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MakerBot Industries Brings Manufacturing Back To Brooklyn

Posted by samzenpus on from the back-in-the-saddle dept.

pacopico writes "A few decades ago, Brooklyn was filled with manufacturing companies. Today? Er, not so much. It's mostly restaurants and condos. That is, except for MakerBot Industries, which is assembling 3D printers for consumers by hand at a real, live factory. Businessweek profiled the MakerBot founder Bre Pettis and his goal of revitalizing manufacturing in New York, describing him as a weird 'throwback who lives in the future.'"

87 comments

  1. Self replicating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Are they using the 3D printers to make 3D printers?
    Or are they using other stuff?

    1. Re:Self replicating by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 3, Informative

      Lots of people are already doing this at least in part RepRap is capable of replicating about 50% of its own parts

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    2. Re:Self replicating by lxs · · Score: 1

      3D printers tend to do badly at mass production, altough I could see a rig with a grid of 5x5 heads turning out 25 copies of a part at a time. (I know, everything would be heavier and would have to move slower, but a man can dream)

    3. Re:Self replicating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, AM systems (like 3D printers) may be used in mass manufacturing, but Additive Manufacturing currently isn't about mass production; it's about custom, fast turnaround, limited production. I too would like to see it used more for mass production since it's more efficient and can make objects that otherwise would be either time consuming (and therefore expensive) or impossible for conventional techniques to make.
      There's a big misconception being pushed that Additive Manufacturing will put China out of business. It won't, since there's always going to be "commodity" products, but it will bring more manufacturing back to the US and Europe.

    4. Re:Self replicating by mhajicek · · Score: 1

      ... but it will bring more manufacturing back to the US and Europe.

      I think the main contributing factor there is shipping. It will be cheaper to make something locally than to have it shipped from China.

      Where machining will hold on longest will be in the making of precision metal parts. There are some 3D printing techniques that can do metal, such as laser sintering, or print-then-sinter with organic binders and metal powder, but they're still slow, expensive, and of limited precision. There has also been progress with micro laser ablation machining, which is great for very small precision parts, but it's still too slow and expensive for larger parts.

    5. Re:Self replicating by Vulch · · Score: 1

      You'd be surprised. In the UK it generally costs more to get a container from the docks to a distribution centre on a truck than it does to ship the container from China to the UK, and you've still got to source raw materials for local manufacture.

    6. Re:Self replicating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      "3D printing techniques that can do metal, such as laser sintering"

      Can we please stop lending credence to "3d printing" by associating it with legitimate, decades-old manufacturing processes? If it's called laser sintering, CALL IT LASER SINTERING. IT'S NOT 3D PRINTING.

    7. Re:Self replicating by gl4ss · · Score: 1

      You'd be surprised. In the UK it generally costs more to get a container from the docks to a distribution centre on a truck than it does to ship the container from China to the UK, and you've still got to source raw materials for local manufacture.

      it's the time factor which matters for the factories that need those machined parts to produce some other product, they can't wait for the container to make the trip.

      but it's really ridiculous when postage from china to finland for a pack of batteries costs less than sending a postcard 30 miles inside finland - really messed up.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    8. Re:Self replicating by Yvan256 · · Score: 2

      Laser 3D sintering printing. Gotcha.

    9. Re:Self replicating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yes, AM systems (like 3D printers) may be used in mass manufacturing, but Additive Manufacturing currently isn't about mass production; it's about custom, fast turnaround, limited production. I too would like to see it used more for mass production since it's more efficient and can make objects that otherwise would be either time consuming (and therefore expensive) or impossible for conventional techniques to make.

      More efficient than what? You realize the processes most directly comparable in capabilities are probably investment casting, followed by die casting and plastic injection molding -- all of which are pretty damn efficient, but moderately high capital, and thus not used in hobbyist shops. So everything a hobbyist does gets whittled out with an endmill, which yes, is pretty inefficient, and the hobbyist thinks the world of manufacturing consists of machining things from billet. I'm a machinist by trade, and I'm here to tell you, machining is a very small part of manufacturing.

      I'll be the first to admit 3D printing can produce some useful shapes unmatchable by other processes (e.g. lightweight internal bracing in a closed shell), but even there, it's unclear how uniquely beneficial this is vs. other technologies like foamed metal composites. I like 3D printing, and it sure does have some niches of applicability, but I see a lot of hype that doesn't seem deserved at this point, and seems to be derived by ignoring vast sectors of manufacturing and treating the ones that 3D manufacturing has the biggest benefit over as representative. I think it's done more out of ignorance than malice, but it's annoying as hell.

