https://twitter.com/dremel/status/512244935157112833/photo/1
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Dreml is more known for subtractive machinery.
So now they want to be additve 
Looks like they lock you into their PLA filament. (Or at least that is what is suggested on their site.) I am sure people will hack around that in no time.
Why do you say that? Looks like it uses standard 1.75mm filament.
@ ianlee74 - Here is where I saw it: http://3dprinter.dremel.com/3d-printer-specs
“ONLY builds Dremel PLA filaments”
In reality I don’t see how they could lock someone into only their filaments.
The price is ridiculous. Also only dremel material. Really? There are better alternatives.
It will be interesting to see how well they sell. To my knowledge they are the first ones to try selling 3D printing at the retail level. (Home Depot is not Walmart but its still accessible to non-techies.) I have seen MakerBots at Microsoft stores but that is still a specialty store.
I might not buy one but I applaud Dremel for taking 3d printing to the masses. I wish them luck.
The one sold in Staples uses cartridges with a chip in them. You can hack to refill, but for the most part, people aren’t going to do that.
Sure, it’s a Gillette style money grab, but it also cuts way down on tech support. 3d printers are still very finicky/brittle devices that typically require a lot of tweaking. Cheap filament can be irregular in diameter, can have voids, etc. That causes jams that most hackers are used to dealing with. Using branded filament also prevents the average Jane/Joe from sticking a sppol of ABS into a PLA printer.
When a company like Dremel gets into it, they need something that cuts down on problems, even if only a bit.
Or they could be just giving run of the mill filament and charging a bunch for it. 
Pete
Tied to their filament is a bit like buying a printer these days. The printer is dirt cheap but the cartridges cost an arm and a leg and not all are available with compatibles. 
This is what Dremel should have built
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2003668803/5axismaker-first-ever-affordable-5axis-multi-fabri/
Here in EU the Mediaworld/Saturn big retail stores had on sell the Hamlet 3d printer since 1 year ago:
But they sold few units with a lot of problems, mostly due to unprepared sellers in the stores. Now I think that they sell just PLA rolls, no more printers.
Anyway not yet big market for masses …it needs a little more time. For sure Dremel is a sounding brand so things may change rapidly.
I really want to like that, but holy cow is it overpriced ($7200 us) for what you get. The real trick will be getting 5 axis CAM at a reasonable price. They waffle a bit on that pointing to some in-development OSS stuff. Commercial 5 axis stuff like RhinoCAM/VisualMill runs $5000 for the software alone.
But when you build using a bunch of 80/20, you’re only going to be so accurate. Aluminum extrusions flex and expand more with temperature changes than solid steel does. It makes for a great platform for routers and CNC where you don’t need to be super accurate, but for 7 large + CAM software, my expectations would be higher.
At least they use good linear bearings instead of something cheap.
In any case, I don’t think $7.2k is really within the maker community budget they say they’re targeting. They’re also not offering the head separately, which again seems a bit non-maker-ish.
But they have inspired me to consider doing something like this myself
Pete
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@ pete
I agree the price is somewhat crazy. But I like the idea.
You can actually build most things on a cheap 3axis machine, but as far as I have seen that involves quite a bit of forward planning the order of the cuts and fixture registration so you can keep the work piece firmly held in the right place all the time. This makes it’s too difficult for the average Joe, who just wants to ‘print’ his model.
I would think the advantage of the 5 axis is that there is less human input required in the process and more can be done automatically by the computer. This could potentially make it a bit more like 3d printing.
I still think dremmel should have stuck to there rotary tool strengths and released even a simple 3axis cnc instead.
Pete, I look forward to seeing what you come up with.