Owning a MakerBot, I’m not even sure why someone would need something to print pieces much larger than the MakerBot build area. Printing something as large as just the maximum build volume of a MakerBot would take ages.
- Darwin’s build area is about 23cm x 23cm x 10cm: 5290 cubic centimeters
- Mendel’s build area is about20cm x 20cm x 14cm: 5600 cubic centimeters
- Cupcake CNC’s build area is 10cm x 10cm 13cm: 1300 cubic centimeters
- Mendel Mini’s is supposedly approximately 11cm x 14cm x 10cm: 1540 cubic centimeters
While the official longest print logged on the Makerbot website is Zach’s Disney head, clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, I’ve read about people printing for up to 8 continuous hours. If the build volume for a Mendel is 4.3 times that of a Makerbot, it would take more than 34 hours to fill that build area.
When you’re printing a door hook in 15 minutes, it doesn’t pay to drive to the hardware store. When it takes 34 hours to print a big plastic brick, you’re better off driving to the gas station, filling up your tank, driving to McDonald’s, filling out an application, working an hour, quitting and demanding your paycheck, driving to the hardware store, buying a single brick, and then driving back home. I figure that kind of silliness would only take half a day or so. Heck, with 34 hours, you could do this at least six times over.