The story goes Makerbot got really big on Open Source Hardware, this attracted investors, the investors demanded that the company lock everything down and some founders quit http://josefprusa.cz/open-hardware-meaning/

Makerbot disputes that investors caused them to change but "For the Replicator 2, we will not share the way the physical machine is designed or our GUI" http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/09/24/lets-try-that-again/

Yeah, the guy who founded them and wrote that blogpost, Bre Pettis, had previously publicly humiliated newbies to the community for not correctly releasing their hardware designs (because they didn't understand how), calling it "a dead end for the innovation and development which is the heart of the open source hardware community".

Basically, they're very keen on other people releasing their stuff as open source hardware so they can use it, but refuse to release their own stuff. It also doesn't help that certain prominent, business-owning members of the community called anyone holding Bre Pettis to the standards he expected of others terrorists and claimed to be standing up for "polite discourse" by doing so.

Do you have links for that last part maybe? I'll be writing about the whole makerbot issue soon and that would sure come in handy!

Makerbot started out the lead 3D printer maker and participated a lot in the community then sold themselves to Stratsys and closed up things like their Thingiverse and build file format etc etc. Lots of angst there.

Yeah, I actually scuttled a deal with them for my laser cutter accessory over this...

Funny enough they were starting to be a lot less interested in the deal when they heard I had a patent on it. I even tried the "look, you've covered your behinds, I'm covering mine" angle.

(I do have a patent on the design, but I'm choosing to not enforce it - http://robots-everywhere.com/re_wiki/index.php?n=Main.LCheap... if you want to either buy one, or download the designs for one)

That is very nice. What kind of thickness can you cut with those diodes in various metals and other materials? At what kind of speeds?

You can't do metal, but you can do wood and acrylic up to 3/8inch (5mm). It's not fast, but it's just the thing if you want to make wing profiles for a balsa RC airplane. Working on making it do very thin copper, just so I can lase PCBs.

It's not fast.

FWIW, I not only provide the design, I also provide the design (and a video) of the jig I use to make them.

Consider me very much impressed. That's the first workable DIY lasercutter that I've come across.

If you're going to do the copper thing make sure to get some kind of fume extraction going, metal vaporization is an excellent way to poison yourself!

A poor mans version of this would be amazing:

http://www.thefabricator.com/blog/direct-diode-lasers-enter-...

Poor: a few thousand $ for a head.

I guess mine is the poor man's version of that :) I'm working on a more powerful unit (14W) but I have nothing to show yet.

I have a Solidoodle 3 at home, and a Makerbot Replicator 2 at work. In terms of print quality, the Makerbot is significantly better than the Solidoodle.

There are certainly things I like better about the Solidoodle, such as the ability to use a sheet of glass on the bed, which allows me to use ABS/Acetone slurry to make parts stick to the bed, the ability to tweak all of the CAM settings, the mechanism for feeding the filament into the hot end is easier to work on, I've never had a clog on the Solidoodle, and there are several power users who have shared improved designs for various parts of the machine.

But if I need to make a part that has to be within tight tolerances, or have a good surface finish, I prefer to print with the Makerbot.

Does anyone know of a sub $3000 open source FDM printer that can print as well as a Makerbot?

SHAMELESS PLUG: I do sell the FlashForge printers, which can be found here: http://shop3duniverse.com/collections/flashforge-printers

I'm posting this only because I think it's a legitimate answer to an important question... Is there an affordable printer that prints as well as (or better than) a MakerBot?

I have been using the FlashForge Creator and Creator X to make 3D printed prosthetic devices, and I'm thrilled with the quality. All of the photos and videos I have on my blog at 3duniverse.org were printed on the Creator or Creator X printers. I'd say these printers print better than the MakerBots, which we've been testing side-by-side.

The FlashForge printers range in price from $977 for the original Creator to $1349 for the latest Creator Pro. The printers come fully assembled and include two full spools of filament.

But note that I only started selling them after falling in love with them through hundreds of hours of direct hands-on experience with them. I haven't yet found another printer on the market that has better price/performance value.

Having spent significant amounts of time with Replicator 2s and Ultimaker 1s & 2s, the Ultimakers have far superior print quality in my opinion. Small details typically come through better on the Ultimakers, and tolerances were held better in 95% of my tests.

Thanks for reading the article! To answer your question, a 3 year old wooden ultimaker prints stuff compared to which printing on a makerbot looks like printing with a shovel. :)

The question of why I suggest avoiding makerbot is complex and not just about open vs. closed source. I will elaborate that in a future article in detail, since it raised quite a lot of questions.

I have a S3 as well - try printing at 2/3rd speed. Also, replace the rubber belts with kevlar belts for precision.

Makerbot is a company that has been making profit off selling ready-to-build kits of open-source-based 3D printers (which was okay, as they released their designs under similar licenses). They then closed off the hardware and software after a few revisions - even when their products are still based on advancements made by the open source community.

Makerbot is trying to be the Apple of consumer 3D printers. However, the Genius bar will still help you with your 3GS; Makerbot Support wouldn't touch my Thing-o-matic issue (and I bought that in 2012). The issue regarded the heated bed connector, which burned out due to a design flaw.

The moral is they will eagerly drop support for your $3000 purchase in just a few years.

I also had a very bad experience with Makerbot and support. They are just terrible.

I believe it's about them being closed source.