    10. Re:Self replicating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MOD WAY UP PLEASE. But this being Slashdot, anything reasonable will be ignored in favor of breathless fanboyism and naive over-enthusiasm.

    11. Re:Self replicating by Charcharodon · · Score: 1
      No it will still be very cheap to ship from China. What these devices give you is the ability to have 1 off custom work done on site within a day.

      Until these things can take raw material, grind it up, and make a new item I highly doubt mass manufacturing in labor cheap places like China will ever go away.

    12. Re:Self replicating by budgenator · · Score: 1

      They are already using wax based 3D printers for partial denture metal frameworks as cutting edge production and laser sintered metal powder on the bleeding edge. Those frameworks have to be accurate to a few 10,000ths of an inch. Crowns are being milled from semi-sintered zirconia to an accuracy of 40 microns and that's after the zirconia shrinks 25% during final sintering.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    13. Re:Self replicating by budgenator · · Score: 1

      Oh come on lost investment cast has been done for over 4,000 years, nothing is used that a junk-yard wars hardware hacker can't cobble together for next to nothing; you can actually buy everything to cast your own jewelry for a little over a $1,000.00 new, and a lot less if your ebay-fu is up to par.

      --
      Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
    14. Re:Self replicating by mhajicek · · Score: 1

      Those frameworks have to be accurate to a few 10,000ths of an inch

      Citation needed. I'm a CNC programmer and machinist, and I deal with 10,000ths of an inch daily. There is no way that a wax casting can hold anything near that close. Also as near as I can figure there would be no need for a dental appliance to hold that kind of tolerance.

    15. Re:Self replicating by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I need an agile methodology. Are 3D printers agile?

      MongoDB is webscale. I want to build a cloud to uplink my MongoDB on. Can I do this using an agile methodology with a 3d printer?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Oh great thats just what we need by voss · · Score: 2

    robots with brooklyn accents. ;-)

    1. Re:Oh great thats just what we need by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      I believe they stole the idea from Futurama :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  3. manufacturing in brooklyn by self+assembled+struc · · Score: 5, Informative

    "condos and restaurants...Except for MakerBot Industries"

    Nope...you know, aside from three operating breweries, and hundreds of machine shops that dot my neighborhood. Or the medical instruments manufacturers, or the concrete and cement factories, or the furniture companies...

    Just because it's not electronics, doesn't mean there's no manufacturing. A simple google search shows at least hundreds of companies.

    PS - you must not go outside the gentrified parts of Brooklyn because the majority of the borough is still non-condo and sparsely restauranted.

    1. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep! We are on the verge of a new industrial revolution that is going to bring back work and properity to the masses.

      Oh wait! Unfortunately megacorp will have bought all the intellectual property and the politicians are working overtime to help them on that. And even if they haven't they will sue your arse into non-existence if you pose a threat. Oh well, looks like we'll just have to live with a future full of oligarchies afterall.

    2. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by Defenestrar · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Rule 34 by Stross (yes, it's in reference to that Rule 34) has some interesting side content about the speculative future of a maker community. Printers and feedstock are relatively common, but most printers have embedded DRM related to IP purchase of the models.

      With the current legal/IP trend it's a reasonable speculation as many companies would (with some justification) fear a consumer who could print physical devices as easily as they illegally download an MP3. So, from that perspective, clearly anyone with a DRM free printer has got to be some sort of criminal (yeah, yeah, there's that whole infringer/criminal thing, whatever).

    3. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by slim · · Score: 1

      "condos and restaurants...Except for MakerBot Industries"

      Nope...you know, aside from three operating breweries, and hundreds of machine shops that dot my neighborhood. Or the medical instruments manufacturers, or the concrete and cement factories, or the furniture companies...

      Well exactly. Brooklyn has a population of 2.5 million. The idea of it having no industry except restaurants is patently ridiculous. The idea of it being homogeneous in character is ridiculous. Brooklyn is much bigger than Manahattan, and even people with very limited knowledge of New York have an idea of the different characters of different parts of Manhattan (from film, literature etc.)

    4. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by Zeromous · · Score: 1

      I'm as progressive as anyone but at what point do we accept the cyclical nature of such things?

      We accept the broad centralization/decentralization of other resources as a natural contraction/expansion cycle, we even at some point accept this on a macro economic level. I think your comment misses this point in reflection of the article. It's ok to loathe these cycles as they are not always convenient, but there have always been oligarchies and their always will be, it's a natural cycle of capitalism.

