PROFORGE 250 3D Printer Boasts Two Printheads for Roughly $1,000

Makertech 3D is back with a new printer and a new Kickstarter to bring it to the masses: the PROFORGE 250. A follow-up to 2023’s PROFORGE 4—which came to market after raising $300,000—the PROFORGE 250 looks to make waves with an affordable and high-speed tool-changing print-head system. Multi-color and multi-material printing is all the rage from the hobbyist level up to the prosumer market, but price and printer footprint still scare off all but the most obsessive makers. Makertech hopes to chase off that bogeyman with the competitive pricing on this unit: at the cheapest Kickstarter tier, it is still almost $1,500 cheaper than the Prusa XL with two tool-heads, and nearly $2,500 cheaper than the company’s five-toolhead model.

Beyond the utility (some would say novelty) of the multi-toolhead system, the 250 also boasts a 250 x 250 x 250 build plate, auto-tilt leveling, and enough speed to deliver a sub-15 minute Benchy. The Kickstarter claims that the 250 can deliver multi-color prints faster and with less waste than conventional MMU setups. While I have my doubts about the advertised figures, any dent in the amount of waste produced by multi-color filament printing is a welcome addition to the market.

While this printer seems well-positioned to disrupt Prusa’s dominance of the multi-toolhead space, it feels worth noting that Makertech’s previous printer, the PROFORGE 4, hit the market with four toolheads and a price that made it competitive with the Prusa XL, but the system didn’t seem to have made that much of a splash with makers. The project was backed by 185 funders who have presumably all received and enjoyed their machines, but there is virtually no social media footprint around these machines. YouTube is devoid of videos beyond the ones posted by Makertech and the comments on the Kickstarter page seem to be a variety of complaints around shipping and missing parts. It’s possible Makertech has been stealthily dropping high-end, sleeper tool-changers onto the market with no fanfare, but available evidence seems to point to towards other conclusions. We’ve definitely seem some interesting printers launched from Kickstarter the last few years, so don’t think we’re entirely down on the platform.

If you’re interested, the PROFORGE 250 can be yours for a Kickstarter campaign pledge of $1,097, with an estimated delivery by November 2024.