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3D Printing On Demand
Iddo Genuth writes "The Netherlands based company Shapeways is beta testing a new service allowing people to print three-dimensional models. Customers can upload designs or use a creation tool hosted at the Shapeways website, then order a printed model of their designs for less than $3 per square centimeter. The printed items are shipped to the customer in ten days or less, bringing 3D printing to consumers and not just companies large enough to afford their own printers."
Shouldn't that be cubic centimetres? Y'know... The third dimension.
Deleted
So will they mind if some of the 'prototypes' have an eerie resemblance to 40k minitures?
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/01/1344232
Two words: weird science.
Right now this process is quite expensive, so this isn't going to be a problem, but I can imagine this getting cheaper.
Some people are going to be using this to make 3D copies of cheap plastic items they own. Another poster mentioned Warhammer miniatures, and I could imagine lots of other small but expensive items being copied.
Once someone with money takes notice of this, I guarantee a legal battle tying to make it illegal.
The article says that "the cheapest three dimensional printers cost $20,000", so I might as well mention the hacker's alternative:
http://blog.reprap.org/
http://www.reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
Ask me about repetitive DNA
This isn't even vaguely news. There's been 3d printing services like this for years. Just google for them...
But it's a duplicate add from a few months back for the same company pimping their crappy service. Why do I say crappy? I've done a few prints (30+, actually) on the Objet Eden, the same manufacturer this SERVICE BUREAU is using. My bureau uses a high end machine set to high resolution. These guys use the low end machine set to high speed. And they've decided to write some proprietary translator to take my perfectly functional files and mangle them so they can't be used (and these guys have major self-induced scaling issues). In short, they're a bureau, nothing more.
There is really nothing new about this kind of service... Materialise is offering this service for already 10 years... http://www.materialise.com/materialise/view/en/91955-Online+service.html
At least for the plastic ones, since I estimate (by tossing a few Orks into a half-full measuring cup) that it would be about 35 bucks to make 10 Boyz, which you can get in a 10-pack for 22.50 from GW. That's not to mention that I'm sure the resolution on their 3-dollar-a-ml models aren't quite as good as a plastic model from a mold.
Although it's certainly possible that I'd consider having some custom parts made this way, depending on what kind of plastic they're using.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
..someone is slapping their forehead and regretting that huge investment in a laptop factory with lasers and waterjets for cutting laptop cases out of solid blocks of aluminium.
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!
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Only the savages use "meter", I hear they genitally mutilate their male children too. It's barbaric.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
Big Blue Saw is running a this week. Design an aluminum part, and they'll cut it for you.
Your design to a real part online: Big Blue Saw
3D printing services have been around forever. I work for a huge company, and we generally use a service since it is cheaper than owning and operating your own machine. solidconcepts is a good example. Web based 3D printing services have been around for like 5-7 years. The good companies can have the part in your hand next day.
This place will be making a killing, if anyone uses it. The cost of consumables for 3D printing tends to not actually be all that bad. I routinely use a Stratasys machine that does FDM (fused deposition modeling - extruding hot plastic layer by layer), and the consumable cost is something like $5/in^3. Compare that to the quoted price of these guys: $3/cm^3. Do a units conversion (16.4 cm^3 = 1 in^3), and you'll find these guys are charging about 10x the consumable cost. This, of course, assumes that they are using some sort of FDM process. It could be adhered powders, stereolithography, polyjet, etc., in which case the consumable cost is somewhat different, but still not exhorbitant. They must be rapidly depreciating their printers and/or incurring huge software and bandwidth costs to think that $50/in^3 is a bargain price.
There are tons of places you can upload models and get them printed, certainly for less than this.
http://candyfab.org/
"The Revolution will be Caramelized."
I've seen this unit in action. 10 dpi resoution, but it smells like baking sugar cookies :)
I work for the Tennessee board of Regents and some of our higher learning schools have 3D printers (i know at least two do). They are not that expensive, and the higher end printers can even make there own replacement parts.
For those of you who have no idea how real, physical stuff is made, there's an entire industry of small "job shops" that will take your design and make a part for you. If you're anywhere near a industrial city, there's probably one in your neighborhood. Most will use machine tools, but ones with stereolithography machines aren't that rare.
If you're in Silicon Valley and want to use a stereolithography machine, check out TechShop, which has one of the better ones. It won't be busy when you visit.
Three dimensions for the price of two!
Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
When I was at Uni doing product design, this type of output from a CNC lathe costs about $100 000 per product, now it's available for cents which is amazing
"Print your own Tux figure!" :D
How bout metal? A nice service is eMachineShop, which lets you download their CAD software and design and order your own stuff in a number of alloys of metal, plus wood and plastics. But there is a setup overhead. So you can't just order one little $5 dohicky for a project you're doing -- it's not going to make financial sense unless you're going to need a bunch of the dohickys to cover the initial setup cost (or unless it's an inherently expensive part you want, like a replacement engine part for a custom engine). I suppose there's no service that would give you a reasonably priced one-off in metal?
A twist on the same idea: Fabjectory makes RL 3D models of objects and avatars from Second Life, Google Sketch Up and Nintendo Mii.
It's a much cooler system that ends up as a plaster, colored model.
They don't mention how much it costs though, so I'm thinking it's expensive.
[-- Trust the Monkey --]
Greate!
they should put one in every where.
The communities will be very happy!
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/08/01/1344232
all ur dupes are belong to me
closed minded is as closed minded does
A 3 dimentional square centimeter. Now that's kinda interesting.
A blatant copy of Bathsheba Grossman's Quintrino http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/quintrino/ - Bathsheba's math sculptures are, to me, the pinnacle of 3D printed art on this planet... who can resist the klein bottle beer bottle opener?
Wasn't this done... by that company that makes printed models of your WOW characters using ink printed onto thin layers of plaster? And wasn't that in color instead of white?
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.
Anti-American rants are insightful, now?
Well, in this case... yeah.
Bow-ties are cool.
Finally we can look forward to accurate Escher reproductions!
http://www.mcescher.com/Gallery/back-bmp/LW389.jpg