I remember seeing that pen plotter before, guess I wasn't creative enough to put 2 and 2 together, haha. Even for just 2D, this is really clever for the form-f

I remember seeing that pen plotter before, guess I wasn't creative enough to put 2 and 2 together, haha. Even for just 2D, this is really clever for the form-factor/capabilities/price. It's in 'impulse buy' pricing territory for most people (I mean, posting here at least). It takes up basically no space. If the steppers are well-engineered, I can't foresee a failure mode other than just normal tool wear. I was considering buying a Shaper[1] (which is really cool in it's own right) after seeing Ben from Applied Science mess around it. With the Shaper, "you're only limited by the surface on which you can place those encoding stickers"[2] while with this, you can build out effectively until the elasticity point of your support structure (or, I suppose, the chain has a fatigue failure). 15 thou isn't bad at all, especially if you know where the run-out is going to be (i.e. if it's gearing backlash, you can design your features around that with that in mind / build your software to compensate for it / incorporate active air cylinder brakes / etc). Edit: On second thought, they said the steppers were closed loop. So if it's any worse than 15 thou, shame on them, really. My only concern is if the slop/run-out goes up as a function of the material you cut. The Shaper has what seems to be using some sort of active delta compensation[3] Aluminium and a standard house-hold router can accurately mill your 6061 aluminum that's good for up to like 30k tensile with it. The collet/chuck/gantry/whatever will just actively re-orient your bit for the micro-tuning. (Though, for the $1500 they want, you can pick up one of the thousands of Bridgeports Series 1 CNC's out there, throw another 500 for your carbide cutting tools + retro-fit kit and you've got a home machine shop and come out way ahead only a few hundred behind with the ability to actually mill something structurally sound like steel.) Either way, this is super cool - I'll wait for a few reviews, but I think I know where my money's going even if it's limited to wood. [1] https://youtu.be/Kg2HOk1XHsA https://youtu.be/Kg2HOk1XHsA [2] And those stickers smell of vendor lock-in. It's got the opposite 'feel' to it than this product. [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_robot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delta_robot