Staples Starts Selling 3-D Printer

An anonymous reader writes "Soon anyone will be able to head out to the store and buy a 3D printer: 'Staples, one of the leading office supply retailers in the U.S. announced it would begin selling 3-D Systems' entry level personal 3-D printer, The Cube. This is quite simply the single largest 3-D printer retail move to date by any 3-D printer manufacturer.' 'The Cube is one of a number of 3-D printers designed with traditional consumers in mind. Specifically, this unit can print items up to 5.5 inches tall, wide and long in one of 16 different colors. The retail bundle includes 25 free design templates to get users started but the real fun is designing and building something all your own.'"

Comments

cartridge based

[Lehk228]

of course it would be a proprietary cartridge based piece of shit.

Re:cartridge based

[EkriirkE]

Here's the answer to that: http://www.howmuchsnow.com/cube/

commentary on http://hackaday.com/2013/04/26/cube-3d-printer-hack-lets-you-use-bulk-filament/

Re:cartridge based

[Aboshi]

of course it would be a proprietary cartridge based piece of shit.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:76083 looks like you dont need to go buy their cartridges ;)

Re:cartridge based

[Mitreya]

of course it would be a proprietary cartridge based piece of shit.

but... but... these cartridges will helpfully warn you that you are running out at 50%-capacity and stop working at 30%-capacity. It is a very valuable service.

Re:cartridge based

[macraig]

I've always found it hypocritical that the companies that engage in this sort of small-scale monopolistic and anti-competitive tactic - and there are thousands of them - are left completely alone by the regulatory agencies that are supposed to be preventing it.

Re:cartridge based

[Beardo the Bearded]

You can just print a new one.

Re:cartridge based

[Archangel Michael]

So, do you buy your phone or rent it via 2 year contract? Just checking.

Re:cartridge based

[macraig]

I don't have a cellphone, but if I did it would be purchased outright. While that tactic is monopolistic too, it's not a direct analog to the tactic we're talking about here. It's all bad, just not precisely the same kinda bad.

Re:cartridge based

[Dan East]

The solution [Chris] went with still uses the cartridges to ‘trick’ the machine into printing. Basically the interface will tell you that you don’t have enough filament left, but as long as there’s a cartridge in place you can tell it to print anyway.

In other words, this hardware hack is only one firmware update away from being shut down. Once they remove the option to "tell it to print anyway" when the cartridge says it's empty, then the hack is no longer usable.

Re:cartridge based

[Anonymous Coward]

Id buy a cartridge if I could rent a printer to print myself a scanner to scan the 3d printer and then print myself a printer , hopefully id be able to print the cartridge next.

Re:cartridge based

[davidbrit2]

small-scale monopolistic

lolwut

Re:cartridge based

[Jarik C-Bol]

which is why you just never update the firmware.

Re:cartridge based

[macraig]

Slow news day for you, is it? It's what happens when a manufacturer hasn't monopolized an entire market segment but is, say, monopolizing the consumables for its product lines by preventing third party companies from producing and selling consumables more cheaply or refurbing and reselling them, etc. Slashdot has covered many examples of this tactic; the best known example was Lenovo's chipping of laser toner cartridges and then trying to abuse the DMCA to prevent competing third party compatible cartridges.

If that doesn't morph your LOL into WTF then best you go back to your beer and pretzels.

Re:cartridge based

[Mashiki]

Sorry, who rents a phone via 2 year contract?

Most carriers in Canada do that.

Re: cartridge based

[davidbrit2]

Anti-competitive I'll certainly grant you, but "small-scale" and "monopoly" are pretty contradictory.

Re: cartridge based

[iamhassi]

And they tell you if the filament is too old, because no one wants to print with ink or filament that is has been sitting in a cartridge for a whole long year

Re:cartridge based

[Dan East]

Uh, and what does that accomplish when the device is shipped to you with the latest firmware already installed, which disables the "print anyway" option?

