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One day you'll be able to buy one for <$200, but not this one. Just having one available at $600-$800 will be huge. Imagine if the rich kid in your neighborhood

One day you'll be able to buy one for <$200, but not this one. Just having one available at $600-$800 will be huge. Imagine if the rich kid in your neighborhood had one of these when you were growing up. I'm curious about operational costs though. Even if the initial investment is within reach of well-to-do middle-classers, dropping $60 every time little Jimmy wants to "print" his latest robot model could get old really, really quickly.

rflrob 15y ago
I don't see on the "Making of Origo" page anything about what material they're using, but ABS plastic isn't that expensive, especially for small models. They also ask (but don't answer) "What if it could recycle its own material?", so little Jimmy will have to pick and choose which robot models to keep around, but could in principle make a new one without a huge investment in substrate.
- PotatoEngineer 15y ago
  Well, ABS is kinda expensive if you're buying it in spools from Makerbot: about $45/kg. That's around $5 per toy, if they're smallish, or around the cost of a toy you'd buy. It's not saving you money, anyway.
  - bradleyland 15y ago
    That's pretty good info. I don't think $45/kg is to terribly bad. I think a lot of it will come down to who ends up funding/owning the devices and the supplies. If they go for the "razorblades" (or maybe more appropriately injket printer ink) profit model, things could go pretty poorly. Let's hope there are at least a few players that decide to keep things sane.
  - chernevik 15y ago
    Not unreasonable. But can "drafts" be printed from cheaper materials? 10 year olds often struggle with forethought and impulse control. They can be great visualizers, but details and abstractions are often challenges. So the ability to cheaply print a rough draft, from which they can see and fix flaws, would be nice.
felipemnoa 15y ago
http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

rflrob 15y ago

I don't see on the "Making of Origo" page anything about what material they're using, but ABS plastic isn't that expensive, especially for small models. They also ask (but don't answer) "What if it could recycle its own material?", so little Jimmy will have to pick and choose which robot models to keep around, but could in principle make a new one without a huge investment in substrate.

PotatoEngineer 15y ago
Well, ABS is kinda expensive if you're buying it in spools from Makerbot: about $45/kg. That's around $5 per toy, if they're smallish, or around the cost of a toy you'd buy. It's not saving you money, anyway.
- bradleyland 15y ago
  That's pretty good info. I don't think $45/kg is to terribly bad. I think a lot of it will come down to who ends up funding/owning the devices and the supplies. If they go for the "razorblades" (or maybe more appropriately injket printer ink) profit model, things could go pretty poorly. Let's hope there are at least a few players that decide to keep things sane.
- chernevik 15y ago
  Not unreasonable. But can "drafts" be printed from cheaper materials? 10 year olds often struggle with forethought and impulse control. They can be great visualizers, but details and abstractions are often challenges. So the ability to cheaply print a rough draft, from which they can see and fix flaws, would be nice.

felipemnoa 15y ago

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page