Company: We killed a Kickstarter you backed to eat competition, but here's a voucher for 10% off our version of the printer that's triple the price. Oh and we'll allow you to use your materials with our printer. LOL.. yeah okay.
I haven't read into it at all yet, but it seems like what happens every day in the tech sector...someone working out of their garage makes a break-through and the promptly gets acquired by a big company that has a competing product before said garage-co. can make a name for themselves and cut into Big-co's market share. Business is business, so long as Formlabs intends to play nice and not just swoop in and crush the competition without any plans to utilize the IP.
I just brought my 4th product to market globally. The total cost to get CE and FCC complete was over 1.4 million USD, and this was something that has wifi and msrp under 1000$. Fcc + prop 65 alone was over 740k
WOW now THAT is some street cred. Nice work. Yeah, I didnt want to go into TOO much detail on those costs, as I could go on for a while, but it is a true issue for sure.
@3DMusketeers if you include my patents at work and the stuff I have done at my last job, I have around 20 mass market products designed by me, currently in production.
@berlinberlin4246 I'd be down for that. I was in talks with Joel about three years ago doing something like that, but my work schedule was a nightmare back then. As it is when doing regulatory process. I'm contracted with a few labs and can maybe make a complete walk through from evt to dvt to pvt process I use and the steps and process to make stuff meet fcc + prop 65 + rhos in the USA for sale.
I’m surprised there is not more talk about the $7K SLS4ALL 3D printer. They are already shipping out 2 batches of product (kits). Tomas’s video does a great job laying out how it functions and not just a marketing video . I bought one and looking forward to its arrival in Oct to review. Our fab shop could easily make all the fabricated parts so those parts don’t have to ship from overseas to the US and probably at much lower cost than made overseas.
I’ve been keeping up with the Micronics SLS machine and it’s been very interesting to me as someone who does a lot of budget 3d printing. Filament printers used to be 5 fold the price we can buy a cheap one for now. So, I was hoping the same would happen for SLS. With Micronics being acquired it has pros and cons. For example, the better funding could really propel the SLS market forward and make it more mainstream in the 3d printing space. This extra funding and research could also make the machine/technology become more revolutionary and greater quality. On the other hand though, it will most likely be more expensive, limiting the amount of the community that can participate in SLS printing. I’m happy for the Micronics team for striking the deal but I’m sad that it will most likely have adverse effects on the product and the community where not as many people would be able to access the technology. Overall, I don’t like that Formlabs acquired Micronics but I am excited to see what comes of it.
That's mostly because the Chinese government has a huge investment into multiple industries, so they can push the market where they want. Its also because the united states has loopholes that eliminate tariffs when the product is under ~800. The 3d print community cant seem to buy up slave built machines fast enough, driving prices into the ground.
While I don't stand behind how this was handled I see this as a huge bullet dodged by a lot. I don't think the majority of people realize how to properly handle an SLS machine and the hardware associated. Since this was still priced in the hobbyist price range that means the complete novice with a lot of funds could grab one and end up in poor condition once they realize they have no idea what to do. Dedicated rooms with HEPA filtration, proper PPE, and a necessity for the machine are all needed. While 431 people will be upset about their lack of machine I don't think this is a bad deal given the chaos that could have been had the kickstarter gone through.
I'm happy for Luke and Henry. They had a big vision. They demonstrated their proof of concept (even if the beta units were a bit rough). Their product was impressive enough (or the initial market interest was concerning enough) for Formlabs to see them as a real asset (or threat). And the Micronics folks should be really proud of that. I think it's a near-term loss for the consumer market. I doubt Formlabs will pursue a similarly-priced SLS machine any time soon. But now the maker community knows this kind of project is possible, and open source hardware folks being how they are, we'll probably see something like this again sometime. It's unclear that, even if they hadn't been bought out and their kickstarter window closed as expected, there's still the question of whether Micronics would have actually been able to fill their order. I'm not upset about any of this, but I also have incredibly low expectations of all kickstarter projects, especially after Google buying Pebble right near the end of their massively successful kickstarter campaign for the Pebble 2 (I'm still pretty salty about not getting my Pebble 2 tbh, but such is life)
Ultimately people do things like this to make money. If it weren't a potentially profitable endeavor it never would have been undertaken. Form labs gave them what I'm sure was a great way to make money.
