World’s largest 3D printer sells on Gumtree for $750

Dubbed the world’s largest commercial 3D printer when it was shown at a Melbourne expo in 2014, the Mammoth 3D printer created by Jason Simpson once worth $80,000 has been sold to an unknown buyer on Gumtree for a meagre $750. 

The printer was left abandoned in a factory a year ago, and has now been sold off by the factory’s landlord who took legal possession of the printer after Simpson’s failed business venture 3D Group went into voluntary administration.     

Simpson says the business stopped paying rent for the premises and a short time later the locks were changed. The first 3D printer created by Simpson called the Sabertooth was also sold off for $750.  

Speaking to Australian Printer about the loss of his creations, Simpson says, “I feel very sorry for the shareholders. I did not own the printers, I was merely a shareholder in the company. The shareholders not knowing the true situation of the company is very sad.”

Simpson says the landlord sold both printers to cover unpaid rent, with his former business partners running the company at the time. He says, “They abandoned that printer and now someone else owns it. All the company’s secrets were in that factory. 

“The company really has nothing now, they have no legal possession of the design of the printers because someone else legally owns them.”

Simpson says the company’s woes began in August 2014 when a 3D Group business deal went sour. 

Simpson alleges on Christmas Eve 2014 he was pressured by his business partner John Conidi, who is the managing director of ASX listed company Capitol Health, to step down as the company’s director and take $200,000, which Simpson refused. 

Two weeks later Conidi registered a new company called 333D Pty Ltd. Simpson alleges all shareholders from 3D Group were transferred over to 333D, except for himself.

Conidi has refused to provide comment to Australian Printer on the story. 

ASIC has launched an investigation on the company which is still pending. In the meantime, Simpson says he is taking his own action.  

He says, “I have been assured by my local federal member that something will be done about it because the government sees it as serious. I am also working on a civil lawsuit against the company’s directors and administrator.”

The sale comes in the same week that the first Massivit 1800 3D printer has been ordered, with Sydney’s Composite Images the first printer to invest, after seeing it in action at drupa.

Composite CEO Bruce Scott says the company was looking to push the boundaries on what it could offer the display market. “There is nothing else like it,” he says. “We were looking for something to differentiate us from regular wide format roll and flatbed production, and the Massivit 1800 fitted that bill perfectly, so I went shopping.”

The Massivit 1800 will be installed at Composite’s site in Artarmon by early September to complement its gamut of roll, flatbed, cutting and finishing machinery.   

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