready-to-use ABS or PLA plastic filament. Much like ink for traditional printers, one of the big hidden costs of operating a 3D printer is the plastic. But while the filament runs $40 or more for a 1kg spool, the pellets only cost a couple bucks. The Filastruder itself is $300, so it would pay off pretty fast.

The 3D Refiner is a simple device to get a high quality finished product out of even lower resolution 3D printing. By smoothing out the layers of a 3D printed object the Refiner leaves you with a perfectly polished final part.

Kickstarter’s stated mission is to help bring creative projects to life, so I guess it’s not too surprising that the community is eager to fund tools like these for making stuff.

We tend to assume that only a small number of dedicated hobbyists actually buy these things, but the success of so many different campaigns demonstrates that there’s actually a broad and healthy appetite. Home 3D printing is already more mainstream than you may have thought.

Via Hack Things.