Staples to sell 'affordable' $1,299 3D printer starting in June

examiner.com ^ | 4/3/13 | Michael Santo

[LibWhacker]

In June, Staples will become among the first major retailers to offer a 3D printer. It will also be among the first to offer an affodable one, with 3D Systems’ Cube 3D printer being sold for $1,299, the company announced on Friday.

Although $1,299 may seem expensive, there was a time when the cheapest dot matrix or impact printers cost more than that. The price will inevitably come down.

The Cube 3D Printer works with both Windows and Mac OS X. It comes with 25 templates with more available online.

[Southack]

http://makibox.com/details/product/A6-LT

$200 medium size 3D printer

[napscoordinator]

Holy cow....lol.

[Walmartian]

You could make parts for marble machines.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3NJ7Fr6VrPU

[uncommonsense]

"But how many recyclable plastics in common use have the structural properties needed for durable (even short term durable) mags and other gun components?"

Here's one 3D company's materials list (they have spec sheets, other 3D printing companies have a similar list):

Shapeways Material Portfolio

[uncommonsense]

"Its all a matter of perspective, 25 years ago these things were $250,000."

I remember paying over $5,000 for an HP laser printer with a memory upgrade in 1985 or '06 (for my marketing department at Texas Instruments) - that equals $10,816.59 today. A superior printer can be purchased for under $300 today. $300 now purchases far superior capabilities than $11,000 did back in 1986.

HP LaserJet printer, 1984

"The HP LaserJet was the first desktop laser printer, introduced in 1984 at about $3,500. Nothing like it existed previously, and it created a totally new printer market."

Also: HP LaserJet - Wikipedia

[uncommonsense]

"Here are some different materials that they are using for 3D printing."

Here are a bunch more (I was surprised to see all of the metals in 3D printing - stainless steel, gold, silver - and glass, ceramics, etc.).

i.materialise Material Portfolio
Sculpteo Material Portfolio
Shapeways Material Portfolio

[uncommonsense]

"Is there any way these printers will be adding a hidden watermark to the object being printed? I was under the impression that the feds have this capability built into laser printers. Maybe it is just an urban legend but I could see them trying just that with 3D printers."

That's an excellent question. Behind the scenes, statist Guberment is pressuring (extorting) manufactures to embed hidden signatures in everything sold through retail channels. It's in our autos, consumer items, digital devices, and pretty much anything not plucked out of the soil of organic farms (but maybe I'm wrong on that account).

[roadcat]

I’ve been following this 3-D printer craze for the last few years. Reminds me a lot of the early personal computer period in the mid-1970’s. I really wanted an Imsai 8080, or Altair. They were super-expensive, at least to me and my meager salary. You had to laboriously flip toggle switches to enter machine code, and it cost a lot to add things on to get anything done. And they did very little. Few reference materials, few magazines, but people traded tips. Then within a couple years innovations came rapidly and prices plunged, giving us far cheaper but more powerful machines.

Same thing now. They’re expensive and you can’t do a lot without spending more money. But the innovations are starting to happen rapidly now. What you buy now, will be fun to play with but will be very obsolete in a year. Buy an expensive one now and fund R&D for far better machines in the next couple years. That’s when they’ll be useful to the common man, for making more than refridgerator magnets. For now, I’d buy a cheap 3-D printer just to play with one.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

Thanks, I would imagine there will be some great improvement in the materials you can use in the not to distant future.

[jokar]

Bookmarked

[Cvengr]

The profit is never in the printer itself, but in the consumables the printer uses.

Do they use 3D printers to manufacture 3D printers?

[SgtHooper]

LOL!

[Cvengr]

I think I’ll wait for my friends to buy their 3D printer and borrow it to print out my own 3D printer.

[chesty_puller]

Those who bought early PCs and learned a little programming greased their careers.

you're exactly right. My first computer was made by Timex/Sinclair. I hired on as a Lineman and retired as a six digit salary Senior Systems Engineer for Verizon. My Marine Corps GED probably helped.