Studio 3e8 has unveiled the Mesa 1, a desktop metal 3D printer that prints parts directly inside its own sintering furnace. The Somerville, Massachusetts startup plans to launch the machine on Kickstarter on December 1, 2026, with pricing starting at $3,500.
The built-in furnace is central to the design. By putting printing and sintering inside one machine, Studio 3e8 aims to remove the transfer between equipment that has been part of other desktop metal printing workflows. The company has released a reveal video and opened website sign-ups ahead of the campaign.
Two materials, sealed cartridges and a crucible
Studio 3e8 says its process uses no lasers or binders, leaves no loose metal powder for users to clear after printing, and requires no support removal. It developed the printing technology alongside the machine’s software, hardware and materials.
The workflow begins with a familiar sequence: import a 3D model, slice it and upload the file. The slicer then divides the print into two materials. Metal forms the part itself, while a scaffold material holds its shape during the process. Both materials enter the printer through fully sealed powder cartridges.
Deposition takes place directly into a crucible inside the integrated furnace. Once printing is complete, the furnace automatically sinters the part into dense metal, without an intermediate handling step.
That arrangement makes the location of the print consequential: the crucible is both where the part is built and where it undergoes sintering. The proposed workflow therefore keeps the part inside the same machine through both stages.
How Mesa 1 compares with earlier desktop metal systems
The ambition to bring metal additive manufacturing into an office predates Mesa 1 by nearly a decade. Desktop Metal detailed its Studio System in 2017, using bound metal rods to print parts that subsequently required debinding and sintering.
That $120,000 package included a printer, debinder and automated furnace, together with cloud-based software, consumables, installation and training. Its furnace was sized to fit through an office door, but the production workflow still spanned three machines.
A more recent crowdfunding example is the Kare S1 from Kare 3D, which launched on Kickstarter earlier in 2026. Designed for metal and plastic filaments, it offered an optional Kare Metal Set containing a sintering furnace and washing unit for processing metal parts after printing.
Mesa 1 takes a different equipment layout: its furnace is already inside the printer, and its feedstocks arrive as powder in sealed cartridges. The comparison puts the focus on how each system organizes the steps needed to turn a printed shape into a metal part.
From an attic workshop to the December campaign
Casey Johnson, Studio 3e8’s CEO, and co-founder and Chief Product Officer Cassie Lowell have taken the company from an attic to a garage and then to Greentown Labs in Somerville. The startup was also selected for the Launch Lab X accelerator at Harvard Innovation Labs.
Johnson described the motivation behind the machine:
“Our team saw the barriers to metal printing firsthand working on industrial 3D printing and manufacturing systems. We built the tool we always wanted.”
Casey Johnson, Co-founder and CEO
The December 1 campaign is the next scheduled step for Mesa 1. Its announced $3,500 starting price attaches to a system intended to carry a part from sealed-cartridge deposition through automated sintering, all within the same desktop machine.
