I know there's been a lot of talk about the Maplin UK 3D printer,

3D Printing
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I know there’s been a lot of talk about the Maplin UK 3D printer, I actually went along to see it in action I was really impressed by it, looks really solid and the parts were nice, though I was a bit unsure of Maplin’s knowledge on 3D Printing so don’t be expecting any help once you have bought it.
http://www.prsnlz.me/industry-news/maplins-3d-printer-launch/

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Always a pleasure to read your posts @TCT_Personalize

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Thanks @ThantiK ! The machine itself looks a good one and they’re a huge electronics manufacturer Velleman so parts all come from them.

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Anyone know what the relationship is between the Maplin/Velleman printer and http://reprap.org/wiki/3drag one?

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Velleman told me that is their printer, the exact same one but under license to Futura in Italy

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I think it’s a really good and bold move for maplin to carry a kit printer like this. :smiley: I think many people will buy these kits. Many people will then probably move onto RepRap.

I was really excited when I saw alu extrusion and metal joining elements arranged in what I thought was very similar to a Mendel90 or I3 type frame and motion.

BUT

I think the mechanical design is terrible. It seems that the bed moves in X AND Y - thus the whole print is going to be wobbled around preventing tall pendulous prints and the max speed is going to suffer due to the high moving mass.

I’m not sure if this is right, or if I am just in disbelief … but the Z axis only has a motor on one side of the machine?!

If they just rearranged the mechanics to be like a Mendel then they would be onto a great little machine for exactly the same price with a much better performance and simplicity.

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Interesting points @Sanjay_Mortimer though due to the build quality and the high strength metal parts it seemed to be very sturdy when I saw in action, the prints it was running off in 32 mins are these 10cm high vases, the wall thickness of them is minimal, they ran about 20 off in the day.

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The problem with a moving X/Y is that you get the space of your X/Y / 2 with your platform in order to get to the edges of your build. So they have a smaller build area than is possible with the same amount of machine space. The Ultimaker and Tantillus are good examples of this. They get the most build area to machine space by only moving a tiny extruder head, instead of the entire plate.

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You will find some companies make a machine with a machine

As opposed to what, chiseling it out of a log?

Sarcasm aside, I like the idea of a printer that forgoes RP parts. I mean repraps are awesome for poor high school students like me, but if you’re selling a production machine completely separate from the whole replicating thing… Why use RP parts over common brackets for T-slot constructions?

I may upgrade my school’s mendelmax with some metal 90 degree brackets to strengthen it later this year. For now its speed is limited by the extruder.