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So, can someone explain to me how this is different from a small personal CNC mill? With the obvious exception that this is plastic goo, instead of a block of alloy to start with.

Try to do something like this with a CNC mill.
The image was linked from the shapeways.com site and used only as an example (I'm not endorsing or promoting their services - just been impressed of some 3D printed models I found there).

Completely true. There's still tons of things that can be repaired these days: I've replaced the display in my Palm Treo smartphone, and the touchscreen overlay in my Nintendo DS. I've re-soldered headphone jacks (and then coated in glue to prevent it from breaking again). I've taken my PC video card apart and put a new fan and heatsinks on it.

And as for making things from scratch, that too is actually becoming easier. You design with free software and have a PCB manufactured in single quantities for $2.50 a square inch (batchpcb laen pcb). There are services that will produce plastic parts from uploaded 3D models for a fee (shapeways ponoko), or you can put together one of the many rising 3D printer kits and create your own parts out of plastic (makerbot bfb ultimaker).

You most definitely can print durable goods, commercial 3d-printing services are already offering printing glass and metal objects.
See http://www.shapeways.com/materials/ for example.

When will these 3D printers become affordable for the home user and easy to use? In other words, when will it become cheaper than printer ink?

Affordable for home users? Basically never. Even ink jet printers aren't really cost effective anymore. But that is not really an issue, as instead of owning the printer, you simply order the part you want to have printed, just as you today can order a bunch of photos instead of printing them out yourself. Shapeways and a few other companies are offering that service right now already. All you need to do is model the thing you want to have printed and send it to them, you can chose from quite a few materials while doing so.

Well if the real thrill is designing the stuff in the software rather than the printing it out in 3D and want someone else to do it, there is Shapeways. They have several types of plastic and metal to choose from as the RPT material. YMMV for how cost effective it is. I've seen some very cool custom W40K figures made for about the same cost as the stuff in the shops.

An AC mentioned eMachineShop that tends toward more old-school milling and cutting. I figure a very cool resource if you do scale model projects that need an exotic cam or bolt with tight tolerances that a plastic extruder can't give.

From personal experience, AutoCAD Inventor is really easy to use for Shapeways. Blender gave me a headache trying to keep things within size limits and to have some sort of meaningful metric discipline throughout. Sometimes just paying for the right tool is better than trying to force a free tool to do something extra.

Why use a useless cheap home 3d printer. When you can have your models manufactured on a number of different high end machines for cheap !
http://www.shapeways.com/
These guys are amazing. They can capture the finest details and manufacture in metal, plastic, glass etc...
I thoroughly recommend.

If you want to find out what's going on with people creating 3D works that are meant for 3D printing/replication, and what the implications of copyability are, check Bathsheba Grossman's work:

http://www.bathsheba.com/

Maybe we can get her to make a comment on cheap duplication. I think she's already getting some effects from service bureau-level duplication (Shapeways).

There are actually 3D printers that can do metal, with a sintering process.

http://www.shapeways.com/about/metal-3d-printing

The brickarms site isn't making their products on a fabrication device though:

from their FAQ:

http://www.brickarms.com/FAQ.aspx

`` I used a 3D parametric modeling program , which produced CAD files. A mold maker then used these files to program a Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) milling machine to cut cavities into both halves of the mold. When the cavities are ready, he uses an expensive injection molding machine to inject hot ABS plastic (the same plastic used by LEGO®) into the mold with 90 tons of pressure.''

Given that Brickforge has an FAQ which says:

``We are celebrating continuing growth which means shoppers will occasionally find products out-of-stock. To assist customers we have implemented a back-in-stock notification system which allows you to receive an e-mail message the instant an item is back in stock. You should also frequent the BrickForge forums for special stock announcements. We will not respond to correspondence inquiring when certain items are back in stock. Generally, items that are not listed as Limited Editions or retired are restocked within 45 days.''

They also seem to be molding their pieces, not producing them one at a time using a fabricator --- for an example of an on-line company which does this look at www.shapeways.com:

which has a rather limited precision in comparison to Lego bricks:

http://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=tree&goto=1339&#page_top

``The printer resolution goes to about .1mm, but the material can change it slightly. Overall, .5 should be fine, just make sure that they are not any sort of support walls or they may get broken during shipping or printing.'' .1 mm == 100 micrometers

So I believe you need to retract your claim that I am wrong.

William

(AC, so I'm not as much a karma whore)

http://diybio.org/ - open source hardware, biology, XMLizing lab protocols, the goods.
http://openwetware.org/
http://biopunk.org/
http://syntheticbiology.org/
http://partsregistry.org/
http://igem.org/ (international genetically engineered machines competition)
http://ponoko.com/
http://shapeways.com/
http://thingiverse.com/
http://instructables.com/
lifeboat foundation (AKA "fearmongers click here")

cat * > /dev/trend-spotting-machine

It's in their tutorial about materials used: http://www.shapeways.com/about/material-options

The range is from $1.87 to $2.89 per cubic centimeter.

http://www.shapeways.com/about/material-options

Pricing and material info. The most expensive material is $2.89. But since you would have to paint it you could probably get away with the $2.77 one even the $1.89 which seems to still provide plenty of detail but is more springy. They provide sample pictures of the output of each material and asides from the first one the resolution seems to be quite good.

It's also worth pointing out that you could probably save some money by hollowing out the thicker parts of your models.

http://www.shapeways.com/model/6280/limbtaker_trophy.html

This bookend (21x22x23cm) is $7800. How is that anything close to cheap?

Wireframe objects without much mass are considerably cheaper, but any statues with heft are insanely expensive.

http://www.shapeways.com/model/6277/queen.html

A chess queen... $319. Seriously!

http://www.shapeways.com/model/6280/limbtaker_trophy.html

This bookend (21x22x23cm) is $7800. How is that anything close to cheap?

Wireframe objects without much mass are considerably cheaper, but any statues with heft are insanely expensive.

http://www.shapeways.com/model/6277/queen.html

A chess queen... $319. Seriously!

This guy plans to bluid some s3x toys or b0mb device, check out!

The most interesting part of the site, accessible without logging in, is their blog.

I found the three posts about the used printers rather informative, with discussions about possible materials, level of detail,...

• Our machines part I: Stratasys FDM 400mc
• Our machines part II: Objet Eden 500
• Our machines part III: Dimension sst 768 and Dimension Elite

The most interesting part of the site, accessible without logging in, is their blog.

I found the three posts about the used printers rather informative, with discussions about possible materials, level of detail,...

• Our machines part I: Stratasys FDM 400mc
• Our machines part II: Objet Eden 500
• Our machines part III: Dimension sst 768 and Dimension Elite

The most interesting part of the site, accessible without logging in, is their blog.

I found the three posts about the used printers rather informative, with discussions about possible materials, level of detail,...

• Our machines part I: Stratasys FDM 400mc
• Our machines part II: Objet Eden 500
• Our machines part III: Dimension sst 768 and Dimension Elite

The most interesting part of the site, accessible without logging in, is their blog.

I found the three posts about the used printers rather informative, with discussions about possible materials, level of detail,...

• Our machines part I: Stratasys FDM 400mc
• Our machines part II: Objet Eden 500
• Our machines part III: Dimension sst 768 and Dimension Elite

I would have complained about a direct link (http://www.shapeways.com/ in the summary, but the site is a bit rude to looky-loos like us who just want to see what's going on. Almost all their front page links are blocked until you log in, even the "getting started" page! The "about" page is about all you can see, and it's got no real details. What is the printing resolution? What material choices? Can you print two-material designs? Come on, Shapeways, if you want to generate buzz, put out a bit more welcome mat.