While I am not into SLS...lasers...that has me hooked! I do have 3d printers and am interested in other tech...You are correct on the accuracy of UV galvo lasers.
The biggest thing that concerns me with this acquisition is what will FormLabs do with the existing R&D that Micronics has already done, if they release a new sls printer it’s likely going to be around the 15/20k range while is cheaper but still considerably expensive to the original cost Micronics was based around.
I agree with the reddit comment, I use a Formlabs Fuse 1+ with TPU. It has a number of problems and by no means is perfect. I wouldn't want to work with the micronics printer because I think it would only have 10x the amount of work involved to get it working and keep it working.
If formlabs made a complete sls system in the 6-8k usd range. This is the upper limit for equipment during the startup stage for most solo ran new startups. They can use this as a sub brand for a simi-professional market kind of a step between the form 1+ and open source hardware. I know the SLA's are kinda made to fill this step, but most of us want nothing to do with liquid resins for many reasons. We just want something that can match the ability of a FDM machine with the self supporting nature of sls ad a small speed boost and your in the money as for cleanup personally I'd just modify a harbor freight sand blasting cabinet. So we just need the print bin removable so it. Also a 1gal us is enough print volume nothing crazy. And no one said you can't print the parts bin while printing?
The best thing for Micronics was they got payed for their development. And IF Formlabs integrates the tech in future models, it would help them overall. I would be curious IF Micronics has any copyright on any of the procedures and tech that was developed during their build up. And if Micronics former owners will get shares or profit sharing on their tech. Should be interesting.
I would like to see Formlabs come out with a new budget SLS line with Micronics branding and reasonable pricing. Probably not going to happen, but I can dream.
So the future of affordable SLS may be in the form of a VORON concept and we just need someone to design one and some companies like LDO who provide the bits and pieces. All other directly commercial ones are likely to be bought off or too expensive in the first place.
Best Video I have watched from you so far, very well analysed. What I would add, I think one reason for the micronics team to sell, was not just the money, but they propably saw, that their pricing was set to low and actually fullfilling the kickstarter would have meant making a loss. Therefor they absolutely did the right thing and I agree with you, that formlabs will propably use their low cost Diode-Laser technology to build something simular to the micronics, just better polished and in the pricerange you mentioned.
I really didn't have any horse in this race -- I refuse to buy resin printers (because resin is toxic and I don't want to deal with it), and while SLS is neat, it has many of the same concerns as resin for me. While I'm interested in the technology and how they were implementing it, I wasn't planning on buying one. As far as the acquisition -- I'd say it was a win-win. I'm happy for the guys at Micronics -- I feel the same way you do. This was a huge win for them. When I was 23 I wasn't building a multimillion dollar business either... and now they can get experience in getting products certified and to market. Form Labs won too -- this business decision was designed to eliminate a potential competitor, while gaining talent.
No, I fully think they meant an increase in price. They have been jacking that up over the years. Kind of glad I didn't hop on this bandwagon. I'm still fixing my magneto and the minor disaster that has turned into. And I just got my XL working at an acceptable rate.
I dont know about the acquisition, i was looking forward to it, kind of feels like another small company is swallowed to avoid competition . Maybe formlabs is what is needed to get Budget friendly SLS to the masses
I am not too broken up over it. My gut tells me they were probably destined for failure at some point. This is a massive undertaking, and the machines that are in the world were more proof of concepts, rather than beta products. The Kickstarter money was probably not even close to what was really needed. So the backers probably got lucky in the long run, and dodged a bullet, avoiding a Coolest Cooler scenario.
What it seems is that even though the kick starter met its goals, Henry and Luke did not have the confidence that they could actually deliver a satisfactory machine to the backers. Seems that the backers perhaps dodged loosing their money. Or the alternative take is that Luke and Henry viewed selling Micronics IP to Formlabs and working for them was a better deal for them. No criticism intended as that is a fair path for them to select...it was their hard work and their IP. It is not as if this was a community project with technical and financial input from community members and none of their supporters lost anything, other than some hopes. I don't doubt they have great futures in front of them. My biggest disappointment is that more SLS IP has been locked up to an existing player. We are probably reaching a point where we will need to wait for patents to expire before new players can enter the lower cost SLS printer manufacturing market.
