The M3D Micro – a truly affordable consumer 3D printer
Like most of you reading this, I have been following the prgression of 3D printers from expensive industrial tools to gadgets found in high street stores. It’s either the price, the size, or both that has prevented the natty devices finding their place in most homes. That could change with the Micro.
The Micro is a 3D printer that is claiming to be “truly consumer” – in other words, it’s planning to invade everyone’s homes to find a place beside your home computer.
It certainly looks as though it has the looks, as well as that all important price point.
The Micro is certainly easy on the eyes and the designers hace fitted the plastic filament spools inside The Micro itself, as opposed to them being attached on the outside within reach of kids, pets and heavy-handed friends and relatives.
There should even be room on your desk for this 3D printer as it measures a mere 7.3 in³ (185 mm³) and only weighs 1kg.
The Micro is easily portable and should be good to go within minutes of getting the little blighter out of its box.
On the actual 3D printing side of things The Micro features a motion chip for automatic levelling and calibration, along with self-lubricating carbon fibre rods and a ceramic heater for rapidly heating up.
It also claims to be the quietest 3D printer ever made with the lowest power consumption to boot, and it supports replaceable nozzles for tinkerers who want to take things further.
The greatest specs in the world mean nothing without the software to back it up, and The Micro creator M3D LLC has designed the 3D printing software to be as easy to use as possible.
It supports touch screen controls and has a simple interface, while an in-built search function lets you scour the web for objects which you can then watch come to life in front of your very eyes.
Advanced users have the option to enable expert settings which serve up more options for tweaking models and it’s compatible with Windows, Mac or Linux-based systems.
All that for a pre-order price of just US$300 with the units being delivered in August when the Kickstarter campaign ends. At the moment the $50,000 goal has been smashed with the current total showing as $338,824 with 29 days still to go.
