Ever since I introduced my 4×6 and 5×7 Simpleasels I’ve been getting asked about when I might have an 8×10 available. The answer, after nearly a year, is soon!
The main hangup has been having a 3D printer larger enough to produce the parts as single prints. While I am incredibly excited about the Prusa XL, the supply chain seems to have made other plans when it comes to delivering these en masse. So late last year I decided to try my hand at building a Voron. Actually two! I built a Voron 0 (which I am now using for some ABS parts, notably the 120 film canisters) and a Voron 2.4. Though I still want a Prusa XL, for the meantime, these Vorons are absolutely glorious and have finally allowed me to work on prototyping the Simpleasel.
As it turns out, my thoughts on at least the pure 3D printed design was pretty close to what it ended up being. These are in the hands of some beta testers now and, assuming their feedback is good, I expect to start selling these at least in some quantity. I have several 3D printers, but only one that can print these at the moment.
As a sort of bonus, I tested making the bases in yellow. This was sort of by accident as I had some scrape yellow filament I used for the prototypes and it made me realize perhaps I should pay some homage to the Speed-Ez’s and offer yellow bases for my easels. So that may be coming too! But the big addition I’m quite excited about is being able to offer compositional aides on the base itself. I was worried these might have issues with print-through though so far I haven’t been able to detect any in my testing. Admittedly, this idea came from one of my first customers to buy a 5×7 (and also one of the folks beta testing the 8×10), so I cannot take credit for the idea. It’s still a good one and these will be options for all the easel sizes soon!
So what about 11×14? That’s a story for another day!