I recently saw the Micronics machine and to me it felt like it was the beginning of the affordable SLS machine for the hobbyist. I hope that they receive the resources to be able to create a machine that will be able to bridge the industrial to the hobby space. Kinda sad to see the kickstarter machine gone, but I hope we get something even better in the future.
Nothing short of a miracle is right. The next hurdles would have made or broken them... production and regulation. Laser and powder both have a lot of regulations, not just environmental, that are going to be almost impossible for a small group of people to overcome while trying to sell enough to keep the doors open. It would be like you building an OK motorcycle, and then Honda stepping in and buying you. You would then have all of their huge tent to benefit from.
Sounds like Henry got a great new job at Formlabs and Luke is along for the ride, I guess it’s a better outcome than them being unable to fugue the kickstarter and having even angrier buyers, it’s so sad to see formlabs buying them solely for the purpose of killing off competition and poaching Henry. One thing I really don’t understand though is Henry becoming the new SLS lead at Formlabs, I doubt he would have the experience of leading such a large team. Plus what happened to the current department head?
ill tell you whats gonna happen now bro, im gonna continue ordering my SLS and MJF parts from JCL3DP or PCBWAY i was really looking forward to the micronics.. you know how much i am into that stuff..
@@3DMusketeers Touche. And it really should be on Bambu to comply. But with so much market saturation by Bambu and their AMS it wouldn't hurt PS to "meet in the middle".
I’m thinking it may have been planned from the beginning. Make a working prototype, send it to influencers, get noticed by Formlabs, make lots of money by selling the company.
I have been focused on FDM (apparently now FFF) printing, but am interested in the capabilities of resin and powder printing. Optimistically, the acquisition means more resources for creating an affordable SLS machine, and not killing it to keep the prices up. They have to see the desire for this with the amount (almost) raised on Kickstarter.
I don't understand how this is bad for the maker community. As far as I can tell from the videos I watched, there was nothing revolutionary in these printers. The only thing I saw, was that they were built to a price. The powder containment and post processing needed a lot of work. Which judging from what I saw, was the achilles heel of their design. I think that the sale could spur hundreds of makers who have their own ideas about this to try and see if they can do something similar or better. I expect that this isn't the last time we have seen a stab at a SLS for cheap, and I think that it will be coming sooner than anyone suspects. The big hurdle I see in all of this is the market for hobby level SLS. If you can sell a machine for $3500 / $4000 but then your customer needs to spend another $600 or more on supplies your market becomes a lot smaller than people think. Most quality filament and UV resins are cheap, the quality powders are not. Until they come down in price, there will be a big barrier for cheap SLS printers coming to market.
@@rembrantsworkshop They had another year before they were to deliver. Look at what FormLabs sells now. The printers double in cost with the prices of their accessories. You won't see something in the $3-4k range + $1k in accessories for a long time with big corporations swallowing the competition.
The acquisition doesn't affect me either way, to be honest. I love the idea of it, but resin is toxic enough. I may have a dedicated print room but I don't have the time nor want to deal with that much mess.
@@3DMusketeers My only complaint is the 99 hour limit. lol I have a fix dry that if you set it to 48 hours, it's unlimited. Setting it to 48 is annoying though. The sunlu I can go down from 6 to 99. It would be nice if I could use wifi or bluetooth to control it. Shit it would be even cooler if it could tie in with the MMU and rewind the spools like the AMS. My sunlu is kind of my AMS like storage system. It usually works. I did have a couple of issues because the filament kinked, but it's rare.
I wish prusa would stock printed solid until printed solid could actually get enough of their own prusament going. lol I had a dream a few weeks back. I was working on a filament line at prusa. But I was missing parts and most of it was made of legos. LMAO At first the line stopped by default because it ran out of time on the unspooled filament and people came in and yelled at me, but after I said "I can't find this part" (don't know why I can't build a new one since it's legos) they looked around and no one could find it. anyway....... lol
I personally think it a loss to the open source community. If you look at the cost it literally makes it to expensive to enter into SLS. I was really hopping to see it succeed. It would have been a great for entry level sls. It was on my sort list to get after the beta and kickstarter. It sucks they sold out to a large company that will lock out the tech.
