Core77

The $99 3D Printer: a Pioneering Product or Design Misstep?

You decide—it's Core77's discussion topic of the week

By Core Jr - March 29, 2016

in Forum Frenzy | Digital Fabrication | Product Design

This week we bring you our pressing topic of the moment straight from our reader-controlled discussion boards! Our Core77 readers recently caught wind of a crowd funding campaign for a new 3D printer that could revolutionize the democratization of the craft.

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The OLO 3D Printer is a Kickstarter project that's already raised over $1 million dollars in funding that allows people to print small objects from their phone or via rendering programs—all under $100.

Sound too good to be true? Well, depending on how you look at it that might be the case. It seems that OLO's design solution for keeping this technology cheap is utilizing the light of your smart phone to cure the 3D printed object, meaning your phone is trapped during the full duration of building your tiny fabricated object. But we wonder if this solution is truly necessary, as Core77-er Cyberdemon brings up:

"Considering the uses for 3D printing, if they have cracked the resin that can be properly cured by an LCD (LCD's normally do not produce the wavelength needed) then I would say forget using a smart phone, just give me a 15" retina LCD in a dedicated box so I can have a proper build volume and not tie up a phone for a 4 hour build."

Some readers like Dan Lewis reasonably claim that it's not the mechanical printer but instead the curable daylight resin used as the fabrication material that possesses "the real magic" of the product.

So what do you think, is a 3D printer like this worth the $99? Do you think there could've been a better way to manufacture this project or is it's functionality clever and innovative? Voice your opinions and critiques in the comment feed below!

(Also feel free to check out the original post and contribute on our discussion board!)

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Jonas Eriksson

8 years ago

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I call BS. Almost all if not all SLS printer resins rely on UV-light to be cured.

All LCD display must have UV-blocking filters to protect the liquid crystals inside, which means your phone wont emit UV-light. I think there are resins that can be cured by visible light but I doubt they are ready for consumers. The curing speed would be slooooow on such a weak light source as your phone.

And before you point out the Projector SLS 3D-printers, they all use DLP projectors which are MEMS devices which controls tiny mirrors that reflect any light source, for example UV-light. An LCD projector wont work.

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Nout Hogesteeger

8 years ago

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I'm just wondering what would happen if you recieve a call/text during printing? Could you stop the print half way to take the call / answer the text? or do you have to put it on airplane mode?

of course a lot of notifications are unimportant, but how would you know? you can't see it

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Patricio Ortiz

8 years ago

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I hope it's not, but I'm afraid this is another:
Buccaneer 3d printer.
Qu-BD One Up 3d printer.
Peachy printer.
I´m sure I´m forgetting 2 or 3 more innovative and game-changing promises from the recent past..

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Davide Sher

8 years ago

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It's not just the OLO, it is a common problem to all 3D pritning and in particular crowd funded 3D printing projects: promising so much and not delivering. Announcing a project before it is a product is the number one marketing mistake (if you are honest). It works great if you are a fraud or in a few very rare cases of truly great products that nobody had thought about. I disagree with Paul Goad about resins replacing FDM. Resins are evolving but most are very far from offering truly end use product quality. The only really good ones are incredibly expensive and patented. FDM is the only affordable technology that can offer end use materials. I also disagre with Drew Lopold that you can use the OLO to print overnight. First, many of us need access to their smartphones overnight as well. Second, the reason why this project captured the imagination of so many is because it gave the illusion of instantly available products. Unfortunately nothing is farther from the truth. I find that projects like the OLO, like so many others before it, are damaging to the industry and to the people that work in the 3DP indusry in that they raise expectations and destroy the true market for 3D printing, which is by far the most amazing manufacturing technology ever invented and yet it needs to be integrated with so much experience and other technologies to fully exloit its potential. That is why, in general, I do not cover kickstarter projects and especially this project on my websites or the 3d pritning news websites I write for.

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Paul Goad

8 years ago

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I have owned a 3D Printer for over 6 years and have been building 3D Models for the past 25 years. There is a lot of merit to a machine such as this.

Here are my points:

- The reason why this device can be priced at $99 is that there are essential 7 main components to this machine and only 1 motor. Most of the power of this device is driven by the phone and is communicated through simple and cheap 20 khz audio on the phone. They have even reduced cost in the power supply by using batteries. Despite what you are hearing, I believe this device can be made cheaply.

- Don't worry about having your phone tied up for hours. Most of us who own 3d printers have them running overnight anyway. Why would you want to sit and stare at a 3d printer for hours on end waiting for your model. print it overnight when you are sleeping. A perfect use for your phone.

- Resins are the future of 3D Printing. Resins are only getting better, less toxic and with more variations in material and these types of printers are only getting faster. FDM style printers have "peaked" and you are not going to see much improvement.

- It is going to be this type of printer that will make it into regular houses. It does not take up much space and is very easy to use.

-The biggest hurdle that this company is going to face is generating a community of users that share their models through the OLO App. MAking it virtually brainless to find and print 3D Models.

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Drew Lipold

8 years ago

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Working in the 3D printing industry; I can say that this has quite a few hurdles to overcome. Here are a few I see right off the bat.

- A $99 price point is un-realistic due to printer quality and consumer demands.
- Resin is toxic and with solid prints does not fully cure inside the print.
- The average consumer is not going to let their phone sit under a printer for the hours it will take to print an object.
-The average consumer will also not know how to fix un-reliable STLs from non-manifold models. Even good scans in most cases need model work done to them.

I really feel this is a common trend to make un-reliable 3D printers under $1000 and expect the general public to turn into engineers and designers over night.

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Devin Sidell

8 years ago

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I would have liked to see a dedicated lcd screen but in terms of cost they never would have been able to hit that $99 price point. They also would have a PCB that can control the layer slicing software on the touch/non-touch screen which would add more cost. Maybe this is a test to see how long people can survive without their smart phones. Iv'e used a Form1 and yes the clean up and smell of IPA is a PITA but it was worth it to get great looking parts on a consistent basis. All in all I think this isn't the best answer for the growing "at home" industry but a stepping stone in the right direction to make 3D printing affordable and easy for everyone.

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Eric Strebel

8 years ago

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I used to have a B9, resin printers are a pain in the ass, not worth it in my opinion to own, they do make nice quality parts, but the mess is not worth it for owning one, I would rather pay someone else to clean up the mess. The build envelope is also one of the reasons I ditched that printer. This built envelope is even smaller so not very useful for product design and development.
Not a very useful product, plus who wants to give up their phone for 3-5 hours at a time or more for a 3D printed part? or risk getting resin on it?!

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Robert Wilkey

8 years ago

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Yeah the logical gaps in their pitch smack of a typical "we're going to oversell the capabilities of this thing, then take your money and run" scenario.

I'll be _very_ interested to see what the print quality, print speed, cleanup, support material, etc. details on this machine will be when delivered. If delivered.

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