There is an announcement coming and it will cover all and every aspect of what you have all been asking about. The office is closed until the 3rd of January. It will take a few days to catch up with the backlog from the Christmas / New Year holiday period. As soon as we are ready and able to make an announcement we will. Thank you for your be patience, we very much understand your enthusiasm and share you passion for what we do.
Greg, thank you. That was all the communication needed right there. Now put that in a tweet and/or on the blog and it would hit a lot more people with the same problem. You have all that's needed right in there. Looking forward to hearing what you have cooked up.
I can't comment on the i3's impending multi-material capability, which may or may not perform as advertised, but I can say this much: I presently own an Original Prusa i3 Mk 2 and a BigBox v1.1 Pro, recently downgraded from a Dual because getting it to work properly (and reliably) was too much hassle for me. Despite the apparent disadvantage of having the table wagging back & forth, the Prusa is a great printer. Wish I could praise my BB as highly. If I need or want multi-material capability in the future I'll go with Prusa for sure, once the inevitable bugs are ironed out. The one I have now is a workhorse compared to the temperamental BB. And yes, I do feel let down by the way E3D/BigBox has (seemingly) folded its tent... My 2¢ worth.
Surely that just implies that a new order (with a sane MOQ, the same as they had for the KS) would be fully justified, as there is a market as a standalone product
That makes sense if the numbers come out that way, but that isn't always the case. Say failure rate on a particular part is 5%. MOQ is 1000 so you buy 1050, 1000 for your printers and 50 for spares. But all the "spares" sell out in 3 months. Next order would have to be 1000 again, but that would last 5 years if just selling as spares. And 5 years is long time to hold inventory in a market that moves as fast as 3D printing. Its tricky to solve.
Prague has shown outstanding individual performances this year, whilst Barcelona have been playing together really well. Chalgrove only came into the first division this year and it's easy to forget what a young team this is. I see them really upping their game in 2017 and, in particular with regard to multi-material, am confident Titan-IDEX will prove a winning strategy when run on stiff axes with a solid software foundation. A deep bench on the material side will ensure results in wet conditions. Relegation is not on the cards.
Thanks. I might have to revisit Prusa with all their praise lately. And maybe one last prayer for BigBox in the first week of Jan?
I'd also be happy with a kit or a full parts library for ordering replacement components. I have a Lasersaur so I can cut the skins, but it might be worth my time (or the customer's time) to buy a kit of all the mechanicals and electronics.
So that means that we can buy the bigbox soon right? There are also more 3d printer parts on the E3D online store! Also the BigBox site got updated! Any news about the information coming soon?
Keep in mind... E3D isnt as large a company like... The maker who shall not be named but apparently feels selling 3 extruders in a pack is a great solution to a horrible design. They have been to shows in recent history, but, They only have so many resources at the moment. I personally know nothing of their total annual income or growth plans, and was initially under the impression they were larger, but we all start somewhere. They gave me really speedy service when my box shipped missing the bag of nut holders... had to wait a wile to actually assemble the frame because of that, even burned out my old ToM attempting to make my own ;-; R.I.P. little buddy, you are the last good memory of the before-times. Hopefully we see more posts from E3D soon, but at least some from enthusiasts who still mod it.
@Greg Holloway It's been over 2 weeks since E3D is back in business again this year. Any update on that announcement? And I understand this being a small company, that just means communication is much more important (but also less complicated) than in a big one.
Heh I figured it was worth waiting until the 27th and then it's been a full month from when Greg said an announcement was on it's way and then REALLY nagging
A small "We are still busy, an update comes by the end of the month" or some such thing would have been good communication Maybe I do need to go over there and teach them some of that None of this is rocket science, none takes a lot of time, so having an expectation as a customer actually liking the products, is not that far fetched. The issue (for them) is more that if I'm a new customer or not sure to trust in this company, then this lack of communication makes it hard to do so. I've seen people go with inferior products simply because companies communicated better. So this is not just me nagging to have info, this is a direct bottom line thing for the company, which I for one would very much like to keep going strong for a long time to come.
Just today some asked me, after admiring my prints, if they too should get a BigBox, and I had to be honest, and say that they aren't yet acting like a product company and more like a development lab. The product is great, actual customer support is actually quite good, but product support from a a corporate standpoint not so much.
Seems like a standard cheap sales tactic to me to lead customers on without admitting to the death of BigBox. A lot of companies do this so you hang onto any hope that something is coming to prevent you from going elsewhere. The writing is on the wall. If BigBox won't even replenish replacement parts for the BigBox. link: American Sourcing parts, need help! That pretty much tells you everything you need to know. Too bad for the kickstarter people as well. You'll probably have to scavenge for parts yourself from now on. I went ahead and ordered a Prusa i3 mk3 per recommendations. Sadly it's going to be an almost 2 months wait before I get it. But I'll probably still get it before BigBox makes an announcement. RIP BigBox.