To be fair, there’s not much you could do with this $77 printer – it needs a fair bit more stuff added to it before it is fully functional, and more than a bit of assembly and skill is required to make it work. None-the-less, this is a sign of a more general trend. Good 3D printers that are easy to use (albeit mind-numbingly slow and not as reliable as 2D printers) are at least as affordable as laser printers used to be 10-15 years ago. They are increasing in quality, dropping in price, getting faster, becoming more flexible, and are getting closer to standard commodity items with each passing week. There is still a big leap in price from hobbyist machines that do fun and occasionally useful stuff (with some effort) to commercial machines that do really useful stuff (with relative ease), but the gap is closing fast. I want one.
Address of the bookmark: http://3dprint.com/67280/lewihe-play-cheapest-3d-print