Posted on 02/21/2013 8:45:17 PM PST by JerseyanExile
This miniature, high-precision assembly started with a CAD model and not much more. It cost about $10 to make it at home – with no 3D printer required.
In the past couple of years, the concept of low-cost 3D printing has captured the hearts and minds of millions of geeks. The allure of an upcoming manufacturing revolution has seeped into the mainstream, too: take The Economist, which ran about two dozen articles about this technology within the last year alone. Something must be in the air!
The charm of 3D printing is easy to understand, especially as it coincides with the renaissance of the DIY movement on the Internet. But all this positive buzz also has an interesting downside: it makes it easy to overlook that the most significant barriers to home manufacturing run very deep, and probably won’t be affected just by the arrival of a new generation of tools.
After all, affordable and hobbyist-friendly manufacturing tools that convert polygons into physical objects have been available for more than a decade. Take desktop CNC mills, for example: home- or office-friendly and costing about as much as a 3D printer, they have revolutionized the lives of many jewelers and dentists; they have shaken up quite a few other niche industries, too. But spare for a small community of hobbyists, these self-contained and tidy mills have not brought on-demand manufacturing into our garages or living rooms.
CNC mills and 3D printers are different in many ways, but they also have a lot in common; and looking at the parallels, it’s reasonable to suspect that the prospects of home manufacturing may have relatively little to do with the choice of a particular tool.
(Excerpt) Read more at blog.makezine.com ...
Would there be enough available printing media to economical reproduce, say, a first-lady’s caboose? Stunt men could use it to fall on out of buildings
Would there be enough available printing media to economically reproduce, say, a first-lady’s caboose? Stunt men could use it to fall on out of buildings
Those fancy cakes in the grocery store? 3-D printer for the decoration, in a lot of cases.
/johnny
Even at 67, the new project and new technology fascinates. I will be availing of it for a second invention as soon as I have the final protos in developers' hands. As to printing at home? ... The Objet Connex is well over $100,000, and that is perhaps state of the art yet not accessible for typical middle class homes.
3-D Printer ping!
BTW, 3D printing with biological materials is already a reality. Can you imagine? LOL
Dude, I'm waiting on it. I'm missing a kidney and a spleen. Growing my own from my adult stem cells would be something I would seriously consider paying cash money for.
I never thought I'd miss my spleen. We never talked. We were close, but not close... I would like it back. Or replaced. ;)
/johnny
Because from a CAD user's perspective (that would be me) that's how they work.
A CNC machine takes a billet of material and cuts away anything that doesn't look like my part. What's left is my part.
A 3D printer hooks up to my computer the same way a 2D printer does, and lays down material on an otherwise blank space until my part is built. It looks like a printer, and acts like a printer, and associates with printers.
Quack.
They aren't printers. But they will need a short name. Printers works for a word place holder.
Welcome to FR, BTW. I don't think I've ever interacted with you before.
/johnny
“they have revolutionized the lives of many jewelers and dentists”
I got a Cerac restoration, instead of a crown, for a molar that cracked off. The process was amazing and only took an hour.
I'm not in a rush, though. I'll know what you are talking about if you talk about a mashed potato printer. Or a concrete printer (those are pretty cool).
Fabber, or something like that. Ruin a verb (fabricate) to make a noun... It's the way, in English.
/johnny
I read one article on it where they had a hangar sized one in development for plane fuselages. But I believe the answer to your question is still no.
Maybe, but I can't think of one.
Nor am I inclined to spend much time on it. I'm too busy drawing (am I realy "drawing"?) stuff in SolidWorks and ... "printing" ... it.
Sometimes we call it "The Magic Plastic Machine".
Maybe, but I can't think of one.
Nor am I inclined to spend much time on it. I'm too busy drawing (am I realy "drawing"?) stuff in SolidWorks and ... "printing" ... it.
Sometimes we call it "The Magic Plastic Machine".
That one is neat ... near as I can tell, it’s a welding machine ... just lays down layers of weld. Molten metal. Not terribly accurate, still some machining to do after the part is built. Printed. Whatever. It’s supposed to be faster than starting off with a forging or casting.
I ordered a 3D Printer last Monday.
I’m already good at drawing in 3D, it only took me 12 minutes to draw up my first part, a potato chip clamp. But I have to wait 6 weeks for delivery.
I agree with this article, but there is one angle that is important that they don’t mention. Cheap 3d printers, and cheap milling machines, bring manufacturing to a home level that previously was not available. Which means it is ok for kids to learn on these tools. Even encountering the limitations of the materials and machines helps kids learn how to make things better. By the time they are out of school, many of them will be as highly skilled as someone who has been in the industry many years.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.