Will be also one nail into Kickstarter. Now you even have to fear Corpo will "buy" the Projekt you Support and you get BS. Being happy for them to pay this much and getting shit???? Bra.... 😂
Business 101. Build a cheap barely usable product of a expensive product. Gather public hype about it hoping the big players will notice so they can buy you out. If not, we can still stay in it for the long haul.
I figured they left the kickstarter alone. The fact that it was canceled (which I only found out through this video), makes me think they don't want affordable options to exist. I have to wonder if threats were involved.
nah, if they actually managed to mass produce these printers, they could potentially get a massive amount of market share. It wouldn't just be formlabs. All the SLS people could stand to lose. There is no way they could allow someone to come to market with a similar machine for 1/4 the cost.
We discussed it more, but SLS4ALL has been on my list of machines I want before we had the channel, but the pure DIY nature means it is much more cumbersome than normal machines.
Company: We killed a Kickstarter you backed to eat competition, but here's a voucher for 10% off our version of the printer that's triple the price. Oh and we'll allow you to use your materials with our printer. LOL.. yeah okay.
Salty huh haha
I haven't read into it at all yet, but it seems like what happens every day in the tech sector...someone working out of their garage makes a break-through and the promptly gets acquired by a big company that has a competing product before said garage-co. can make a name for themselves and cut into Big-co's market share. Business is business, so long as Formlabs intends to play nice and not just swoop in and crush the competition without any plans to utilize the IP.
I just brought my 4th product to market globally.
The total cost to get CE and FCC complete was over 1.4 million USD, and this was something that has wifi and msrp under 1000$.
Fcc + prop 65 alone was over 740k
WOW now THAT is some street cred. Nice work. Yeah, I didnt want to go into TOO much detail on those costs, as I could go on for a while, but it is a true issue for sure.
@3DMusketeers if you include my patents at work and the stuff I have done at my last job, I have around 20 mass market products designed by me, currently in production.
@@ZoeyR86 sounds like a good idea to make a podcast together with the 3d musketeers
@berlinberlin4246 I'd be down for that. I was in talks with Joel about three years ago doing something like that, but my work schedule was a nightmare back then.
As it is when doing regulatory process. I'm contracted with a few labs and can maybe make a complete walk through from evt to dvt to pvt process I use and the steps and process to make stuff meet fcc + prop 65 + rhos in the USA for sale.
@@3DMusketeers please do a podcast with him 🙂
I’m surprised there is not more talk about the $7K SLS4ALL 3D printer. They are already shipping out 2 batches of product (kits). Tomas’s video does a great job laying out how it functions and not just a marketing video . I bought one and looking forward to its arrival in Oct to review. Our fab shop could easily make all the fabricated parts so those parts don’t have to ship from overseas to the US and probably at much lower cost than made overseas.
They have been on my list for a while now. Galvos are fun though! I am talking with the sls4all people though. Trying to figure things out!
I’ve been keeping up with the Micronics SLS machine and it’s been very interesting to me as someone who does a lot of budget 3d printing. Filament printers used to be 5 fold the price we can buy a cheap one for now. So, I was hoping the same would happen for SLS. With Micronics being acquired it has pros and cons. For example, the better funding could really propel the SLS market forward and make it more mainstream in the 3d printing space. This extra funding and research could also make the machine/technology become more revolutionary and greater quality. On the other hand though, it will most likely be more expensive, limiting the amount of the community that can participate in SLS printing. I’m happy for the Micronics team for striking the deal but I’m sad that it will most likely have adverse effects on the product and the community where not as many people would be able to access the technology. Overall, I don’t like that Formlabs acquired Micronics but I am excited to see what comes of it.
That's mostly because the Chinese government has a huge investment into multiple industries, so they can push the market where they want. Its also because the united states has loopholes that eliminate tariffs when the product is under ~800.
The 3d print community cant seem to buy up slave built machines fast enough, driving prices into the ground.
While I don't stand behind how this was handled I see this as a huge bullet dodged by a lot. I don't think the majority of people realize how to properly handle an SLS machine and the hardware associated. Since this was still priced in the hobbyist price range that means the complete novice with a lot of funds could grab one and end up in poor condition once they realize they have no idea what to do. Dedicated rooms with HEPA filtration, proper PPE, and a necessity for the machine are all needed. While 431 people will be upset about their lack of machine I don't think this is a bad deal given the chaos that could have been had the kickstarter gone through.
