Sask. man earns $360K with 3D printer Kickstarter campaign

A Saskatchewan-based entrepreneur is quickly becoming a Kickstarter celebrity with his pitch to build a $100 3D printer.

On Friday, Rylan Grayston, 28, of Yorkton, Sask., posted his plea for $50,000 to help manufacture his so-called Peachy Printer, which would be not only inexpensive but easy to use. It would also be designed to work as a 3D scanner.

Grayston said the money would help improve the printer’s prototype, enhance its software, and would facilitate a bigger production run to get the price down to the $100 mark.

Read more: How does 3D printing work?

His pitch clearly connected with the crowdfunding community at Kickstarter.

He reached his $50,000 goal in a little over a day and has since signed on more than 2,700 backers who have pledged more than $360,000 in funding.

And he still has three and a half weeks to recruit more supporters.

Read more: Canada-based Kickstarter projects go live

Grayston said he was pushed to build his own 3D printer because he couldn’t afford the $3,500 price tag for the model he wanted. He then set out to make it as cheap as possible.

“I had read in some forums somebody had said, ‘When the technology gets cheaper one day it’ll be only $100,’ and a whole bunch of people then argued that would never happen,” he said.

“It took me an entire year of building printers and throwing them in the garbage when I realized there was a better way to do it. I’ve thrown away a lot of printers.”

Grayston admits his printer isn’t a finished product yet and needs some work before it’s ready to ship out to 3D printing enthusiasts. But he’s confident the Peachy Printer will get there and can even outperform other 3D printers that sell for thousands of dollars.

“There’s still a bit of trial and error in getting this printer to work but I have 100 per cent confidence that it will work flawlessly, I know exactly what needs to be done,” he said.

“I need the funding to pay engineers that know exactly what they’re doing and can get this thing down to a science.”

Grayston is guessing the project could raise more than $3 million based on the current rate of pledges and is trying to reassure supporters that he can handle the unexpected influx of orders.

“I think the larger this thing goes the more I’ll be able to delegate tasks to the proper people who are experts,” he said.

“It would basically put the project in a much better situation.”