3D Printer on Kickstarter

[Starfox]

FORM 1: An affordable, professional 3D printer by Formlabs — Kickstarter

A "mere" $3.000 and some good CAD skills and you can make your own miniature. Not to mention running costs. But still, Wow!

(I am not affiliated with this project, just thought this was awesome)

 

[S'mon]

It's very interesting - I doubt this will be household technology in the near future, but it seems to present the possibility of a new cottage industry in low production run plastic miniatures design and production, just as there is for pewter minis currently (eg Hasslefree). I think the question is what kind of price points may be viable using this tech?

At the top end, Reaper are using traditional steel casting to sell their nice unpainted plastics at around $2; meanwhile em-4 sell six lowish-quality plastic figs (3 orc, 3 dwarf) at a mere 21p/30c per mini. Somewhere within that range I think lies the possibility of a new market for mom & pop type firms. But production needs to be quick enough and cheap enough to make that practical.

 

[Starfox]

This technology is in its infancy. Depending on how many adopt it, prices could still fall - a lot. And at least here in Sweden, way too many people are studying to become 3D designers - they need to find work, and this is open opportunity.

 

[Starfox]

Some random quotes:

We estimate ongoing resin prices of around $149 per liter, but
Kickstarter supporters who buy a Form 1 print package will be
guaranteed at least 1 liter per month for $129 ($0.13 per cubic
centimeter) or cheaper for the life of their printer. This is
compared to available resin from traditional suppliers, which
currently costs around $300-$800 per liter, and is is less than a
tenth the cost of online print services.

We've engineered our resin to work well with the Form 1. It's a huge
part of the engineering that has gone into this project. We won't be
able to offer support for third party resins.

It is durable enough to make molds!

You could print about 77 rook pieces with 1 liter of resin.

You can leave the excess resin on the part for as long as you want
assuming it isn’t exposed to a light source containing 405nm (like
sunlight).

We’re designing this printer to be a serious workhorse. We have been
running the printers in our office pretty much all day, every day
during development.

The printer is very quiet. It only makes a small servo noise when it
has finished a layer. You can smell the resin if you put your face
close to it (not recommended), but if you use it in a room with any
kind of airflow it’s pretty much unnoticeable.

Excess resin just stays in the tray. When it runs low, you just pour
more in. Nearly all the resin goes into the parts that you make (minus
what is used for support structures, and what is rinsed off during the
finishing process).

 

[S'mon]

Some random quotes:
We estimate ongoing resin prices of around $149 per liter...
You could print about 77 rook pieces with 1 liter of resin.

So probably somewhere over $1 in resin just to make one 30mm figure? See bottom right image below. It sounds similar to pewter costs.