ALERT! Venturi 3D - My New 3D Printer Company Launching Soon!!

[Crazed_Insanity]

I understand money can be a huge barrier..., that's why I mentioned you should look into partnering with one of those app makers to see if you guys can collaborate without you having to research or re-inventing the wheel...

Your library of parts really should be more like youtube, rather than Netflix or itune. 3D printer community for now are mostly DIYers. They're not going to rely solely on you to feed them parts. Plus, how expensive will it be for you to keep an army of CAD designers on payroll just to create parts for your customers? Longterm perspective, having a easy to use scanning tool will be much cheaper for your company.

Anyway, my suggestion isn't meant for you to call off your product launch, but just something I thought you should add eventually. I do believe this is the main reason why 3D printing hasn't caught on.

Most people have these fancy nearly thousand dollar mini-computers in their pocket. We should put them into good use.

Good luck with your venture. I'm sure current 3D printer users would appreciate your better and cheaper printer. Hopefully someday you'll compel me to also want to buy one of your printers with a easy to use scan tool!

[MR2 Fan]

I understand money can be a huge barrier..., that's why I mentioned you should look into partnering with one of those app makers to see if you guys can collaborate without you having to research or re-inventing the wheel...

Your library of parts really should be more like youtube, rather than Netflix or itune. 3D printer community for now are mostly DIYers. They're not going to rely solely on you to feed them parts. Plus, how expensive will it be for you to keep an army of CAD designers on payroll just to create parts for your customers? Longterm perspective, having a easy to use scanning tool will be much cheaper for your company.

Anyway, my suggestion isn't meant for you to call off your product launch, but just something I thought you should add eventually. I do believe this is the main reason why 3D printing hasn't caught on.

Most people have these fancy nearly thousand dollar mini-computers in their pocket. We should put them into good use.

Good luck with your venture. I'm sure current 3D printer users would appreciate your better and cheaper printer. Hopefully someday you'll compel me to also want to buy one of your printers with a easy to use scan tool!

I never said we aren't going to use scanning tools to create models on the lab side.

You're implying that the end user should use scanning tools, then have it print their own 3D prints automatically. That's an ENTIRELY different scenario.

Edit: wasn't done yet. We've done the math, if we can expand our printer sales after the kickstarter, it won't be difficult to keep a few people on staff to do the models, it doesn't take an army of people, though we may need to increase the number of printers in our lab.

3D printer community for now are mostly DIYers

EXACTLY, that's why I'm trying to increase the number of people who own 3D printers, or is that to difficult to understand. There's a wide range of people who WANT to use 3D printers but are scared off right now, because they're too complicated. We're changing that.

[Crazed_Insanity]

Yeah, after some thinking, while having a great phone scan tool would be awesome, increasing mass appeal for 3D printing..., it doesn't guarantee that you will end up selling more of YOUR printers.

I could still be using shapeway to print my part...

So yeah, it is probably more worthwhile for you to focus on creating better and cheaper printers for now and figure out how to complete your ecosystem later...

[MR2 Fan]

I wanted to dive in a bit deeper regarding the Lab setup as I feel it is the key to everything we're doing.


We will have the ability to:

• Slice models using different slicing programs to determine what is the best quality for each model
• Do manual supports to improve model print quality (overhangs require supports, leaving the software to do it automatically leaves lots of extra supports and mess when trying to remove them, parts are no longer smooth. Having the minimum required supports is a much smoother option)
• Experiment with multiple materials and combinations (Flexible and rigid in one part for example)
• Create custom rafts and structures for easier removal of parts
• Set up separate parts for certain models that are too large for the print bed, so they can be put together later on.
• Create certain kinds of adaptors and adaptor holes to affix models together



***Workflow Process

STEP 1: Create or use an existing 3D Model (that is under the proper Creative Commons License). We will be contacting ALL owners of the existing 3D models in advance to let them know of our plan to use their model and for what purpose. (There are around a million 3D models on Thingiverse.com already)

