I want to participate into this new low cost open source 3d printer.

I want to participate into this new low cost open source 3d printer. beside the fact that the company isnt reliable on their arrangements :frowning: is this something that would be okish ?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/qu-bd/qu-bd-one-up-open-source-production-ready-3d-print

The only reason to donate to a kickstarter (notice the use of ‘donate’) is if it offers some kind of innovation and you want to support the creator and the community. Why would you do that for a company that you think is unreliable?

well reading their forums. they arent always on time with their shipping schedules. even angry customers. im having mixed thoughts about that. But besides that. is this something or should i invest my money into something else. ( technically wise)

The QU-BD extruder/hotend was really horrible. Not sure that helps with your conundrum.

I didn’t have much luck with their extruder, but others have made them work.

That said, there are a lot of other options, proven designs that are available now. As others have said, the only reason to gamble on this is if it offers something you can’t get elsewhere, or you’re in it because you like the company and want to help them out :slight_smile:

Why not go with a Printrbot Simple? It’s already available, for $30 more. Don’t own one myself, but from what I’ve read it’s decent.

The Printrbot Simple is an exercise in corner cutting. While the exercise was successful, I would not call the result a good printer. It’s a fun little thing, but requires massive upgrades to bring it to a reliable starting point.

If you but a 3d printer in Kickstarter, you’re gonna have a bad time. I bought an eventorbot, which was around 9 months late for 600 bucks. In that time, most kits dropped in price. I was asking the first to complete the printer with the help of the others who had already finished or were building. It was not fun, nor was the design vetted. I’m also a pebble backer. While Kickstarter gets you interesting products, they’re always very late and never meet all the specs. I’m no longer “shopping” in Kickstarter, but I will donate, such as the open hand project on indiegogo. But if you want a 3d printer, and you want a kit, get one from a place that has a good track record and plenty of support on their forums. I was tempted by the qu-bd extruder and after reading Kickstarter comments and reviews, I’m glad I avoided it. If the price looks too good to be true, especially on Kickstarter, out definitely is.

I feel your pain. Eventorbot is an example of a kickstarter gone bad. The owner vanished, none of the backers got a functioning printer. I think some didn’t get anything at all.

If you decide to back this, two things to consider:

  • The board they have pictured and probably using is a Printrboard clone from GEEETech.com. They are cheap and if you are patient enough, you can snag one for half price during their random discount sales. However, they are only rated for 10-15 amps which is pretty damn low. Good for just powering the extruder but the moment you hook a hot plate to it, you will blow the trace wires from the supply to the FETs. I know because I blown 3 out of 4 GEEETech’s Printrboard doing just that. This can be fixed by soldering a jumper wire but that’s dumb and probably a fire hazard. I read online somewhere that GEEETech was going to address this problem by switching from a 2 layer board to a 4 layer but I bought these two months ago so who knows when that will happen. I hope QU-BD can address this and get the updated board from GEEETech.

  • The anUBIS hotend is basically a UBIS clone. I bought two from QU-BD because it was cheap but mainly out of curiosity. Seem to work alright but I think one of my nozzles is defective because it takes a huge amount of force to extrude. I’m still testing them out but IMO, I’m not a big fan of the aluminum core setup.

Thnx all for the usefull comments. Ive decided not to participate and to build the morgan reprap. As the building experience is worth a lot more to me then buying a finished product.