      --
      ---Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right B A START
    5. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by leftover · · Score: 1

      but most printers have embedded DRM related to IP purchase of the models.

      Not if you build your own 3D printer. You can download the complete software toolchain, all open source, free and actively supported by enthusiasts. Fabbers are actually easier to design and build than an equivalent-size CNC milling machine since the forces involved are much smaller. Not really much different from an ink-jet printer, actually.

      Filament feedstock is still ridiculously expensive but only because it is not manufactured in commercial quantities. Current prices for 3mm filament in 1kg spools are 100X the bulk material cost. Fabbing directly from raw pellets is problematic for a number of reasons. Converters are already tooled up to handle those problems in truly amazing volume. When the market for filament becomes large enough for them to engage, prices will drop dramatically.

      clearly anyone with a DRM free printer has got to be some sort of criminal

      IANAL so this is likely to be horribly oversimplified: you can build a copy of any patented device for your own personal use, not for sale. I have no idea what the equivalent rules for copyright might be and would appreciate any correction or clarification from an actual IP attorney.

      --
      Bent, folded, spindled, and mutilated.
    6. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess the author never took a stroll through the Gowanus neighborhood. Lots of light manufacturers mixed in with artists' studios, historical homes, and even a great Capoeira school.

    7. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you are both right
      There is still a lot of mfr left in Brooklyn, but compared to what was, not so much.
      Also, I question "hundreds" of machine shops in a neighborhood
      Hundreds ???
      In the 1980s, I was a grad student at AECOM in teh Bronx. One sunday morning, I took my bike out, and wound up in the neighborhood near Long Island Sound, south of hte Bruckner.
      There were chickens running around (!!)

    8. Re:manufacturing in brooklyn by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      IANAL so this is likely to be horribly oversimplified: you can build a copy of any patented device for your own personal use, not for sale.

      Not oversimplified. Just plain wrong.

      35 U.S.C. 271. Infringement of patent
              (a) Except as otherwise provided in this title, whoever without
      authority makes, uses, offers to sell, or sells any patented invention, within
      the United States or imports into the United States any patented invention
      during the term of the patent therefor, infringes the patent.

      Now whether they'd be able to catch you, or whether it'd be worth trying to enforce it are different questions. But the "personal use exemption" is a myth.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Breaking News by Rie+Beam · · Score: 1

    American industry isn't really as comatose as this article seems to suggest; the unfortunate reality is that all of the "sexy" manufacturing gigs (e.g., phones, novel tech in general) does end up ultimately getting outsourced. I think the real story here is having some manufacturing in the U.S. that produces goods that actually might have a demand on the other side of the pond, which is definitely something more exciting to brag about.

    Bring back Sexy Tech!

    1. Re:Breaking News by RotateLeftByte · · Score: 2

      There was an interesting documentary on BBC the other night.
      It was about a cushion manufacturer who was finding making things in China too expensive and was trying to bring back manufacturing to the UK.
      I would guess that other smaller scale business who have moved their manuafcturing overseas (esp to China) might well be finding the same problem. Also, the Chinese workers are typically employed on a 1year contract. Every Feb they all go walkabout and get new jobs.
      One chinese worker in the documentary wanted a 50% raise or she would leave.

      --
      I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
  5. Boutique. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    At $1,700 that really nice - just wait a month and someone will be importing one which works better and has more features for $300.

  6. Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Manufacturing comes across as this panacea for high paying jobs and economic boost of a local economy but the trouble is that modern manufacturing is mostly automated. Sure the individual jobs may be higher paying than a Walmart - like a CNC machinist but those are few. Walk into a modern factory and you hardly see anyone - there would be a couple of operators and some maintenance guys.

    Yes, it boosts the local tax base - assuming there isn't too many tax breaks that the local politicos gave to lure them there. But for shear quantity of jobs, manufacturing isn't it.

    1. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by lxs · · Score: 1

      Manufacturing creates value. Without it there is nothing to trade or service. This makes it the basis of a solid local economy.

    2. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 1

      Arguably, the nostalgia for manufacturing is(in no small part) also a nostalgia for the conditions that prevailed during the time-period that people who use the word 'manufacturing' are generally implying to the audience.

