Solidoodle Review

The Solidoodle 3D Printer has officially launched, and wow did it make a media impact!

Finally a sub $500 printer for the masses. The company is led by COO Samuel Cervantes, known from the MakerBot.


The printer comes fully assembled and all you need to do is plug it in and attach a computer.
It has a 6x6x6 builod area, which is decent.
The pricetag alone makes this a milestone in 3D Printing, it will certainly broaden the market and bring 3d printing into the homes of thousands of hobbyists and enthusiast all around the world


Compared to the RapMan or the BFB 3000 it's fairly limited, but it's still cheap as hell and well worth the buy.

It comes in 3 different alternatives: Base, Pro and Expert. The Pro and Expert has a heated build platform, which might be useful for avoiding warping issues, they also have a better power supply and might be worth the upgrade. The Solidoodle should be able to handle overhangs up to 45 degrees without difficulty, but printing at low temperature let's you print overhangs 60+.

Full Description:

Now with a bigger 6x6x6" build area!

Clean lines and easy operation - the Solidoodle 3D Printer is the right machine to turn your imagination into reality. Upload a 3D file and watch as the Solidoodle 3D Printer magically creates your part, right before your eyes. This is the printer for people who just want to print, not assemble a machine. The printer comes fully assembled with everything you need to get started - all you need to supply is a computer and power.

As anyone who has assembled a 3D printer from a kit can tell you - the process can be overwhelming... taking weeks and even months before you can even print your first object. At Solidoodle, we take the hassle out of 3D printing by shipping every machine fully assembled and ready to print -- right out of the box.

World Class Engineering

Aside from being fully assembled, what makes Solidoodle great? The Solidoodle 2nd Generation 3D Printer is designed by aerospace engineers to be extremely strong and precise at the same time. The all-steel frame is so strong, in fact, that a 200lb man can literally stand on top of the machine while it's printing. The Solidoodle's moving parts are designed so that they will move smoothly and never bind.

***Now Accepting Pre-Orders***

In order to get you the latest bleeding edge technology at the best price, we're currently accepting pre-orders. Your printer will ship in approximately 6-8 weeks after you place your order.  Your credit card is charged at the time you place your order to reserve your spot in line. We work hard to ship your printer as soon as possible while still maintaing our rigid quality control standards.

Standard Features:

• Creates plastic parts up to 6" x 6" x 6" - NEW!
• Uses 1.75mm plastic filament (ABS recommended)
• 11.5" x 11.75x 11.75" case footprint (LxWxH)
• Durable metal frame
• Fully Assembled & Tested

We're offering three different levels of 3D printing experience:

Base Model $499:

• Everything you need to print - just add a computer!
• Acrylic Build Plaform - good for doing small prints
• 70W power supply
• Open design (no outer cover/door)

Pro Model $549:

• Heated Build Platform - allows you to build large prints up to 6x6x6" without bottom warping. 1/8" aluminum plate.
• Upgraded power supply
• Spool holder to hold filament (makes unattended printing much easier)
• Interior lighting
• Open design (no outer cover/door)

Expert Model $599: 

• All the features of the Pro model plus an outer cover & front acrylic door to give your printer a finished look with clean lines

Software:

• Open-source software downloadable on our website, see our guide on How To Install Software
• Simple, intuitive graphical interface
• Windows, Mac, Linux compatible

What's in the box?

• Solidoodle 3D Printer, fully assembled & tested
• Small roll of starter filament
• Power supply
• USB Cable

Tech Specs:

• Technology: Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) a.k.a Thermoplastic Extrusion
• RepRap Sanguinololu v1.3a Electronics
• Nichrome powered extruder
• Extruder moves in XY, build platform moves in Z
• Trouble-free custom acrylic extruder with stepper motor, .35mm nozzle
• Spring loaded extruder drive virtually eliminates the need for adjusting the extruder - no thumb screws to adjust or release filament
• Weight: 17 lbs
• ABS filament recommended, but using PLA is possible
• Accuracy: about .3mm (layer height) or 84dpi
• Power Supply Works on US Voltage (120V) or European Voltage (240V)

Precision:

• The resolution of the printed part is determined by the height of each layer
• Typically we print at a layer height of .3mm, which gives nice surface finish and quick print time
• It's possible to print hi-resolution parts at a layer height of .1mm, which gives top-notch looking prints

solidoodle.com

3D printer services

Just a list of the most reputable 3D printing services available now.

 Shapeways.com

Shapeways is about the most well known 3D Printing service available today.
A huge customer base that creates, sells and buys through their own webshops on the site.
A lot of material choices and affordable prices.

With a growing online community and marketplace, we’re a NY start-up that harnesses 3D printing to help you make, buy and sell anything you want.

By providing a platform for our community members to share ideas and gain access to cutting edge technology, we’re bringing personalized production to everyone—whether you’re already designing in 3D or are just looking to buy something completely unique. We print everything on-demand, which means that every order is customized and personalized.

Headquartered in New York with offices in Eindhoven and Seattle, Shapeways is a spin-out of the lifestyle incubator of Royal Philips Electronics. Investors include Union Square Ventures in New York and Index Ventures in London.

We’re working to democratize creation by making production more accessible, personal, and inspiring. Our team of passionate, creative Shapies is growing! Want to join us?

 i.materialise.com 

Very nice site, with a good interface. 3D print lab helps you upload and configure your model.

i.materialise offers all people with an eye for design and a head full of ideas the possibility to turn these ideas into 3D reality.

We empower them to create designs that enrich their life and to share their sense of beauty with the people around them, by adding unique touches to their environment, by creating a truly personal gift for the ones they love, by taking the opportunity to crystallize ideas they can truly be proud of.

