Alternatives to the Printrbot Simple - 3D Printing: Build your Own 3D Printer and Print your own 3D Objects - page 190

of Kickstarter projects where the project owners took the money and ran—this is
rare, but it does happen. Do your homework and investigate as best you can any
Kickstarter project before you toss in your financial support.
When dealing with Kickstarter, your best bet is to ask questions, weigh the finan-
cial risks, and consider the source. I backed the original Printrbot, and I have to
tell you that agreeing to pay $500 to someone I'd never met for a product that I'd
never seen in person was a big leap of faith. But Brook answered backer questions,
provided videos of working printers, and presented himself as someone that back-
ers could trust.
Note
I finally did meet Brook in person in April at Maker Faire 2012 in San
Mateo, California. He was there to demonstrate his latest printer, the
Printrbot Jr and to deliver products to backers (who had backed him in
December 2011).
Speaking of Kickstarter and 3D printers, there's another huge 3D printer success
story that you should know about—the Form 1. The Form 1 was a 3D printer
project looking to raise $100,000 that ultimately raised almost $3 milli-
on—$2,945,885 to be exact. The Form 1 is a type of stereolithography printer;
instead of melting and extruding plastic, it uses a laser to heat up a special chem-
ical that hardens. It builds up objects in layers just like the Simple, but it's a much
more complex (and expensive) type of 3D printer. Still, more than 2,000 backers
chose to chip in the funding necessary to make the Form 1 shown in Figure 10.6 a
reality.