I completely agree here. It was ALWAYS a concern for me
I'm happy for Luke and Henry. They had a big vision. They demonstrated their proof of concept (even if the beta units were a bit rough). Their product was impressive enough (or the initial market interest was concerning enough) for Formlabs to see them as a real asset (or threat). And the Micronics folks should be really proud of that. I think it's a near-term loss for the consumer market. I doubt Formlabs will pursue a similarly-priced SLS machine any time soon. But now the maker community knows this kind of project is possible, and open source hardware folks being how they are, we'll probably see something like this again sometime. It's unclear that, even if they hadn't been bought out and their kickstarter window closed as expected, there's still the question of whether Micronics would have actually been able to fill their order. I'm not upset about any of this, but I also have incredibly low expectations of all kickstarter projects, especially after Google buying Pebble right near the end of their massively successful kickstarter campaign for the Pebble 2 (I'm still pretty salty about not getting my Pebble 2 tbh, but such is life)
Ultimately people do things like this to make money. If it weren't a potentially profitable endeavor it never would have been undertaken. Form labs gave them what I'm sure was a great way to make money.
While I am not into SLS...lasers...that has me hooked! I do have 3d printers and am interested in other tech...You are correct on the accuracy of UV galvo lasers.
The biggest thing that concerns me with this acquisition is what will FormLabs do with the existing R&D that Micronics has already done, if they release a new sls printer it’s likely going to be around the 15/20k range while is cheaper but still considerably expensive to the original cost Micronics was based around.
I agree with the reddit comment, I use a Formlabs Fuse 1+ with TPU. It has a number of problems and by no means is perfect. I wouldn't want to work with the micronics printer because I think it would only have 10x the amount of work involved to get it working and keep it working.
If formlabs made a complete sls system in the 6-8k usd range. This is the upper limit for equipment during the startup stage for most solo ran new startups.
They can use this as a sub brand for a simi-professional market kind of a step between the form 1+ and open source hardware.
I know the SLA's are kinda made to fill this step, but most of us want nothing to do with liquid resins for many reasons. We just want something that can match the ability of a FDM machine with the self supporting nature of sls ad a small speed boost and your in the money as for cleanup personally I'd just modify a harbor freight sand blasting cabinet. So we just need the print bin removable so it.
Also a 1gal us is enough print volume nothing crazy.
And no one said you can't print the parts bin while printing?
Its sad for the community, and for the open source, BUT maybe now may people will use and improve the SLS4ALL printer kit
The best thing for Micronics was they got payed for their development. And IF Formlabs integrates the tech in future models, it would help them overall. I would be curious IF Micronics has any copyright on any of the procedures and tech that was developed during their build up. And if Micronics former owners will get shares or profit sharing on their tech. Should be interesting.
Patents would cover this, not copywrite.
@@bthatguy1181 I was trying to think of the word…it escaped me. Thanks!
I would like to see Formlabs come out with a new budget SLS line with Micronics branding and reasonable pricing. Probably not going to happen, but I can dream.
I would not try dreaming too hard.. dont waste valuable brain space on that one :/
So the future of affordable SLS may be in the form of a VORON concept and we just need someone to design one and some companies like LDO who provide the bits and pieces. All other directly commercial ones are likely to be bought off or too expensive in the first place.
I REALLY appraised your take and candor on these subjects. It's quite refreshing.
Thanks! Being upfront and honest is kind of our thing, even if that means it loses relationships with companies for us.
Best Video I have watched from you so far, very well analysed. What I would add, I think one reason for the micronics team to sell, was not just the money, but they propably saw, that their pricing was set to low and actually fullfilling the kickstarter would have meant making a loss. Therefor they absolutely did the right thing and I agree with you, that formlabs will propably use their low cost Diode-Laser technology to build something simular to the micronics, just better polished and in the pricerange you mentioned.
Glad you enjoyed it.
I really didn't have any horse in this race -- I refuse to buy resin printers (because resin is toxic and I don't want to deal with it), and while SLS is neat, it has many of the same concerns as resin for me. While I'm interested in the technology and how they were implementing it, I wasn't planning on buying one.
As far as the acquisition -- I'd say it was a win-win.
I'm happy for the guys at Micronics -- I feel the same way you do. This was a huge win for them. When I was 23 I wasn't building a multimillion dollar business either... and now they can get experience in getting products certified and to market.