With twenty years of experience, we bring high-quality 3D printing within everybody’s reach.

ponoko.com

A really simple system for creating, buying and selling 3D models.

Welcome to the world's easiest making system.

Ponoko is an online marketplace for everyone to click to make real things.

It’s where creators, digital fabricators, materials suppliers and buyers meet to make (almost) anything.

We kicked off at TechCrunch40 at the end of 2007 with a vision to reinvent how goods are designed, made and distributed worldwide.

The core of this vision is the trade in product designs – kinda like the trade in music (iTunes), photos (Flickr), movies (YouTube) and software apps (iPhone) before us.

We host tens of thousands of user generated product designs, ready to be customized and made into real things with the click of a mouse.

But hosting designs is only a part of the puzzle. Importantly, we also provide the world’s first digital making system that means these product designs can be priced instantly online and made locally, as close to the point of consumption as possible.

3dproparts.com

A service directed more towards the professional/business market.

3D Printing is your ideal choice for hard plastic or cast-friendly wax parts in a wide variety of applications ranging from realistic concept models  to final part manufacturing.  3D printed parts are precise and ultra detailed enabling you to create your designs with confidence.

3D printed parts enables you to eliminate expensive tooling cost and drastically reduce your time and cost of your product development or production.

At 3Dproparts, we use state-of-the-art high definition, 3D Printers from 3D Systems, a global leader in three dimensional office and desktop solutions. Choose from a selection of materials and processes and get beautiful, ready-to-use, quality parts today.

printo3d.com

A small personal 3D service, expect super customer service.

Print To 3D is a small home business based in North Eastern Pennsylvania (NEPA). We believe that 3D printing technology should be available to anyone who may need it, whether it be a Fortune 500 company or a entrepreneur trying to develop a prototype product. Our printing services are available to anyone within the United States and in the future we hope to have customers in all 50 states. We were founded by Bradley Rigdon on 2/9/2007 when he decided to purchase this domain, adopt the name Print To 3D and bring his idea to reality.

sculpteo.com

Sculpteo offers a fast 3D printing service which is open to all. We start from your 3D design to manufacture a specific object: interior decoration, figurines, robots, miniatures, scale models...

Our community platform gives you access to 3D designers, allowing you to share models, upload your own 3D designs, and make them real thanks to 3D printing.

Your items are then shipped directly to your home or office for immediate enjoyment!

redeyeondemand.com

RedEye by Stratasys provides rapid prototyping and direct digital manufacturing (also known as rapid manufacturing) services to a wide variety of industries.  With a global network of more than 100 systems, RedEye builds functional parts with production-grade thermoplastic materials.

As a business unit of Stratasys, RedEye’s primary technology is fused deposition modeling, an additive manufacturing process that offers unparalleled repeatability, meaning that your first part looks and functions exactly like the next.

RedEye customers also have access to a number of premium services, such as Ready Part– a part smoothing process designed specifically for RedEye by Stratasys.

RedEye became ISO 9001:2008 Certified in January 2011, the first company in the additive manufacturing industry to become ISO certified. With quality systems and processes in place, we understand and can address your needs quickly.

The industries we serve include: aerospace, architecture, automotive, business machines, consumer products, electronics, medical devices, entertainment, interior design, toys and many more.

In addition to FDM technology, RedEye also offers PolyJet, a process similar to stereolithography (SLA) in that it uses a photosensitive resin. However, PolyJet builds each layer at about 16 microns, which makes it more accurate than SLA.

BFB 3000 Plus Review

Bits from Bytes are a part of the 3D Systems corporation who also owns Z Corp, Botmill and Vidar Systems and are the makers of the renowned BFB3000 3D Printer.

BFB 3000 Plus

 They were founded in 2008 and has been kicking ass since.
The BFB3000 is perhaps the most popular 3D Printer on the market today, considering it's price tag which makes it affordable for the hobbyist and it's build quality which is suitable for professionals.
 The look alone is enough to get my blood pumping, it looks almost like I would imagine an Apple 3D Printer would look.

 The BFB3000 Plus printer is based on the original RepRap but it's not easily seen in the finished product.
 It boasts a double head extruder for use of support material and a print-area of 275 x 275 x 210mm.
 It reads directly from USB or SD Card and is (in 3D printer terms) very easy to operate.
 The sleek user interface works nicely and makes the operation a more user-friendly experience.

It comes with the Axon2 software and is bundled with TurboCAD Pro 18


 Jamie Mantzel has made a few good videos on his experience with the BFB3000:
 
Jamie Mantzel Youtube Channel

 If you don't know who Jamie is, he is a expert DIY, Robotics engineer, inventor, mad scientist, toy maker and 3D Printer enthusiast.

 Jamies tips on printing extra large models on the BFB 3000

 Also check out our BFB3000 unboxing video.

Rapid prototyping bike frame

Shoes, houses, PCB's, pretty much anything you can think of can be made (at least partly) on a 3D printer today. That also goes for bikes. Ralf Holleis diploma thesis was on making a custom bike frame with 3d printed stainless steel lugs glued together with carbon fiber tubes.
VRZ 1. a tack bike frame with 3d printed lugs from Ralf Holleis on Vimeo.
The fork is 480 g and the frame weight is 1100 g and it certainly looks good! On the topic of structural integrity of the contraption Holleis says:

I did a FEM analysis and from that point i started modelling. The parts are printed in stainless steel. The melted powder in the end is 99.5 % - 100 % solid. That means the material density is better than it is for castings. Because of that i am able to remove material on some points. Yes it is ridable:)

Holleis completed his thesis at: http://www.coburg-designlab.de/ And the 3d printed parts are lasercut on a concept laser machine from concept-laser.com