Just got news that the first batch of Tiko’s will be shipping July 1 to the backers. I forgot where I am in the line, but at least I’m not out $179
Keep us updated. I like the unibody design but I’m worried that the plastic material won’t be rigid enough for accurate prints.
They said they would be starting slowly (few hundred), and ramping up when they move into their own facility. I’m thinking mine (in first 3000) will be around October.
I backed it on April 8,2015, but I don’t see a number assignment for backer #. They said they should be in full production of 10,000 units per month by late July. I guess they are expecting this to be sitting on Walmart shelves soon. At $179, I think they are at a pretty nice price point for the masses. I just hope it prints as well as they claimed from the start. Just so I don’t put all my eggs in one basket, I’m building a SLA printer using NanoDLP on a raspberry pi.
Does anybody have a photo of an actual 3d print from one of these new printers?
These Tiko people are happy to show their unibody printer shell, but have never seen a photo showing the quality of the final output.
Thanks in advance.
Their web front page has practically nothing, a still photo, a signup for an email list and a link to their forums. I see from a forum post, they have a Snapchat account they supposedly use for showing pictures of prints, which makes the enterprise seem dubious, as if the machine didn’t seem shaky enough in the first place.
@Jeff_DeMaagd believe me it isn’t due to lack of trying on my part.
For a long time I have been idly following their progress, and they are very, very shy about showing the quality of their prints.
This inconclusive image is the best I have found so far:
But of course that image is nowhere near good enough to ascertain the final quality of the printer’s output.
I have seen photos along the way in the mailings going out to backers. It was near 50um resolution, but yes, if someone wanted to pull a fast one it could be faked. There are two common sayings… “caveat emptor” and “you get what you pay for”. Still I want to believe it is real. If it’s not, then I’ve only lost a little on the gamble. It is funny. The photos of their new building they are renting for their offices and assembly line looked remarkably like photorealistic renderings.
Here is their original prototype printing… https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tiko3d/tiko-the-unibody-3d-printer/posts/1184063
From my experience with plug and play machines, you get what you pay for. With machines that are made to be tinkered with you can always improve but with plug and play machines you’re stuck with what you pay for. For $179 the Tiko isn’t a big expense if its not great and it could be an interesting experiment. But I don’t think anyone should expect the same quality prints from this little machine as one of the many $2k+ plug and play machines.
The unboxing videos are starting to appear on Youtube now from the earliest backers… Looks like it works, but software still has room for improvement.