
Cube: 3D home printer starts shipping in days - fhoxh
http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx
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nrp
I'm excited to see what happens here. 3D Systems is releasing a printer with a
proprietary filament cartridge[0], proprietary interface, and commercial
ecosystem of downloadable solid model files[1] into a world that has
inexpensive commodity filament spools[2], open interfaces and software[3], and
a community of mostly open source solid models[4]. Can they really put the cat
back in the bag?

[0] <http://cubify.com/cube/store.aspx>

[1]
[http://cubify.com/store/model_list.aspx?searchtext=&minp...](http://cubify.com/store/model_list.aspx?searchtext=&minprice=&maxprice=)

[2] <http://ultimachine.com/catalog/print-materials>

[3] <http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page>

[4] <http://www.thingiverse.com/>

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stephengillie
Could the Cube be used to make replacement filament cartridges for itself?

~~~
sbierwagen
Can an inkjet printer make more ink cartridges?

~~~
stephengillie
No, the 2d printer can't print 3d objects.

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sbierwagen
-3 points? Ha ha, HN, humorless as always.

The _joke_ , here, of which there are two, is that of course you can't print
another cartridge. You'd spend 5kg of plastic to print a 4.9kg cartridge.

The second joke is that while you could conceivably print a cartridge
_housing_ , and fill it with counterfeit filament, it still wouldn't work.
This because Cube uses the same business model as HP or Stratasys (I assume)
where the printer's cheap, but the cartridges are expensive. Both HP and
Stratasys use cartridges with chips in them that keep track of how much
filament's been used, and it's probably too much to hope that Cube cartridges
will be as easy to hack[1] as Stratasys cartridges. A $5 cryptocard chip more
than pays for itself if it doubles your profit margin, and if the printer
phones home, it'll be real hard to break the scheme.

1: <http://haveblue.org/?p=938>

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carlcoryell
Windows only: The cover photo shows a MacBook Air, but the tech specs say the
software requires Windows operating systems.

~~~
nextparadigms
Yeah, why do so many developers show a Macbook Air these days when 90% of the
PC's are Windows laptops? It's especially weird when it doesn't even run on
Macs, like in this case.

~~~
RandallBrown
because a Macbook Air is probably the nicest looking computer on the market
right now.

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switz
This is cool, but I'm more intrigued by the Solidoodle[1]. It's less than half
the price ($499) – a much better entry level for the average consumer. It's
not as pretty or have wifi, but it does have an extra half inch of print
space.

[1] <http://www.solidoodle.com/>

~~~
prezjordan
I'm skeptical of the Solidoodle. Why on earth is it so cheap? And it looks of
such high quality.

~~~
catch23
I'm kind of wondering how a 3D printer could be so expensive ($500). I've made
homebrew cnc machines before at around $200 or so.

~~~
mgkimsal
and i bet if you added the overhead of running a business on top of that $200,
$500 would be quite reasonable. packaging, customer support, sourcing,
assembly, returns, advertising/marketing, all add up.

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sbierwagen
Uh oh, it doesn't mention head speed, or volume throughput. That's a bad sign.
The frame doesn't even look as stiff as the Makerbot Replicator, which is
pretty miserably slow compared to some of the bleeding edge designs. (ORDbot,
Utilimaker) 3d printers with small motors and light frames can be
excruciatingly, unusably slow.

It also doesn't say how large the cartridges are. Or how much they cost. It's
also got a pretty small build volume, and a completely proprietary toolchain,
including model files. (???)

~~~
wxl
It actually does mention the price of the cartridges, in the store. $50 each,
with discounts if you buy more than one.

~~~
sbierwagen
Ah, so it does. Still doesn't say how big they are. ("1 Cartridge prints 13 to
14 mid-sized creations" is a _magnificently_ useless piece of information. The
only number that matters here is _kilograms._ How many kilograms does it mass?
Why doesn't it say?)

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ryanfitz
I liked the design of their pages so I went to look at the source and noticed
every page is wrapped in a top level form tag, can someone explain why they
would do this?

