Does anyone see Creality's Infinite-z Belt 3DPrintMill on Kickstarter? Really Cool Machine

[CXSW]

Just saw it on Kickstarter that Creality's Infinite-Z 3D printer which created by Naomi is currently on crowdfunding stage. The page Come with some feature explanation and several youtube review videos. Watched a few of them and the machine looks legit tho. Link is here: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...inite-z-axis-build-volume-printer-3dprintmill

Basically, the idea of infinite-Z is the printer has no limit for the model length, like the 1.2m sword and 1.5m guitar. The rolling conveyor belt is easy to make batch production. The printed model will eventually roll off the belt. Users can leave the printer unattended until it finishes printing. All the prints can be retrieved from the collection area at the end. I think I read that kinda of concept a few years ago and now somebody finally made it real lol.

Other features they mentioned are a 32-bit motherboard, a Filament runout sensor, Resume printing function, Branded 350W power supply, Core-XY structure, Triple fans to cool down, Manual leveling. Seems like most of them already got equipped on other standard Ender or CR series machines.

I have not decided to go for it yet but seems like Creality already got a bunch of supporters. 3DPrintMill(CR-30) is available for order from Nov 19th to Dec 19th on Kickstarter, delivery in March 2021. On the kick-starter page, the reg price of it was set for $999 but the early bird price is $588, and Flash Sale Price at $538. Lovely price but I think I would still look into that 45° angled hotend....Anyone think it's really better than regular angled hotend?

 

[bulb66]

So yeah I have seen it and currently have a flash sale reward (Backer #3 ). It's a cool idea for a machine that's been around a little while, Creality are actually working with others from the community who have massive amounts of experience with them. So they are doing things right here, the only annoying thing is their $5M goal before open sourcing the printer. The firmware will be as required by the license of Marlin and they actually have the main dev of Marlin working with them.

I'm not sure what you mean about the hot end, it has to be angled for it to work as infinite axis, the hot end itself is no different to a regular hot end, so replacement, upgrades etc will be no problem. The hardware is all standard stuff, in fact I'm thinking of adding an extra belt or just getting a belt and doing a DIY belt printer.

I should also say this isn't a printer for a beginner, you can't print every model that a "normal" printer can, supports work in a totally different way here.

 

[Distracted]

I saw this and managed to get in on the flash sale. I want the kickstarter to do well and reach the open source goal, but I can't see it happening. I have no doubt that it will be successful, but backer numbers seem to have stalled after day one and a quick look at Naomi Wu's twitter indicates that she and by extension Creality are having trouble getting the larger media outlets interested in the printer.

Speaking of media, what on earth were they thinking when they made that video for the campaign? The one with the 'white monkey' as the Chinese keep calling him. I genuinely couldn't believe what I was seeing; I expected to see Naomi Wu doing the main bits and voice-over, with some clips from 3d printing nerd and the rest to go into use cases and their own thoughts. Not whatever that was.

I also found having the comments section full of people complaining about the last kickstarter a little annoying, and none of the Creality responses were very helpful. I think the language barrier is really hurting them here. In fact in terms of marketing to a broader audience and the kickstarter campaign in general I think Creality have a lot to work on. But you didn't ask about any of that.

The hardware itself looks great, I've seen the various reviews and it looks like a fantastic tool for those with a need for infinite z. Or anyone that wants to print a big-ass sword really. I thought that was me, but it turned out I needed an RTX3090 more so I cancelled my pledge. I can't say I wasn't also influenced a little by the many complainers and the poor responses by creality that I mentioned above. However nothing about the hardware put me off. There are some issues with overhangs that look like they can be solved by either rotating the affected models or adding supports as you would with any other printer. So despite being aware of that peculiarity of belt printers in general, I don't see it as a short coming and it didn't affect my decision.

In truth if I hadn't just blown my budget on the GPU I think that I would have kept my pledge.