Notice the Tower of Pi in this video? On Pi day? Yeah, that’s the best I can do. I wanted to have a pi vase, fill it with pecans, and look at the camera and go “Ehhhhh?”
This review hurts. It really, really hurts. No only may this be the end of my career as a 3D printer reviewer, but it’s so close to where 3D printing needs to go, and this fumble may prevent it from ever getting there.
I wouldn’t blame anyone with a 3D printer to sell, short of the ballsiest out there, from blacklisting me. With the Neva I was able to find enough to recommend it that I could at least be between on my review. But this is the first time I’ve dedicated a video to publicly announcing that you should avoid something that was sent to me in good faith.
There’s a lot of crap that happens behind the scenes. I’ve basically been free QA for more companies than I care to count. You will never hear about most of these experiences publicly. Many of these issues were settled. And while there may be no such thing as bad publicity, I feel there is such a thing as being the one publishing the bad publicity. I feel it would be worse for me to come out and share every bad experience I’ve had. Quite frankly, it’s cathartic being able to finally, publicly, say “No” to something.
If this means that no one ever sends me another 3D printer, and I have to dedicate my channel to doing cool making projects and discussions about 3D printing in general, and I never have to waste my time testing hardware I don’t really need, I… hmm, it felt like I was building towards a “worst case scenario” here, and it kinda turned around to being the best possible scenario.
Thing is, I truly believe there’s good in every intentions. Even the Neva, this A5, and the Geeetech E180, which by the way, will be a sad echo of this review. It feels like they took one step backwards, hoping to be a run-up to a 100 yard dash, only to fall on their face two steps in. These printers represent the next steps for 3D printing, the steps that 3D printing must take to become the appliance we want them to become. Pretty UIs, clean appearance, and reliable. But what they also need is an infrastructure that’s not there yet. They need a local retailer to buy these in bulk, do some QA, fix them up, and offer service plans to people. Selling these directly to the public may be a huge mistake and may result in this critical step in 3D printing’s development from faltering. I do not want to see that happen.
Man, I hope I remember to say all this in my E180 review.
Here’s the links to all the printers in March MadMess and where you can buy them.
- FLSun S/Micromake L2 – $562 on AliExpress, $638 at Gearbest, or Amazon
- Creality3D CR-10mini – $350 with coupon cr10mini3d, AliExpress, $460 on Amazon
- Creality3D CR-10 – $430 with coupon Cr10bluejk, AliExpress, $486 on Amazon
- Creality3D CR-10S – $540 at Gearbest, AliExpress, $600 Amazon
- Tronxy X5S Kit – $340 with coupon TronxyX5SPRE, $337 on AliExpress, or $461 Amazon
- Geeetech 301 Delta Kit – 363 on AliExpress or Amazon
- Anet A8 Kit – $160 at GearBest, AliExpress, $230 on Amazon
- JGAurora A5 – $426 at Gearbest, AliExpress, $560 Amazon
- Monoprice Select Mini V2 $200 on Amazon
- TEVO Tornado – $350 at Gearbest with coupon Tornadous1, $400 on AliExpress, $460 on Amazon
- Geeetech E180 – $295 at Gearbest, AliExpress, $400 on Amazon
- STARTT 3D Printer – $100 iMakr
- DOBOT Mooz 3 in 1 – $800 on Amazon
