Are there something that have been stopping you from riding the 3D printing hype? Ah, I see. It must be the price, right? Well, if so, Obsidian from 3D printer maker, Kodama Inc, may just change your mind. But before get into the price, just look at this device. Surely you heard of affordable 3D printer, but one that look this pretty? Hardly and so, Obsidian may be worthy of your consideration, more so if you know it only costs 99 bucks. If anything, the price itself have won us over. Kodama’d be right saying that Obsidian 3D Printer is “a never-before-seen combination of reliability, quality, and aesthetics.” Oh, they forgot to add ‘true affordability’ in it which they should.
Though small, Obsidian is totally capable of 50-360 microns, touts an optimal print speed of 60 mm/s and has a fairly decent print volume of 4.7 x 4.7 x 4.7 inches (120 x 120 x 120 mm). Obviously, this is not the go-to 3D printer if you are looking at large volume print. Then again, at 99 bucks, one couldn’t possibly believe that it will do mega size volume print, right? In fact, the size and the price, plus the assured quality and reliability kind of makes it suitable for home/personal use. Obsidian 3D Printer comes assembled, which means it is essentially plug-and-print just like regular printer; all you need is a design and add the desired material, which it supports a variety – including carbon fiber.
It runs on non-proprietary firmware and works with many major software so you don’t need to be tied to a few. Just use whatever you feel most comfortable with. Depending on the models you are looking at, you can also the following features: power outage recovery for resuming prints in the event of an outage, built-in camera for real-time monitoring and time-lapse recording, Android-powered LCD touchscreen, and a heated bed.
Once again, Kodama is leveraging on Kickstarter to push its newest 3D printer to the market and not surprisingly, the response was nothing short of overwhelming. The campaign has 15 more days on the calendar but at the time of this writing, it is already 1,017% funded (not a typo, btw), rolling in over a million bucks from nearly 4,000 backers. If you are up for it, you are looking at a pledge of between $99 and $249, depending on the models you desire.
Images courtesy of Kodama Inc.