Form Labs won too -- this business decision was designed to eliminate a potential competitor, while gaining talent.
For sure. Frankly the powder is harder to deal with than resin IMO.
No, I fully think they meant an increase in price. They have been jacking that up over the years. Kind of glad I didn't hop on this bandwagon. I'm still fixing my magneto and the minor disaster that has turned into. And I just got my XL working at an acceptable rate.
I dont know about the acquisition, i was looking forward to it, kind of feels like another small company is swallowed to avoid competition . Maybe formlabs is what is needed to get Budget friendly SLS to the masses
I am not too broken up over it. My gut tells me they were probably destined for failure at some point. This is a massive undertaking, and the machines that are in the world were more proof of concepts, rather than beta products. The Kickstarter money was probably not even close to what was really needed. So the backers probably got lucky in the long run, and dodged a bullet, avoiding a Coolest Cooler scenario.
What it seems is that even though the kick starter met its goals, Henry and Luke did not have the confidence that they could actually deliver a satisfactory machine to the backers.
Seems that the backers perhaps dodged loosing their money.
Or the alternative take is that Luke and Henry viewed selling Micronics IP to Formlabs and working for them was a better deal for them. No criticism intended as that is a fair path for them to select...it was their hard work and their IP. It is not as if this was a community project with technical and financial input from community members and none of their supporters lost anything, other than some hopes.
I don't doubt they have great futures in front of them.
My biggest disappointment is that more SLS IP has been locked up to an existing player.
We are probably reaching a point where we will need to wait for patents to expire before new players can enter the lower cost SLS printer manufacturing market.
I recently saw the Micronics machine and to me it felt like it was the beginning of the affordable SLS machine for the hobbyist. I hope that they receive the resources to be able to create a machine that will be able to bridge the industrial to the hobby space. Kinda sad to see the kickstarter machine gone, but I hope we get something even better in the future.
It is definitely sad that Micronics sold, but I can understand why they did it. Now I guess it will be a wait and see what happens.
Nothing short of a miracle is right. The next hurdles would have made or broken them... production and regulation. Laser and powder both have a lot of regulations, not just environmental, that are going to be almost impossible for a small group of people to overcome while trying to sell enough to keep the doors open.
It would be like you building an OK motorcycle, and then Honda stepping in and buying you. You would then have all of their huge tent to benefit from.
Sounds like Henry got a great new job at Formlabs and Luke is along for the ride, I guess it’s a better outcome than them being unable to fugue the kickstarter and having even angrier buyers, it’s so sad to see formlabs buying them solely for the purpose of killing off competition and poaching Henry.
One thing I really don’t understand though is Henry becoming the new SLS lead at Formlabs, I doubt he would have the experience of leading such a large team. Plus what happened to the current department head?
The fact that he said jump and not drop in price leads me to think he really is focused on how high can the prices be.
I think this acquisition makes it more likely to get the "affordable" sls printer. We'll see in the next couple years.
ill tell you whats gonna happen now bro, im gonna continue ordering my SLS and MJF parts from JCL3DP or PCBWAY i was really looking forward to the micronics.. you know how much i am into that stuff..
I just wish Printed Solid would make their spools to be AMS compatible.
I wish Bambu would make their AMS compatible with Printed Solid spools. That is on Bambu, not PS.
@@3DMusketeers Touche. And it really should be on Bambu to comply. But with so much market saturation by Bambu and their AMS it wouldn't hurt PS to "meet in the middle".
I’m thinking it may have been planned from the beginning. Make a working prototype, send it to influencers, get noticed by Formlabs, make lots of money by selling the company.
I have been focused on FDM (apparently now FFF) printing, but am interested in the capabilities of resin and powder printing. Optimistically, the acquisition means more resources for creating an affordable SLS machine, and not killing it to keep the prices up. They have to see the desire for this with the amount (almost) raised on Kickstarter.
Always GREAT Content, Thanks Grant !
thanks
Good for Micronics, bad for the maker community.
Yeah, I can see that, but would it have been worse if Micronics failed to deliver anything?
I don't understand how this is bad for the maker community. As far as I can tell from the videos I watched, there was nothing revolutionary in these printers. The only thing I saw, was that they were built to a price.
The powder containment and post processing needed a lot of work. Which judging from what I saw, was the achilles heel of their design.
