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The Solidoodle: A Low-Priced 3D Desktop Printer

By Rain Noe - May 2, 2012

in Digital Fabrication

There's been online buzz about the Solidoodle, a forthcoming desktop 3D printer and competitor to MakerBot's Replicator. Part of the buzz is that Sam Cervantes was once MakerBot's COO, before breaking off to do his own thing in 2010; the other part of the buzz is that the Solidoodle starts at $499, a fraction of the Replicator's $1,749 price tag.

So will the Solidoodle eat MakerBot's lunch? Well, not so fast; the articles we've seen neglect to mention some important-to-designers technical differences between the two machines.

While the build areas of each machine are close—the Solidoodle allows 6" x 6" x 6" construction versus the Replicator's 8.9" x 5.7" x 5.9"—that extra three inches in the Replicator's X-axis will be the deciding factor for those that need to make longer parts.

The other distinction is in the resolution, both vertical and horizontal. The Solidoodle's Z-axis minimum layer height is 0.3mm, whereas the Replicator can get it down to 0.2mm. And in the X/Y axes the resolution of the Solidoodle is 84dpi, whereas the Replicator's X/Y resolution is higher.

Just how much higher, however, is frustratingly not revealed. MakerBot claimed their earlier Thing-O-Matic machine had a resolution "approximately as good as a 300 DPI printer," and a Times article subsequently alluded to the Replicator having a higher resolution than that; but the actual number is nowhere to be found on MakerBot's site.

Lastly, I should point out that your correspondent is going off of fact sheets here and has never used either of these machines. For those of you experienced with desktop 3D printers, I'm guessing there are a lot more factors than resolution and build area that would influence which machine you'd choose—perhaps the machine's accuracy, versus printed resolution, or wait times. The Solidoodle's not on the market yet, but for those of you with Replicator experience, what do you think are the salient points a first-time buyer ought to be concerned with?

Until we hear your responses, here's a (rather underproduced) video of the Solidoodle:

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Ian Johnson

12 years ago

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I have the first generation Solidoodle, and it has no trouble printing at .2mm layers. .3 is easy and forgiving. Going with higher Z resolution usually means being more careful about how level the bed is, and tweaking settings like flow rate, # of perimeters, #of solid layers, etc.

At this point I would think that all of the hobby printers have the same capabilities when it comes to resolution. The differences will be speed, and accuracy. The rigid metal case helps with accuracy. Given that the Replicator is moving an extra extruder around (which would be nice to have) I don't think it is going to have any speed advantage.
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JDB

12 years ago

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FYI, it looks like the Solidoodle Z-axis *minimum* layer is 0.1mm, not 0.3mm as you mentioned in the comparison.

(from the Solidoodle web site product description)

"-The resolution of the printed part is determined by the height of each layer

-Typically we print at a layer height of .3mm, which gives nice surface finish and quick print time

-It's possible to print hi-resolution parts at a layer height of .1mm, which gives top-notch looking prints"
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Shane Johnston

12 years ago

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I think the largest misconception would be that all of these are turn-key machines.

I've needed to tweak temps on the bed and extruder, wall thickness, layer thickness and speed for each print to get decent results out of the replicator. Coming from a history with other printers like the z-corps, I actually like this level of control.

The Replicator is definitely a nice machine and for the price, produces awesome prints. Finishing the pieces is a bit more of a pain but it comes with the technology.
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