Makerbot Replicator
© 2012 MakerBot Industries
The Replicator is a $1750 3D printer made by the Brooklyn-based startup Makerbot (www.makerbot.com), and they are now available to be ordered (as of February 2012). The device is historic for several reasons: First, this is the first time an assembled 3D printer has broken the $2000 barrier, with higher resolution and a lower price than last year's Thing-O-Matic. It can also make bigger items, as large as a football (up to 8.9 x 5.7 x 5.9 inches). I had the chance to try one at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on January 12, 2012. Here's more about what the Replicator can and can't do. You can see the video from my visit, here http://youtu.be/sqorBvxNfXQ. Q. Traditional printers consumer paper and ink. What does a 3D printer use? Spools of coiled ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) plastic that costs about $45 each per kg. This is the same material that is used to make Lego blocks -- it is strong, safe, and comes in many colors. One spool can make about 176 chess pieces. The printer can also work with PLA (polylactic acid), a bio-plastic made from corn. More on that, here. http://wiki.makerbot.com/pla. Q. So is it expensive? The cost seems reasonable, which is one reason there's so much excitement about this device. Each chess piece costs roughly $.25, not counting the electricity. You can buy refills online, from non-MakerBot sources. Q. How long does it take to make a plastic chess piece? This is not a printer for those who need immediate gratification. Plan on 30 minutes to finish a chess piece. Larger, more dense objects might take several hours. The more plastic, the more time. Q. What happens if I trip over the power cable in the middle of a job? This happened in our demo, but damage is limited to your current project. You just clean off the old plastic and start over. Q. Do I need a computer? If you want to make something original, yes. You use an open source design package called ReplicatorG software that you can download free for Mac, Windows or Linux, at http://replicat.org. You can also use 3D design software like Google Sketch Up (free) or other CAD software like Solid Works. That will give you an STL file that you run through ReplicatorG. Then it goes on the SD card and into the MakerBot. If you're feeling lazy, you can download or modify somebody else's idea, from www.thingiverse.com. Once you've made your design, save it to an SD card or USB drive and plug it into the side of the printer. You choose your projects from a menu, the printer's onboard computer takes it from there. Q. Does the printer smell or give off fumes? The melted ABS plastic gives no smell that I could detect, although MakerBot recommends using the printer in a ventilated area. The plastic is non-toxic. Q. Is it dangerous? The extruders get hot but are hard to reach. The base also gets hot, but not enough to burn you. If your kids use hot glue guns, you're exposing them to about the same level of risk. Q. Any other things the PR people don't mention? Finished products can easily take an hour to print, and they look carved, so if you're looking for glass-like gleam on your custom candy bowl, you'll be disappointed. But the resolution is fine enough to make gears with meshing teeth, which is an amazing new ability. The Replicator is an early product in an emerging area, so it's logical that a newer cheaper model will be available soon. It's also fair to imagine that if the Replicator is a commercial success, that large, well-funded competitors with names like HP or Brother can't be far behind.
$175020000, Windows, Mac OSX
Teaches: creativity, math, science