I think that the sale could spur hundreds of makers who have their own ideas about this to try and see if they can do something similar or better. I expect that this isn't the last time we have seen a stab at a SLS for cheap, and I think that it will be coming sooner than anyone suspects.
The big hurdle I see in all of this is the market for hobby level SLS. If you can sell a machine for $3500 / $4000 but then your customer needs to spend another $600 or more on supplies your market becomes a lot smaller than people think. Most quality filament and UV resins are cheap, the quality powders are not. Until they come down in price, there will be a big barrier for cheap SLS printers coming to market.
@@rembrantsworkshop They had another year before they were to deliver. Look at what FormLabs sells now. The printers double in cost with the prices of their accessories. You won't see something in the $3-4k range + $1k in accessories for a long time with big corporations swallowing the competition.
The acquisition doesn't affect me either way, to be honest. I love the idea of it, but resin is toxic enough. I may have a dedicated print room but I don't have the time nor want to deal with that much mess.
Are you an engineering student or researcher?
Powder definitely needs its own process different from filament and others. 100%
I can't complain about the sunlu s4 filadryer kickstarter. I got 2 units for the price of 1.
I just got one myself. Need to try it!
@@3DMusketeers My only complaint is the 99 hour limit. lol I have a fix dry that if you set it to 48 hours, it's unlimited. Setting it to 48 is annoying though. The sunlu I can go down from 6 to 99. It would be nice if I could use wifi or bluetooth to control it. Shit it would be even cooler if it could tie in with the MMU and rewind the spools like the AMS. My sunlu is kind of my AMS like storage system. It usually works. I did have a couple of issues because the filament kinked, but it's rare.
I wish prusa would stock printed solid until printed solid could actually get enough of their own prusament going. lol I had a dream a few weeks back. I was working on a filament line at prusa. But I was missing parts and most of it was made of legos. LMAO At first the line stopped by default because it ran out of time on the unspooled filament and people came in and yelled at me, but after I said "I can't find this part" (don't know why I can't build a new one since it's legos) they looked around and no one could find it. anyway....... lol
checking my mails... 9/2017 you could buy a sls Sinterit Lisa for less than 5k€ (ok, they halved the price overnight & double the price of the powder)
You can still buy them around that rate but they are rough. The OG Lisa was a cobbled together mess IMO
Regardless of machine price, I’m not paying $100/kg for sintered Nylon. FDM FTW.
I personally think it a loss to the open source community. If you look at the cost it literally makes it to expensive to enter into SLS. I was really hopping to see it succeed. It would have been a great for entry level sls. It was on my sort list to get after the beta and kickstarter. It sucks they sold out to a large company that will lock out the tech.
Will be also one nail into Kickstarter.
Now you even have to fear Corpo will "buy" the Projekt you Support and you get BS.
Being happy for them to pay this much and getting shit???? Bra.... 😂
Can you make a RUclips video on 3D chameleon it allow you to have multicolored any dirty printer Clipper or Marlin
only when their documentation gets better :/
Ok
Business 101. Build a cheap barely usable product of a expensive product. Gather public hype about it hoping the big players will notice so they can buy you out. If not, we can still stay in it for the long haul.
I am not sure they had an exit in their plans initially, but hey, it worked out in the long run
Hello
hi
honestly good on them , customer support kills companies ,
much better 10 sell 1 10k machine
than
10 1k machines
I figured they left the kickstarter alone. The fact that it was canceled (which I only found out through this video), makes me think they don't want affordable options to exist. I have to wonder if threats were involved.
ok having seen more of the video maybe it was only just a condition, but yeah maybe they did get in over their heads.
Im so tired of big corps
nah, if they actually managed to mass produce these printers, they could potentially get a massive amount of market share. It wouldn't just be formlabs. All the SLS people could stand to lose. There is no way they could allow someone to come to market with a similar machine for 1/4 the cost.
Formlabs is really the only one with the same build volume though
@@3DMusketeers either way they were a threat to them for sure.
How about SLS4ALL? I feel like this guy is Ghosted
We discussed it more, but SLS4ALL has been on my list of machines I want before we had the channel, but the pure DIY nature means it is much more cumbersome than normal machines.
@@3DMusketeers true, I hope het get to make it more ready to use
me too!
Not mad, just disappointed.
lolol