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Staples Starts Selling 3-D Printer

Posted by Soulskill on from the slowly-stepping-into-the-mainstream dept.

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.'"

15 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. cartridge based by Lehk228 · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    --
    Snowden and Manning are heroes.
    1. Re:cartridge based by EkriirkE · · Score: 5, Informative

      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/

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    2. Re:cartridge based by Aboshi · · Score: 2

      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 ;)

    3. Re:cartridge based by Mitreya · · Score: 3, Funny

      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.

    4. Re:cartridge based by Dan+East · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.

      --
      Better known as 318230.
    5. Re:cartridge based by Jarik+C-Bol · · Score: 3, Informative

      which is why you just never update the firmware.

      --
      I've decided to Diversify my Holdings. I've divided my cash between my left and right pockets, instead of all in one.
    6. Re:cartridge based by macraig · · Score: 2

      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.

    7. Re:cartridge based by Dan+East · · Score: 2

      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?

      --
      Better known as 318230.
  2. limited number of stores. by gl4ss · · Score: 2

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

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    world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  3. Staples huh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    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."

  4. Approachable 3D Design Software? by WillAdams · · Score: 2

    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?

    --
    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  5. Re:Be prepared to pay out the nose for the filamen by EkriirkE · · Score: 2

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

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  6. I love it by sml156 · · Score: 4, Funny

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

  7. Why limit length? by GrahamCox · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Why limit length? by fermion · · Score: 2
      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.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black