Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

We just had ours fully funded as well. This is fantastic for many schools and teams across the country. This was the most surprising Christmas present our team has received this year.(Well if we get it shipped in time ;) )

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Congratulations to all the teams that got a 3d printer. Now my question is how do you use this printer? also what are some useful thing you can print

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Apparently in one 12 hour period we got Almost Home funding and then lost it.

Sadness

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

This just happened to me as well. Hopefully it goes up again quickly.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Thanks to the original poster and everyone else with the updates. I went ahead and signed up as soon as I was aware of this, in spite of what looked like the end of the Almost Home money. They did start it back up, and we were fully funded in about 10 minutes last night. Fantastic! Can't wait to put this to work.

Same here. We contacted them, and they said it may go back up. My guess is it went to another project and will come back funding pending.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

I think the difference may be how quickly you fund the remaining $100.00. I watched our project get finished and a neighboring middle school lose the "Almost Home" almost simultaneously. Have the requesting teacher closely monitor the email and have someone ready to finish it off as soon as you are notified.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Wanted to publically thank Team 330 - Beach Bots for contributing to our project. Your contribution triggered an e-mail which caused us to look at the donorschoose webpage. Only then did we discover that the "Almost Home" funding had been applied to our project. We quickly funded the remaining amount and had the process completed by about 8:10 last night.

In the first 10 days of the project donors who include the code INSPIRE with their donation can get up to $100 matched by other donors. We did test this function during our final funding push and found it to work. This suggests that even without the "Almost Home" funding teams might be able to secure the technology by raising only half of the funds.

I expect MakerBot to continue to search for funding to honor their goal. We did not have the resources to add this technology without their generous support. Check often, act quickly, and Good Luck.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Radio Shack has 1kg spools of 1.75mm PLA filament for $25 today. I wonder if it's any good.

Edit: I realized this price isn't really any better than what similar spools are available for on eBay and elsewhere. I'm still curious about the performance of these Radioshack ones though.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

It would be nice to know if they work well though. Sometimes having a local supplier is handy in build season :]

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

These printers won't go to every FIRST team this year, but the ones who do receive them will have the option of a 3D Systems Cube, a MakerBot Replicator 2, or a MakerGear. As a part of 3824, we are partnered with ORNL, so we have had the privilege to use various 3D printing machines. We have found an incredible amount of uses for this technology, and we want to share our knowledge and experience with it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

FYI, Cyber Monday is quickly approaching!

11 AM Eastern tomorrow, Amazon.com will be selling this printer (Up! Plus 2) at a discount. It is presently listed at $1612, and I've seen it as low as $1599 regularly. Others (Joe Ross, below) have noticed it at $1523.

Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

It was $1523 on 10/20. Hopefully it will be cheaper tomorrow.

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

Currently $1290!

Re: Anybody hear of this - 3D printers for every FIRST team
 

$1289 for the next two hours, or until they run out.