Kickstarter and Crowdfunding is risky. Companies can promise “this”, and you can expect “that”but “that” very rarely happens. Usually companies don’t know what they are getting into before they launch on Kickstarter, and because of this they usually don’t make it. In today’s post, I am going to talk about two VERY similar, yet very different popular 3D printers that both launched on Kickstarter.
First up, is the OLO Smartphone 3D Printer. (Yes, I know I have already done something on the OLO)
The OLO 3D Printer has everybody super excited. Imagine being able to cure resin using only your smartphone! However, I noticed along with Angus of Maker’s Muse (you can find his video here) that OLO does have a few flaws. For example, isn’t daylight curable resin (The Resin OLO uses to speed up the curing process) super dangerous and toxic? OLO claims you can just wash your print in water! Another thing I found kind of iffy was using your phone. Would you really like to put your perfect smartphone into a black box for 5 hours? This brings me to the point of time. Your smartphone’s screen can’t possibly emit enough light as a professional laser! It may take days for a larger print to finish using your smartphones screen. (Even with the “daylight curable resin”) My final concern with the OLO 3D Printer is a dirty smartphone screen. Even in more expensive DLP printers, a dirty resin tray can permanently ruin a print. No matter what, your smartphone screen is bound to get dirty fingerprints on it. Imagine how this would affect your print!
Next up, is the TIKO Unibody 3D Printer.
The TIKO Unibody launched (and succeeded) on Kickstarter long ago. And back when it launched, it grabbed lots of attention. This was a totally new style of 3D Printer! In fact, there are no “axis” on the printer at all! Of course, this stirred up lots of excitement in the 3D Printing community. However since the project succeeded, it has kind of died down. For example, the order completion date has been delayed more than a year! And while Tiko keeps providing updates on how they are fixing their printer, I am not particularly optimistic.
Above, you have seen me complain about two highly successful 3D Printers. Why? Because of some problems I see. In the OLO, there are many technical issues that the OLO team hasn’t thought of or mentioned. In the TIKO campaign, the hardware seems fine, but the delivery dates seem to be extending every day!
Like I said, I would love to be proven wrong on both of these campaigns. Both printers seem to have a great concept behind them, but both campaigns seem to have a few flaws. However, if OLO can work out the technical details and TIKO can stick to a set delivery date, I believe that both printers can create some truly amazing Epic 3D Stuff.
Epic 3D Stuff 