Did you know that Stanley Black & Decker came out with a 3D printer? Me neither.
It’s made by Sindoh, and is likely a version of their DP200 printer ($1299 via Amazon).
Apparently this Stanley-branded 3D printer has been on the market for over a year now, before finally coming to my attention. How’d it come to my attention? I was searching to see if there were any updates to Dremel’s line of 3D printers, and the Stanley came up under a Google suggestion.
A note on Stanley’s website informs customers that:
As of June 30, 2018, the STANLEY branded filament will no longer be available for purchase. Sindoh branded filament will now be compatible with your STANLEY Model 1 3D Printer through a firmware update.
Oh, so there were Stanley-branded filament cartridges as well, at least until recently.
Reading up on the Stanley Model 1 3D printer, SKU ST3DP1, it looks to have decent features, and a reasonable design philosophy.
Engineered with user-friendliness in mind, the MODEL 1 3D Printer automatically loads and unloads the printing filament so you don’t have to. Once you insert STANLEY’s proprietary 3D printer cartridge into the MODEL 1 3D Printer, the device will take over and do the rest.
It offers assisted bed leveling, a 7.9″ x 7.9″ x 7.3″ build volume, heated print bed, 0.4mm nozzle diameter, 0.05-0.4mm layer thickness, and it works with 1.75mm filaments. There’s a web monitoring feature, through which you can watch the 3D printing process remotely, and a 5″ touch-screen control panel.
It can work with PLA or ABS filament materials.
Connectivity options include ethernet, Wi-Fi, USB, and they say it can also work straight off of a flash drive. The software is available for both Windows and Mac.
I’m not familiar with Sindoh, but their printers have decent reviews at Amazon, and you can also buy the machines, filament cartridges, and replacement parts there.
Buy Now(via Amazon)
See Also(Sindoh via Amazon)
Price: $1299
First Thoughts
I’m thinking back a few years, when Craftsman asked me to hop on a call to talk about I don’t even remember what, and it turned out that they put me on with an MBA student intern who was investigating the potential for Craftsman/Sears 3D printing in-store demos. It was extremely frustrating, because the guy was completely deaf to just about anything I was saying. 3D PRINTERS!!!! was all they could fixate on.
Here, this seemed like a great idea, at least on paper. Partner with an established 3D printer brand, and…
And what?
That first part seems good. But where’s the second part?
Buy a Dremel 3D printer, and what do you get? According to Dremel, fast and competent customer service. Their goal was to provide a level of service that teachers, instructors, librarians, and other educators would find desirable or even necessary.
Why should someone buy this tool?
Looking at the product specs and features description, I cannot answer this. But, to be fair, at least it’s selling at the same price as the Sindoh. And as of June 2018, it works with Sindoh filament cartridges. Meaning, at least there’s no downside or any obvious reason why one should not buy it.
Stanley put their name on a 3D printer more than a year ago, and I only first learned about it now, and by accident. I wish I had more insight into the audience they were going after.
I’d say that the plan was well intended, but perhaps less than optimally executed.
