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The first sub $100 printer on Kickstarter
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A Peachy Printer prodcut
Depending on your standpoint the fact that the term 3D printing encompasses so many technologies is either a help or a hindrance. Some may say that the term needs to become less generic and that perhaps a departure to “additive manufacturing” may be more apt and others say the term allows the layman basically understand the concept in one go.
Whatever side your bread is buttered on there is no denying that there’s no one right type of additive manufacturing technology to 3D print an object. In desktop 3D printing, although we do have the Form 1 and B9Creator, FDM is king. It is therefore always nice to see another type of 3D printer hit their Kickstarter funding targets.
Introducing the Peachy Printer, which has not only met but smashed it’s 50,000 Canadian Dollar target as it stands they have received 180,000 Canadian Dollars with 27 days to go. The printer is an unusual one, using stereolithographical tech the creator claims it is the first sub $100 3D Printer.
Interestingly the Peachy Printer is on both Kickstarter and Indiegogo, an unusual approach but one that is not against any terms and conditions of the two biggest crowd funding platforms. The Indiegogo campaign has thus not been as popular but nevertheless is still on course for full funding.
Using custom software, sound waves are generated from a 3D model in Blender and sent out via your headphone jack, the audio waves control a pair of electro-magnetic mirrors and shoot a laser beam into resin, which is in turn controlled in the Z-Axis motion by dripping salt water into the tray. Project creator Rylan Grayston says that this drip mechanism means an incredible z resolution the likes of which would be impossible to achieve using FDM.
It all sounds very complicated but very impressive, doing away with rigid frames and stepper motors and theoretically delivering an unlimited build volume means they can make this printer cheaply.
Not exactly plug and play but definitely an interesting take on the 3D printer for the hackers of this world.