Re:cartridge based

[tlhIngan]

I've always found it hypocritical that the companies that engage in this sort of small-scale monopolistic and anti-competitive tactic - and there are thousands of them - are left completely alone by the regulatory agencies that are supposed to be preventing it.

2 things.

1) It's not monopolistic if the company doesn't have a monopoly. Their business model is the same printer business model - cheap printer (it's 30% cheaper than a Makerbot), expensive filament. If you don't want this, go buy a Makerbot or other competing 3D printer - you'll pay more initially, but after a little while you'll break even.

2) The solution is worse than the cure. If you want to enforce everyone sticks to standards, where do you draw the line? Do you block OS X and Linux because it doesn't conform to the Windows "standard"? Do you block innovations in 3D graphics because OpenGL ARB hasn't gotten around to certifying the feature? After all, vendor-specific extensions are, well, vendor specific, anti-competitive and monopolistic. Do you prevent smaller cellphones from being made because the new USB cable, even if it's standard, isn't "standard" enough and costs $50 each?

And yes, de-facto standards do matter. Also, what kind of standards? Many aren't free at all - do you give up removable storage because SD cards aren't an open standard?

In the end, your choice is to not buy this and buy a competitor's product. Or buy this and hack it.

limited number of stores.

[gl4ss]

not in all.
still, it's not that easy to find brick&mortar normal stores which sell 'em.

Staples huh...

[Anonymous Coward]

So it will cost 3 times what you could get it for normally?

Seriously... Everything they sell is overpriced by at least 2x.
They're for office workers. (where people who come get stuff don't care how much their employer spends)
And for those emergency 'I GOTTA HAVE IT RIGHT NOW' type things.

"And no i don't wanna join your rewards club dammit. I just want this replacement mouse. No i really don't want to join. NO! i don't want to join. Just ring this up. It's $15. Here take my money. No i don't wanna join the rewards club and i'm REALLY sure."

Approachable 3D Design Software?

[WillAdams]

Is there anything a typical na\"ive user can use?

Thus far I've been most successful w/ OpenSCAD --- I don't think that will work for most of Staples' clientele. I've tried pretty much everything here:

http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/CAD

But haven't found anything which really appeals --- is there anything I missed?

Re:Approachable 3D Design Software?

[am 2k]

Google SketchUp is the most recommended one.

Re:Approachable 3D Design Software?

[WillAdams]

Yeah, and it's on that list and I tried it and it doesn't appeal (to me).

Re:Approachable 3D Design Software?

[am 2k]

I just remembered that I stumbled upon a completely different approach for 3D modelling for print recently: Printcraft. Maybe this works for you.

Re:Be prepared to pay out the nose for the filamen

[EkriirkE]

There is a bypass/hack for that http://www.howmuchsnow.com/cube/

Re:Does this mean

[gandhi_2]

i thought you asked if they would sell them over at Hot Topic, which created a funny mental image.

no, this is the natural progression towards crafters.

expect soccer moms to replace their scentsy franchises next year.

Ah...Bonus Round!

[rmdingler]

So it will cost 3 times what you could get it for normally?

Seriously... Everything they sell is overpriced by at least 2x. They're for office workers. (where people who come get stuff don't care how much their employer spends) "

So seriously, I can use one of these things at work now, in place of more traditional benefits?

Re:Staples easytech hard sell on extended warranty

[mark-t]

Thanks for telling me that... I'll be sure to tell them at Staples when they try to sell me the EW on something that I'll need to talk to their manager... and then refuse him or her personally. Let's see them cut their own hours.

Re:Not worth it for a friend of mine

[mark-t]

Read the fine print on any "warranty" before spending any money on it. It's rare that they will actually do everything they imply when they sound too good to be true.

If you have questions, ask them... ask where in the warranty it says anything that you can't find, and if it's not explicitly written there, then get it in writing, and make sure that a manager signs off on it... not just figuratively, but literally.

One of two things will happen... either they will get frustrated and stop trying to sell you the warranty because they will realize that you're not a sucker from your questions, and insistence on personal accountability of any claims, or else you'll actually get the deal you thought you would.

