Patriotic Plastic

We have three cool new colors of ABS plastic for the Replicator. So if you would like to build a 3D  Printer of your own (e.g., Prusa, or Printrbot) drop us an email!

Oh, and we'd love to hear some feedback on the site and our blog posts. What colors of plastic would you like to see? Please leave a comment!

Happy 4th to my American customers and thanks so much to all of my international customers for their patronage! I wouldn't be able to have this small business without you :)  

On Replicating: Part 1

We've had the Replicator for a few weeks now and are definately still happy with the aquisiton. A few comments on the experience.

• Setup is relatively simple thanks to the addition of a control panel to the stock machine. This complements the SD card for a "PC free" experience.

• Most of the example files on the 2GB SD card utilize a raft. Obviously this is something we try to avoid due to the extra effort to remove. More on that later.

• The stock Replicator settings in ReplicatorG are really quite good.The Print-O-Matic way of changing settings is a bit different. Layer height as a completely independent variable is really strange. It will be interesting to test the limits of this.

• The utilities are mostly satisfying, allowing you to load and unload plastic and preheat. The biggest gripe I have is with the leveling function. The premise is that the platform isn't level after shipment. The leveling utility has the operator start the platform at its lowest level and slowly rotate the leveling screws at the four corners until you can barely scrape a business card under the nozzle. After a week of attempting this we found that adjustment during the print is still required, especially printing without a raft layer. After some trial and error we're very happy with the platform (now milled out of thick aluminum to ensure flatness). Hopefully the MKII Replicator will have a clever way to replace this tedious routine and make it even more appealing to the masses.

So far we've been printing with great confidence and the quality meets all expectations. More on these experiences to come.

The Replicator Has Arrived

We are happy to announce that our Replicator is now printing. It is an awesome machine. Here's a list of some of my favorite improvements to the new 3D printer:

• Dual Extrusion: This is pretty self explanatory, but it is so cool to print in two colors!

• Much bigger build platform: Compared to MakerBot's original 3D printer this platform is more than double the size. 

• Higher resolution prints: The Replicator uses 1.75mm plastic instead of 3mm. The details in the prints are much finer. It is especially evident when printing text.

• More autonomous: The machine doesn't require a computer to be connected to it. All you need to do is put your file on an SD card and you're ready to print!

• More user-friendly: The interface of this machine is easier to navigate. Simply read the directions on the LED front panel and you will be printing in no time! 

Here's a picture of our bottle openers. The one on the top was printed on The Replicator. The bottom image is a bit out of focus, but you can still see how much better the resolution is on the new printer.