      (Also, of course, there really isn't much good news about 'jobs' in any sector, especially if you are counting compensation-in-inflation-adjusted-dollars, job stability, or 'what you can do with a high school diploma' as variables, so there aren't many attractive options to keep nostalgia at bay. Some optimist occasionally mentions 'green jobs'; but even they don't seem to know what a 'green job' is, or why it isn't equally vulnerable to automation, offshoring, or helotized day-laborers)

    3. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by mhajicek · · Score: 3, Insightful

      In the long term, jobs are not what's needed. Jobs don't create value, production does. Eventually there will only be a handful of jobs needed to support the whole human race, as automation will have taken over almost every job. What's needed is for production to increase enough and to become cheap enough that everyone can get what they need (and a chunk of what they want) for free. That will require some major changes in thinking, as people with a lust for power tend to take control and then hoard both power and wealth even if there's more than enough to go around.

    4. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by s73v3r · · Score: 1

      The only way that would possibly end well is if we somehow move past a society in which money, and therefore a job, is required for procuring food, shelter, clothing, medicine, etc. If we go too far on the automation side, and make huge chunks of the workforce obsolete, but still require them to have money so they can get food, then we've got a huge problem.

    5. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by mhajicek · · Score: 1

      Agreed, hence the major changes in thinking. Total automation will come. There were people protesting and fighting the industrial revolution because machines were putting people out of work, but it happened anyway. There will come a time (perhaps in only a few decades) when there is practically nothing that a human can do better than a robot. The question is how do we prepare for that time, and will we ensure that the robots provide for everyone or will they serve the whims of a few?

    6. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

      You can give people a decent basic standard of living while still allowing the option to amass "more stuff" if they excel. Much of Western Europe is run along those lines.

    7. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by mhajicek · · Score: 1

      That sounds nice. Unfortunately we seem to have a number of people who enjoy depriving others; for whom having plenty is not enough, they must also squash everyone else. That would need to change.

    8. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      But for shear quantity of jobs, manufacturing isn't it.

      Unless you're making scissors.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    9. Re:Interesting. Another thing they get wrong. by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 1

      Behold, the power of taxes! :D

      I know what you mean though, and here's my thinking on it. Its all about dogs. People and dogs go way back, and along the way clearly some people observed how dogs behaved and decided to apply the same concept to their fellow humans. Politicians, leaders, corporate tycoons, many of these act as though they were the leaders of dog packs rather than intelligent homo sapiens who reached their current elevated status by cooperation and mutual understanding. This can be seen in the behaviour of whole countries. Hurt the other guy before he hurts you? No. Hurt the other guy so the rest of the pack doesn't turn on you.

      I mean what's a normal person to do when faced with some snapping, snarling lunatic bent on doing harm to anyone in the way of their goals? Get out of the way or fight back. Most people just want to live their lives, have a few nice toys, and do well in their chosen path. So most people get out of the way. Some who buy into the dog pack theory actively support the lunatic to better their own position.

      The only thing dogs achieve however is eating their own poop. People need to get the dog out of their learned (and it is learned) behaviour and fully embrace sentience to put an end to the cycle of stupidity.

  7. Competition by derGoldstein · · Score: 1

    It's great that they're keeping the project open-source, but they won't stay competitive if they keep going with the laser-cut wood parts. They already have these guys breathing down their necks. They need to start cutting prices, and that means mass-producing SMT electronics (which, while they can keep open-source, are much more difficult to self-assemble) and replace the "shell" with one made of plastic-injection parts. They can only keep so many people loyal for keeping the entire thing open-source -- most people will look at the price. This doesn't mean that they have to close everything down -- the electronic schematics can remain open-source and so can all of the software, but the hardware -- as it is now -- is not (/will not remain) competitive.

    --
    Entomologically speaking, the spider is not a bug, it's a feature.
    1. Re:Competition by daid303 · · Score: 2

      Cubify makes a damn good profit on their "cartridges", which seem to cost atleast twice at much as normal PLA filament used in 3D printers.

      Also, the 1.8k price doesn't come from raw materials. Less then half of that is material/production costs. The rest is for everything else, "overhead" like paying people for support, keeping stock, sending out replacement parts for DOA bits. "Mass producing" electronics would cut only $50-100 of the price.
      Replacing all the quality parts with cheap plastic bits, and have a 100% markup on printer filament, that's how you can cut the price. For normal printers, take a look at the HP-Deskjet line, which are build to last as long as a single cartridge.

      Note, I have an Ultimaker, which is another semi-open source 3D printer, I know the people behind Ultimaker. They are great people and stand behind the whole open idea. IMHO it's a better printer then MakerBot is currently selling, but I am biased.

