The @Makible MakiBox 3D printer is super affordable starting at $200.
What do you think about it?
http://3dprintsoftheworld.com/printer/makibox
http://www.makibox.com/products
#3dprinting #makibox
I think it’s extremely late. I was basing a hackerspace 3D printing workshop around it and a lot of people are a little ticked that I haven’t been able to provide. 
I had about $2500 ready to go for the workshop, and then nothing. All communication ceased.
@ThantiK Here is a video from them posted Today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oX12KXitYqU
Not communication generally, as in the progress updates. I mean communication with me, personally. I spoke with JB on here about getting one of the alpha/beta boxes so that I could begin assembly instructions and laying out a workshop flow. Paid the $260, wire transferred to his bank. Afterwards, no communication. No box. We’ll see if we get one of the production units when they start shipping.
I think they simply shared too much information too early on - when they announced that insanely cheap printer a year ago, everyone was going crazy about it, even though it wasn’t nearly finished or even properly priced yet. By now, it’s turned into a stream of just a couple more weeks and almost finished posts that really make it feel like the Makibox is actually not shipping any time soon (or ever).
till i saw that I had my eye on this. Once people are shady forget that.
I like it, I backed payed for mine almost 2 years ago…
It looks good (if I ignore the transparent panels) but I see so many things on it that just isn’t strong enough. First of all the rods steering all axis are very thin, adding to that is a very unstable way of connecting those to what they steer, just look at “print head”, it is basicly just resting there between the rods steering X…
X axis: Starting from where it is driven, the motor sits in the back, using a threaded rod, I might be wrong but to me that does not look like one with multiple starting points, so it will be slow. On the upside, not having multiple starting points makes it less prone to backlash. The smooth rods to steer X seems to only be held aligned in a little piece of 10mm plastic, where it looks like they are just pressed in, this would have been enough if the opposite side of it was driven too, but it isn’t, on the other side it is also just held together by some plastic clamped on the rods. The rods are very long compared to what is holding them. The printer head is as mentioned earlier also very poorly attached to those rods, it does not seem to actually be attached to them at all, just resting between them.
Y axis: Seems to be the same case as with the X axis, very little plastic holding and steering a very long rod. The free floating end does not matter much here, because X is holding the entire assembly up.
Z axis: Again we got a long load, on some very thin rods, watching one of the videos even show how easy it is to visibly bend them and push the entire print bed around without any problem. In theory it should be fine, because we are not really working ON the items on the print bed, just putting plastic on top of it, but in reality everyone 3d printing knows that it must be strong, specially Z otherwise it will show in the prints right away.
When they are selling them, and got a proper amount of them in stock, I might actually buy one too, just because I would like the challenge of making it better.
I bought a Printrbot Jr. Instead and have been happily printing for almost 2 months now.
@Michael_Andresen you listed the main issues i’m seeing with the design, too -but i was kinda hesitating to list them all (again) since the Makibox folks seem like good guys.
@Thomas_Sanladerer My comments are based on the latest info I could find on it. If they change something on the design that will solve the problems I can see, I will gladly make new comments about them having fixed the problems they had. But until then, I don’t see how staying quiet about some problems will make them disappear, no matter how good guys they are.
Sounds like a great place to start. I’m in as soon as I finished my home remodel 
120W power supply with heated bed, how long does it takes to reach 110degreeC? The power would be very hot.
I have not read a word about the print quality yet. Using two years to bring it to marked in this game, is the same as saying you didn’t have anything to start with. Just a promise to build something dirt cheap. I can probably promise you a octo core $10 phone today, if I can wait two or three years to deliver. You get what you pay for. At this time most of the money are spent on salaries, so they must rely on massive new sales to be able to deliver to all the preorders. Good luck … Don’t think JB is a bad guy or anything, but this project should have ended a long time ago.
You mean super unavailable. What do I think ? I’ll start thinking when I see some reviews of actual production printers shipped. Until then it’s vaporware.
@Michael_Andresen you’re right - those were the exact same issues that i saw with @Nils_Hitze 's beta unit at MakeMunich. I’m still amazed at the print quality they seem to be getting, but i guess a torture test printed on a finished Makibox would clear that up.
Feb 2012 until Aug 2013 are not two years ^^
@Shieh_George the heatbed of my Beta reaches 110 in about a minute
We made almost the same metal heatbed, a little larger 200X200mm , need 200W 20 minutes to raise to 110degreeC.
@Shieh_George how was it designed. if it is like most, it had one heater in the center. the MB heated bed has a continual heating element across the bed. This make for more even heating.