Originally shared by Gene Jordan (GeekTinker)
Presenting and promoting the kickstarter that several members of my local hackerspace, Arch Reactor, are producing for Griffin Pro 3D printers. These guys have done their homework and have presented a quality product here.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1861436648/griffin-pro-3d-printers?ref=discovery
Looks interesting. It isn’t a dash to the bottom. Looks like they want to provide better than average quality. But their time frame seems awfully tight.
It looks uncomfortably like 15 other Kickstarters for 3D printers that have made promises that later were found to be hard to keep. Its a shame that there are so many of these ‘zombie’ 3D printer kickstarter projects out there that it has made it challenging to believe in any 3D printer project.
@Chuck_McManis I can vouch for the background on these three men. I do not have any sort of financial stake in their kickstarter or their company, either. I have watched them develop a 3D printer meetup through a well established Hackerspace in St. Louis for the past year. They are the most experienced 3D printer designers that I know. I have seen their product evolve over time as they learned what worked and what didn’t. Other 3D kickstarters have already copied from them - the best sort of flattery. As for the time frame and promises, these men have 30+ members of a 3D group and the 40 members of the hackerspace behind them. I am not familiar with the term ‘zombie’ as it would be applied to 3D printer kickstarter projects. Could you elaborate?
They make some pretty elementary mistakes, like mounting the J-head low, instead of mounting it higher and gaining like 40mm of Z height. Basically everything above the end effector is effectively “wasted” by the arms, so it’s best to take up as much of that space as possible.
@Gene_Jordan_GeekTink The machine looks great. The skepticism is from the number of failed printer projects on KS. Hence the term “zombie projects”. Of those projects some are dead, others in limbo, others just plain late.
It’s good they have a hackerspace behind them but do they have any professional manufacturing and fulfillment capability? The time frame to ship from funded doesn’t seem to be realistic unless they are starting production right now. To get KS out the door quickly you need an accelerator like Form Labs did using PCH or have substantial manufacturing experience or someone to lean on for that experience. Which is more than having a bunch of people in a hackerspace willing to help you out part time.
The product looks clean and is professionally presented and I don’t doubt these folks have great intentions. However, other projects have had similar experiences only to more or less fall victim to their success. I wish them the best of luck. It’s not an unattainable goal though I’m not sure they are quite ready for what they are getting into.
@dstevens_lv I did think the time frame seemed a bit quick as well. However, most of them will be shipping as parts or unassembled kits, which would likely take less time to ship.