Finally – The MK5 Plastruder… well, almost.

(almost meaning it’s going to ship in 1-3 weeks :( Uh, hurry up!… NOW PLEASE!!!! ) OK, so they’ve announced it!!! YAY this looks very promising, in a bunch of ways! nice… stainless steel.  NO STUPID BUTT SEAMS!!! nice.  Paxtruder inspired, without any STUPID IDLER wheel!!! NICE.  … I didn't see where the thermistor would go, and I’m very curious about using a relay board with the heater.

One problem I can really see with this is – since its still using the gear motor, and if it’s using the relay board, will it be able to hold a nice constant temp, and will it be able to cool itself down? – perhaps a modification of this design will be easy to hack.

I could see using forced liquid or air, to drop the temp of the hot end, when the temperatures are shifting.  And using insulation to reduce the load required to keep it at temperature.

Whatever the issues that may have room for improvement, the MK5 is SURE to start flying off the shelf!!! GO MBI, I’m psyched.

Cost, $185 – worth it? (comparatively… HELL YEAH!)

edit: finally got the page to load (unavailable earlier… too much traffic? maybe)

http://wiki.makerbot.com/plastruder-mk5 and there’s the thermistor! COOL.

GO BUY ONE!!!

PS and for what it’s worth – their latest design is doing the single most critical smart thing possible – guiding the filament all the way through with PTFE tubing INSIDE the metal structure!!! kick ass… been working great for me in my rigged up design for a few months now as well and it sounds like they’ve been testing it for at least as long! SWEET!

BUY? ---> http://store.makerbot.com/plastruder-mk5.html