introducing the MOD-t
UPDATE: The $150 ones have sold out now, you'll have to go up to $199 for a MOD-t
What can you buy with $150? Not a lot, $150 it’s not even the down payment on a 24 month iPhone contract with AT&T! But what if we told you, should you be quick enough, you could get a rather handsome, plug ‘n’ play 3D printer complete with a platform that never needs levelling and a curated store of objects?
You’d probably scream in our face “TAKE MY MONEY NOW!” that’d be unconstructive, instead head over to Indiegogo and have a look at New Matter’s MOD-t. Looks nice doesn’t it? The true price is likely to be about the $249 + p&p, but still at that price you could buy four of the 3D Systems Cube or MakerBot minis!
New Matter ain’t some fly-by-night lot either they’ve thought this process out, Steve Schell has been in the 3D printing game for over a decade and he even owns the patent ‘Apparatus for three dimensional printing using image layers’ with Solid Concepts’ Bryan Bedal.
New Matter’s printer uses few parts and because the bed does not move upwards – the extruder head does that part – the bed never needs levelling, it prints in 1.75mm PLA, has a build area of 150 x 100 x 125 mm and a resolution of 0.20mm (which may go up to 0.10mm by time of production).
The MOD-t is clever and very sleek looking in a minimal sort of a way, but it is the hiring of Frog, an industrial design company that counts behemoths like Sky, Nike and GE amongst their client base that really excites us about the printer.
Frog will bring and all round user-friendly package to the printer that includes the software for the machine and a curated store. You’ll be able to take objects from the store and modify them as easily as “editing a photograph on your phone.”Frog say they want you to be able to share 3D prints with friends as easily as sending a text.
With Frog’s clear eye for the consumer and Steve Schell and teams expertise in 3D printing this could mark a significant breakthrough in the consumer arm of 3D printing. This crowdfunding campaign could be comparable to that of the Micro last month, which saw them raise a staggering $3.4m dollars for their similarly priced printer.