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MakerBot Launches New 'MakerBot Labs' Platform (hackaday.com)
"MakerBot just announced a new Open Source initiative called 'MakerBot Labs'," writes Slashdot reader szczys. "It is a small move, centering around some new APIs and a new extruder which is listed as experimental and not covered by their normal warranty. Largely they missed the mark on making a meaningful move toward openness, but with a new CEO at the helm as of January this could be the first change of the rudder in a larger effort to turn the ship around."
Makerbot's history is "an example of how you absolutely should not operate an open source company," argues Hackaday, saying it's left them skeptical of Makerbot's latest move: It reads like a company making a last ditch effort to win back the users they were so sure they didn't need just a few years ago... The wheels of progress turn slowly in any large organization, and perhaps doubly so in one that has gone through so much turmoil in a relatively short amount of time. It could be that it's taken Goshen these last nine months to start crafting a plan to get MakerBot back into the community's good graces.
From MakerBot's press release: "After setting high industry standards for what makes a quality and reliable 3D printing experience, we're introducing this new, more open platform as a direct response to our advanced users calling for greater freedom with materials and software."
Makerbot's history is "an example of how you absolutely should not operate an open source company," argues Hackaday, saying it's left them skeptical of Makerbot's latest move: It reads like a company making a last ditch effort to win back the users they were so sure they didn't need just a few years ago... The wheels of progress turn slowly in any large organization, and perhaps doubly so in one that has gone through so much turmoil in a relatively short amount of time. It could be that it's taken Goshen these last nine months to start crafting a plan to get MakerBot back into the community's good graces.
From MakerBot's press release: "After setting high industry standards for what makes a quality and reliable 3D printing experience, we're introducing this new, more open platform as a direct response to our advanced users calling for greater freedom with materials and software."
You 3D printed your own coffin, fucked over the community and turned into a bunch of money grabbing cunts producing overpriced, unreliable crap.
Now want us to help you claw your way back out of it?
No fucking chance.
I bought into the Makerbot way back in the beginning. Good reviews, open source, highly adaptable, all the things I thought would be good things for the long haul.
Then they went closed-source, redesigned the product to make it 3 times the price and less than half the quality.
In the case of the material, that went to 6 times the price, but I haven't a clue about the quality since I wasn't willing to pay it. The replacement parts were damn expensive (They charged me $95 for a 3 foot 4-lead 24 gauge wire) and suffered fatal redesign flaws that made them very prone to failure.
I learned a lot about what to look for when I replaced the printer with a completely different one. But MakerBot burned through all the trust I might have had for them, and I definitely recommended to all my friends to stay away from them!
Yep. It's just one of many tools in a Complete Shop. I find mine useful for a number of smallish things that I would either machine out of aluminum with a CNC mill - lots faster if you don't need the strength. I have several custom mounts for various things on my bicycle that were a breeze to make with 3D printing. At work, we bought a small unit to make the little plastic bits that hold the phone handset on the cradle when mounted vertically. Couldn't find them on E-Bay, it's an older phone model that works just fine, thank you but isn't supported by the manufacturer.
Made 50 of them in three days (they break or fall off, not the best of designs).
Stuff like this is perfect for a 3D printer. Will it Take Over the World like some zealots have suggested? Of course not. Will it replace WalMart? Of course not.
But it's a neat device if you are interested in that sort of thing and the general rise of additive machining technologies will expand niches and capabilities as time goes on. So long as we don't turn ourselves into molten radioactive bits.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I wanted one about 6 years ago. Well, actually, 20 years ago, but it was a financial impossibility until 5 or 6 years ago. I was reading about them in engineering journals for many years and never saw one up close until I joined the Milwaukee Makerspace. One of the members had a Makerbot CupCake.
I wanted a machine that was capable of printing a full sized human skull extracted from CT scan data. I looked at that miserable little CupCake, pushed on it and poked at it a little, and instantly knew I could make something much better. So I did. It took about a year and a half to get it printing, but it produced extremely high quality prints over its 305 x 317 mm bed. I used what I learned from that one and built my second printer over about a 6 month period- fully enclosed, warm enough to print ABS reliably, etc. I measure, test, and redesign until I get the machine to do what I want. I build printers like the proverbial brick s**t house using surplus industrial components and absolutely minimal 3D printed parts. I set the bed level once and don't have to touch it again.
6 years and three designs/builds later I have a CoreXY machine that can print 300 x 300 x 695 mm. I still haven't printed that skull, but I print a lot of other things. Here's one example: https://drmrehorst.blogspot.co... I have about 50 designs posted to Youmagine and Thingiverse, and countless others that I have never posted.
They aren't for everyone, and some people never get past printing tugboats and Yoda heads, but some of us do interesting and even useful stuff.