STEP 2: Determine the type of 3D model (structural, decorative, etc.) and the recommended filament types (structural models in heat will require something more heat resistant than PLA for example)

STEP 3: Determine the best way to print:

• Orientation
• Support setup
• Infill percentage (depending on the type of part)
• Adaptor holes
• Print speed
• Retraction Settings
• Print Temperature
• Layer height
•


STEP 4: Experiment by sending it to our lab printers, if the settings are uncertain, run a few different tests on different printers, until we receive the most accurate part, it will then be confirmed to be the proper quality by the owner of Venturi 3D as quality control starts at the top.

STEP 5: We take screenshots and photos of the final print, add it to our website and the final code is now available to the end user with images of what they will receive.


Each Lab technician will have access to the latest in CAD Modeling software, modeling tools and slicing programs, and the ability to send prints to up to 20-30 machines for print testing in an ongoing process.


Let’s assume that each model will require about 1 hour of pre-testing and slicing, it will then go to the printers with a few of the most common settings. The final result will come out in approximately 8-10 hours (printers can run all night). With the 10 month deadline, we need to be able to process around 5 models per day. A number of models will have very simple settings that don’t require a lot of pre or post work, or print time, so we may be able to ramp up to 10-15 models a day on some days.

With 3 techs running 20-30 printers each, we should easily be able to meet that goal.

[MR2 Fan]

Update:

In 2 weeks I'm going with the prototype printer to the Mid-west Rep Rap Festival, or basically the biggest gathering of consumer 3D printing people in the U.S.. 4 of the 5 biggest Youtube 3D Printing people will be there and profiling companies for their channels, so I should get a TON of relatively free coverage of the printer.

On that note the printer is nearly done....I ran into a few hurdles, but it's really coming together well, pictures coming soon.

Also, I've been re-designing the web-based interface a bit. This needs some clean-up, but I like the look

[Rare White Ape]

Awesome

Good luck with the show!

[MR2 Fan]

NEWS!!

Over this past weekend, we officially revealed the nearly final prototype of our printer at the Midwest Rep Rap Festival, basically the biggest 3D Printing festival in the U.S., located in Goshen, Indiana (at the fairgrounds next to the cattle auction).

This event has only been going on for about 4 years, the first year apparently was just a few people around a table discussing 3D Printing, this year they had 1,400 attendees, including some of the top designers, makers and youtubers in 3D Printing. I was really hoping to be featured in several videos, however our printer wasn't exactly, um....printing yet. I spent about 20 hours a day for the past week leading up to it, trying to get it working reliably, but just didn't make it.

HOWEVER, despite that, we had a great time and met a lot of people who provided positive feedback. In general they loved the design and form-factor "microwave-esque" was used a few times.

I noted to them that this IS a prototype and isn't the final model. The night before we were supposed to drive 18 hours to the event, the tablet mounted to the front of the printer....cracked the screen, forcing us to use a backup plan.

One of the people I met is Josef Prusa, who is basically THE man in consumer 3D printing. He's been making 3D printers since the beginning (around a decade ago) and I wanted to talk to him about my stealing...erm, borrowing of his multi-material setup. He was happy to talk to me (it's all open source after all) and I got some tips about what to look out for.

Here's the pics of our booth and the printer itself:

[Crazed_Insanity]

Looks good man!

Except... you're advertising it as fully enclosed, but I see the top is opened!!!

[MR2 Fan]

Looks good man!

Except... you're advertising it as fully enclosed, but I see the top is opened!!!

You are correct! I made it a point to let everyone know this prototype is not finalized and that the cover WILL be on in the production version

[MR2 Fan]

Proper front-end photo (Slightly photoshopped for clean up and added the touchscreen)



This is a much cleaner, more appliance look than most competitors in this price range.

Website is being updated constantly with new information about features...we're going to have WAY more than any of our competitors.

The only thing I could use now is a decent marketing budget.