So Monoprice.com is selling 3d printers now, as is Deal Extreme, and both of these are being sourced in china. I went on AliExpress and decided to look around. Holy smokes, its taken off in the last year. There seems to be this local importer/builder of 3d printers in China called TMTCTW. They have their own knockoff of the Form1 (not much cheaper if you buy for export, but cheaper for them than a imported Form1 ). And they have an in house developed 3d sla printer that looks interesting.
This post seems to be about a new SLA printer they are developing, but doesn’t seem done yet.
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Blu-ray-SLA-3D-Printer-3D-printing-3D-printer-to-print-three-dimensional-UV-photosensitive-resin/1096409_1657026372.html
Form 1 Knockoff
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/SLA/1628298051.html
They do have a FDM printer, the Jupiter and Jupiter 2. Its hard to find images in their cluttered store, but the finish does look amazing.
I think the USA should copy China and make its own version of aliexpress. Even if we can’t beat the foreign prices now, bulk rates and cheap marketing would lower the prices with time.
@NathanielStenzel the average hourly compensation for Chinese manufacturing labor in 2009 was $1.74 US. I think it will be a while before the US can compete with that.
@Henry_Wooldridge This is 2014. The chinese have been increasing their wages. Now other places are getting the work because the chinese are too expensive.
I did not say we could really compete with China all that well, but a few nuts like me are patriotic enough to not want to buy foreign made goods if we can find a local manufacturer. At any rate, having a place to buy a bunch of different things that you would not normally find in the USA is a good thing.
We have a local equivalent of ali express — eBay. That or Amazon partner shops.
@Jasper_Janssen i am not sure about Amazon, but I see alot of foreign goods on Ebay.
Uh… And? You think Ali express is limited to only Chinese goods?