~~~
metabren
It's because they used ASP.NET to create the site. More:
[http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3038217/why-does-asp-
net-...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3038217/why-does-asp-net-wrap-the-
page-in-a-form)

------
redwood
People haven't yet been turned on to the market of enriching everything them
around them with pretty finishings.

This is one of the great potentials of even these mini-3d printers: you can
truly de-homogenize your indoor environment and make it very interesting.

I'm inspired by Black Rock City to see all the forgotten parts of our lives
more beautiful. 3d printing will help :)

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minouye
These look amazing--does anyone know how the resolution compares to say a
MakerBot?

~~~
ricardobeat
The Ultimaker prints down to 0.1mm, vs 0.25mm on this one. I'm curious how
they achieve the smooth look with a standard resolution - maybe it's just the
pictures.

~~~
nrp
As far as I can tell, there aren't any closeup pictures or videos of actual
prints on the Cubify website. The images all appear to be renders. That should
be a good clue as to the print quality.

I saw them in action at CES, and the quality was pretty poor compared to what
the Replicators at the Makerbot booth were doing. Perhaps they haven't
improved since then.

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jonny_eh
While this is very cool (minus the proprietary drawbacks), what can I make
with this $1300 printer that I couldn't buy for $1300? I would have liked to
have seen that in their marketing material.

~~~
newbie12
You are making the market/future for 3d printing.

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nextparadigms
Will only their designs work with their printer? Or is it some kind of open
format, so I could get 3D models from somewhere else and then build it with
their printer?

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nextparadigms
The MakerBot Replicator is 50% more expensive, but it can make larger objects
and in 2 colors. I think it's the best one out there currently. They say they
have 15,000 object models in their catalog on <http://www.thingiverse.com> .

How fast can these things make the objects, though? Does it take minutes or
hours? Could you build a small business selling toys and stuff with one of
them?

~~~
nickpinkston
Typically speed depends on how much material the object uses, the complexity
and the build quality. For small, low-fi object it could take 10 minutes. For
something the size of a baseball, it's probably about an hour or so, but for
the largest FDM (this style of 3D Printing) machines it's been known to take
days on really big builds.

On other commercials machines, like SLA/SLS, that use lasers to quickly build
material, they're more based about how tall the part is when it's built and
the detail required.

Small business wouldn't be based around just printing - this is really tough.
You're really going to need to offer other value-adds to actually make money
as small plastic 3DP parts are basically a commodity at this point.

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free
This looks quite interesting. I am not much informed of it. Can anyone share
an overview of the technology underneath? Also what kind of things it can
print, what and how much the raw material would cost?

Also the page show the image of a sandal in free creations section. Would it
be possible use it as an actual footwear?

~~~
spacemanaki
If they're using PLA or ABS, I don't think footwear usable due to comfort.
(ABS is the same plastic that Legos are made of, so imagine how inflexible
they would be, and PLA is going to be similar)

Given that the build envelope is only 5.5 cubic inches, I also don't think you
could actually make adult size footwear.

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sargun
I wish that the print surface was larger. 5.5" is just an awkward number, I
would love if it was something like 6, or 8.

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teamonkey
For aesthetic reasons, or because 5.5" limits the usefulness in some way?

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sargun
5.5" limits the usefulness, a lot of the parts I want to make are going to be
6.1+" - I'm primary thinking of things like cable holders, replacement HDD
holders, etc..

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tantalor
Awkward name collision with the Google Maps app from 12 hours earlier.

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hackermom
"Material: Tough Recyclable Plastic" - Does anyone happen to know exactly WHAT
plastic it uses? I'm also curious about the whole activation requirement for
the printer. It made me raise an eyebrow.

~~~
nickpinkston
Probably ABS - that's the most common, but PC, PP and PLA have all been used
before.

