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It's basically a much simplified version of a couple other Laser stereolithography printers out there, such as the Form 1

It will work, and there is definitly room for cheaper products in the market, but their accuracy isn't really where it needs to be, though I see why they went with the lower price. A decent dedicated 3 axis motion controller runs about $100, decent bearings and linear motion stepper motors for 4 axis (x,y, z and then print on or off) is going to run between $200 and $300 depending on the size of the machine, call it another $50 for a good enclosure, $50 for a power supply, and another $50 for the "do stuff" parts of the machine (the extruder, or the laser, etc). Thats about the cheapest you can make an accurate and reliable printer with a decent print volume assuming off the shelf parts with no special deals on price. Where their machine fails at the moment is they are going too cheap on bearings and frame, which is the same issue the early prussa mendel 3d printer designs suffered from. Throw another $100-$200 at the unit to clean up the output, and they've got something there.

Using the audio output could be really interesting, because then it opens the possibility for using say, a smartphone as the driver rather than a computer. But for a more serious machine that you want to be able to use and play music on your computer at the same time while you wait the hours for it to print, I would have gone DB9 or USB myself rather than the audio port. You can build one yourself too though! http://www.instructables.com/id/Build-a-Laser-3D-Printer-Stereolithography-at-Ho/

The main reason I haven't really gone the stereolithography route, is open vats of sticky resin are a mess waiting to happen. I may one of these days though.


Yes. Though a plastic extrusion fusion deposition 3D printer using ABS plastic might be more effective. Those ones make nice knives, even accidentally. Plastic cuts also hurt like hell for the record
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FBpN_vjoM

I'll tell you what really hurts?

In an attempt to retain my feminism into middle age I've become a fanatic about keeping 'whiskers' off my face. I have tweezers stashed everywhere. i get a little tuft of face fur in the indentation between lower lip and chin - right in the center. You can't even hardly see it unless I stretch my chin out, but I can feel it, so they gotta go. Plucking those bad babies hurts like hell. Brings tears to my eyes.

Kao, can you make a shoe horn with your 3-D printer?