I love it

[sml156]

Cool the first thing I am going to do with mine is make a ashtray for my dad

Re:I love it

[nogginthenog]

Maybe his dad is dead? As in a place to keep his dad's ashes?

my crystal ball

[Kevin Fishburne]

http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3693271&cid=43571789 Price point's only off by a cool grand and I thought Best Buy would be the first, but you can't win 'em all I guess.

Re:So Long Sea Life, It Was Nice Knowing You

[c0lo]

Send them to Norway

Staples.com

[westlake]

still, it's not that easy to find brick&mortar normal stores which sell 'em.

Cube 3D Printers & Supplies

x 1000

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

"That's pretty cool, Sheldon. What are you printing?"

"I'm printing some Warhammer figurines. Not the 40K ones, either. Only the real ones."

"That...that doesn't look like a figurine."

(looks) "What? Very nice. A cock. Ha ha, very funny."

Print electronic devices

[Anonymous Coward]

I want to be able to 3-D print electronic devices. Spare parts, or even entire phones and computers.

Re:Not worth it for a friend of mine

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe we, as customers, need to start doing business like a business or we get railed. We need to have some printed up forms folded in our wallet so when the salesman hands us five pages of fine print legal contract and a pen, we can trade him our document which insists we take their contract to our attorney and have it interpreted for us at their expense, whether or not we accept the offer. Give a line for them to sign to waive the charges, but in so signing, they acknowledge I am not a legal professional, I am signing a legal document without legal explanation, and in so doing, I will not be held responsible for anything in said document.

Do business like Business does business and see if they will stand for it.

Business has the gall to ask people for damn near anything in a legal contract, while the face of the business salesman smiles, knowing the commission it will get when your hand signs the papers. Its your birthright you are signing away.... do NOT do it for a bowl of soup!

Business has the balls to ask us to sign crap....its high time we grew a pair too and tell them to sign ours as we sign theirs. I guarantee you they will not like it - but its going to have to be done.

lost half the audience

[Anonymous Coward]

Specifically, this unit can print items up to 5.5 inches tall, wide and long in one of 16 different colors

seems women wouldn't be too interested in this quite yet

Re:lost half the audience

[nogginthenog]

Yeah, but 16 different colors!

Why limit length?

[GrahamCox]

I don't understand why the objects need to be limited to 5.5 inches in 3 dimensions. A better design would be to have a moving base plate that allows the length to be much larger and limit the motion of the print head to two dimensions, more like a standard inkjet where the paper moves under the print head. The need to fit your object into such a small cube is a serious limitation - even letting one dimension become substantially larger would be a huge improvement in versatility and hence, likelihood of purchase.

Re:Why limit length?

[fermion]

Another issue is mass and vibration. The resolution of these printers is less than 500 micrometers. As mentioned they print in layers. Therefore the layers have to line up, perhaps to a resolution of 100 micrometers of less. This means not only does the head have to line up to that precision, but vibration has to kept to a minimum. On way to to that is to keep the machine heavy, and in particular the base on which the object is being build well attached to the machine and very heavy.

If the plate were moved, this would lead to bad effects. The plate would not be able to be as securely attached to the machine so there would be vibration. Every time the plate were moved, and stopped, to allow the medium to be placed and allowed to dry before the next motion, there would be vibrations. The medium would have to be allowed to dry before the plate were moved again.

Think about an old manual typewriter, or maybe we haven't seen one. In any case the heavy platten moved and then the keys hit the paper. Lots of vibration and if the typewriter was not very well built the text would be uneven. Compared to the 'modern' typewriter where the only motion was a very light ball and the text was much more aligned. Compared to the modern laser printer where all that moves is a rotating planten, the back and forth motion is optical.

In any case, the size is really determined by the amount that can be spent on the metal and stepper motors and precision tracks. Remember that the print head has to be repositioned exactly every time. Assuming a 500 micrometer resolution, each addition inch in three dimensions result in another 100,000 positions.