Ask HN: Why are there no open source 2d printer?

Very cheap in volume, but requires volume.Open source has not volume in the millions, like big companies have, and those companies are not going to sell you the nozzles so you commoditize their professional field like linux did.5 years or so ago I made a 2d plotter with friends at my 3d printers community with the reverse engineering knowledge that we had about a specific cartridge with nozzles on it.Printing with ink was easy, very easy. Very cheap in volume, but requires volume.Open source has not volume in the millions, like big companies have, and those companies are not going to sell you the nozzles so you commoditize their professional field like linux did.Printing with ink was easy, very easy. Very cheap in volume, but requires volume.Open source has not volume in the millions, like big companies have, and those companies are not going to sell you the nozzles so you commoditize their professional field like linux did.You need to manufacture nozzles, and that requires lots of money. Mind you, I didn’t have one at home- we had a couple at work for prototyping.The slicing software was atrocious, the ability to fix it was hampered by what parts they sold, and the replacement parts were generally very expensive.My $250 printer was better in every objective measure out of the box than the MakerBot was after years of practice and tuning.This year my friend’s 2X died and a replacement motherboard was going to be almost as much as the cost of my printer new so he just gave it to me and bought a new printer.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.1) It was open source based2) Replacement parts are inexpensiveI originally started with a Makerbot 2X which was closed source and $2500 (8+ years ago). Mind you, I didn’t have one at home- we had a couple at work for prototyping.The slicing software was atrocious, the ability to fix it was hampered by what parts they sold, and the replacement parts were generally very expensive.My $250 printer was better in every objective measure out of the box than the MakerBot was after years of practice and tuning.This year my friend’s 2X died and a replacement motherboard was going to be almost as much as the cost of my printer new so he just gave it to me and bought a new printer.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.2) Replacement parts are inexpensiveI originally started with a Makerbot 2X which was closed source and $2500 (8+ years ago). Mind you, I didn’t have one at home- we had a couple at work for prototyping.The slicing software was atrocious, the ability to fix it was hampered by what parts they sold, and the replacement parts were generally very expensive.My $250 printer was better in every objective measure out of the box than the MakerBot was after years of practice and tuning.This year my friend’s 2X died and a replacement motherboard was going to be almost as much as the cost of my printer new so he just gave it to me and bought a new printer.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.I originally started with a Makerbot 2X which was closed source and $2500 (8+ years ago). Mind you, I didn’t have one at home- we had a couple at work for prototyping.The slicing software was atrocious, the ability to fix it was hampered by what parts they sold, and the replacement parts were generally very expensive.My $250 printer was better in every objective measure out of the box than the MakerBot was after years of practice and tuning.This year my friend’s 2X died and a replacement motherboard was going to be almost as much as the cost of my printer new so he just gave it to me and bought a new printer.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.The slicing software was atrocious, the ability to fix it was hampered by what parts they sold, and the replacement parts were generally very expensive.My $250 printer was better in every objective measure out of the box than the MakerBot was after years of practice and tuning.This year my friend’s 2X died and a replacement motherboard was going to be almost as much as the cost of my printer new so he just gave it to me and bought a new printer.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.My $250 printer was better in every objective measure out of the box than the MakerBot was after years of practice and tuning.This year my friend’s 2X died and a replacement motherboard was going to be almost as much as the cost of my printer new so he just gave it to me and bought a new printer.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.This year my friend’s 2X died and a replacement motherboard was going to be almost as much as the cost of my printer new so he just gave it to me and bought a new printer.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.With my newfound confidence from my “cheap” printer, I gutted the 2X and installed an open source motherboard and completely rewired it.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.It all started with a printer good enough to be liked by the community and open enough to be modifiable.