Few online business startups are as successful as Kickstarter, and this is especially true of those that started before Kickstarter was around. 3D printers have a good track record there, too; of the nine printers (eight plus the Filabot) we’ve covered from Kickstarter, all met their funding goals, with the exception of the PandaBot, where the campaign was canceled by its creators due to their wanting to find funding elsewhere, though it was well on its way to being funded. That’s a high success rate, and there’s another entrant to likely continue the trend; it’s called DeltaMaker, and it’s rather reminiscent of the Rostock design.
The four-man engineering team wanted an accurate printer with a small footprint, and they wanted it to be more aesthetically pleasing than a toaster oven. Well done. With the chosen “delta robot” design, the motions of the three individual vertical sliders can be small while the combined action can move the extrusion head much more quickly and smoothly than with horizontal stepping. In fact, the DeltaMaker makes use of the Kickstarter-funded open-source MakerSliders Linear Bearing System and the QU-BD Hot End. As such, this printer performs nicely, achieving 100 micron layers on objects of 9 inch diameter with 11 inch height, with a footprint of what seems to be less than a square foot, which is probably the best build envelope to footprint ratio ye
A lucky 5 got theirs for $500, but there are plenty for less than $1600 left. The retail price will probably be around $2000, which is pretty good for such a precise and stylish 3D printer.