Plans to Incorporate More TAZ 5 Features in KITTAZ?

Hi there,

I was just wondering if there is a plan or schedule to start including more TAZ 5 features (in particular, the new toolhead with its forced-air cooler) as included parts for the KITTAZ?

Thanks,
-Brian, hopeful future KITTAZ owner

At this time we only have a few KITTAZ left in our warehouse. The KITTAZ is based on the TAZ 4. We don’t have plans to release a TAZ 5 kit. We will however carry the same PEI bed sheet, and already have the LulzBot Hexagon toolhead available in our store.

Are you saying that you’re not going to be offering any more KITTAZs, even for the TAZ4?

PF

Correct! We have 9 left at this time.

No more kits!!! That’s…disappointing. Orias, can you comment on the reasoning for this decision?

Can’t speak 100% but some reasons I can see as a business. SKU reduction. One less item to train support on. Volumes of the kits vs sale vs holding inventory. Better control on user experience (kits can be frustrating to build/people have a bad experience and blast Lulz on the kit). Just a few reasons off the top of my head.

Two main reasons:

  1. It is much harder to support a kit than an assembled printer.

  2. One of the main reasons for doing a kit was to have a lower cost option, and now we have the Mini.

-Jeff

Jeff, thanks for the response. Here are my rebuttals, which I’m sure Lulzbot has already considered but I’d like to put them out here anyway:

  1. Yes, and part of the buyer’s contract when buying and building a kit should be the understanding that support is going to be harder to find. “You get this as a kit, your support avenue is the community.” Unless kit parts are actually broken, Lulzbot is absolved. Of course, I realize the typical customer might have a hard time understanding this…

  2. The Mini does not address the need for a low-cost option with a large build volume. The Mini’s build volume is roughly the same as my MakerBot Thing-O-Matic.

Anyway, I’m not put off of Lulzbot by all this… Just a little disappointed to have to save up longer for an assembled version (and to miss out on the kit-building experience).

I was looking forward to a future generation of the KITTAZ with some of the new features incorporated. I.e. Bed leveling, LCD, and hexagon hotend.

Would have been nice to see an option without the printed parts for a slightly reduced price for us who already own a Lulzbot machine.

Agreed … There is a need for an option for picking up spare parts like the smaller fan and additional 2 wires with crimped ends for if we chose to print the Hex Hotend assembly our self’s from the source files, as well as just the hotend it’self not just the whole toolhead.

However the nice thing about the KitTaz is almost anything made for the Taz 4/5 will almost be compatible with the KitTaz

With the Taz being open source, you can source parts yourself. But the Kittaz offered everything in a single package, and at better pricing than buying as an individual. I understand, and am not too surprised at the decision to discontinue the Kittaz, but am still sad to see it go. I’m glad I was able to get one.

Once gone, it would be nice to see a DIY Taz section in the forums for those few hearty adventurers who still want to try building a Taz from scratch.

Scott

I second that!!! :smiley: