The kits not simple enough to warrant the price they want. An extra $1200 for full assembly? Thats nutz if you ask me. Yes you get a few extras but the initial price of the machine just skyrockets. I can't imagine they are going to sell many. The printer needs to be far more simplified for selling a complete ready to use unit. The only thing they will achieve with this is more headache for there tech staff because people don't understand the mechanics behind the machine they have in front of them.
Were talking about a plywood box with some acrylic not an industrial built machine. I really think MB over shot a little with this one. They need to focus on getting back into the low end market, and making a simpler machine with good mechanical tolerances. The Mendel's took over that. Now you have the Mosaic, which in all honesty looks pretty good from the little they have shown of it. With this price your already in the UP printer territory. MB has just increased the price but aren't offering anymore then they previously were. Whether people want to see it or not this is still a hobby. The machine is at a hobby level its not refined enough to be sold ready to go out of the box.
One of the problems I see with this is that yes they will build it and tune it for you at the botcave. But because the mechanical tolerances are so inconsistent from machine to machine. By the time it ships to you half way around the country, theirs a very good chance its going to be a different machine. We all know how UPS likes to treat there packages. The machine just isn't rigid enough to stay mechanically the same. Also what about the software side of things?
People are looking at bigger build surfaces now. While the TOM is a great reliable machine (at least mine has been) I probably wouldn't purchase another, the kits popping up now are starting to overtake the TOM. Yes the TOM has the community but I don't think that's enough anymore.