  8. I could have predicted the resurgence! by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 2

    "Already 13 lawsuits have been filed to block expansion of the factory until environmental studies are published, 7 politicians are trying to get elected slamming the company because '3D printers cost jobs from normal manufacturing', and the city has upped the abandoned building's taxes from $200 a year to $27,000,000 a year."

    "Corporate officials could not be contacted in time for this story since they are currently in China."

    --
    (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    1. Re:I could have predicted the resurgence! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read the article, but I didn't see the remarks you quoted. Are these real remarks or are you making things up to be "clever"?

  9. Escher by jefe7777 · · Score: 1

    can someone print a 3d sketch of two printers printing each other into existence?

  10. More manufacturing in North America by davecb · · Score: 2

    I know at least one (large, multinational, sorta-conglomerate) company that makes more money manufacturing things in the U.S. that overseas. The things in question include great big cast-iron valves for refineries, with little bitty electronic sensors and steppers. The insides and valve seats are automatically ground to tight specs, the electronics are added on an automated line, and lift truck carry them around. The humans are qa inspectors, set-up guys and the lowest-skilled job is the lift-truck driver. Shipping costs are high (these things weigh a lot!) so it makes sense to do as much as possible in America, on the same continent as the customers.

    That also applies to major appliances, power tools, electrical distribution panes, air conditioners and a whole wodge of other things.

    Manufacturing is back! (and I buy their power tools for the cottage)

    --dave

    --
    davecb@spamcop.net
    1. Re:More manufacturing in North America by Joey+Vegetables · · Score: 1

      A weaker dollar, which is almost inevitable in the future as the petrodollar scheme falls apart, will bring back much more manufacturing, especially if the government swings back to a more business-friendly (as opposed to BIG business friendly, which is not the same) type of environment. Our manufactured goods, both exports and those consumed internally, will become that much cheaper, compared to their foreign counterparts, so we will be producing and exporting more, and importing less. There will be much short-term pain, as energy and food we still need to import will become more expensive, but the longer-term benefit to America's productive capacity should more than outweigh this pain especially in the Northeast, the Rust Belt, Chicago, and Southern California. The more rural and/or Southern states should see some benefits as well, because higher food and commodity prices will greatly improve their financial outlook as well. In the end, we are better off with a weaker dollar as long as both exchange rates and interest rates are allowed to float to reach a market-clearing equilibrium, which they currently are not; and as long as the current pro-corporate regime is dismantled and replaced with one more friendly to ordinary businesses, and hence American workers.

      --

      Nonaggression works!
    2. Re:More manufacturing in North America by mruizcamauer · · Score: 1

      We can speculate about 3d printing changing manufacturing radically, but in the same light we can imagine cheaper non-oil-based energy changing the balance of payments substantially too, which will make the dollar stronger I believe (USA will have less deficit, can print less money). Unfortunately that won't happen soon enough, as long as oil is affordable (if you use less it will be affordable longer). What if we had cheap available solar energy and did not need oil for so many things?

  11. Marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this whole article is just one big "feel-good" advertisement for maker-bot.
    i think it's a cool product, but I hate when people try to manipulate me by using these transparent marketing ploys.

    1. Re:Marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Doesn't matter. Bre Pettis is a fucking legend. I miss his MAKE videos.

    2. Re:Marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

      He's a shameless, psychopathic self-promoter that steals from others to sell to you. Overpriced, rickety toys marketed to the hilt. All you suckers can't wait to pull your pants down and spread cheek. Better that than to admit you got conned, eh?

  12. brooklyn is one huge superfund site by alen · · Score: 2

    thanks to manufacturing from 100 years ago. Whole Foods and jetBlue are just two of the businesses that have had delays in building because almost every site is contaminated with toxic waste

    1. Re:brooklyn is one huge superfund site by alen · · Score: 0

      P.S. take your manufacturing to flyover country. i'll take a clean environment

    2. Re:brooklyn is one huge superfund site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought the delay in building Whole Paycheck Foods is because of neighborhood opposition. Their new "mega-store" will use a very large lot that could have been given over for manufacturing jobs instead.

  13. Thank goodness! by SirFatty · · Score: 0

    So, what are we talking? 10, 20 jobs? Woohoo! Consider Brooklyn revitalized! Go MakerBot, one of the most over hyped turds hipsters like to blather about.

  14. MakerGear is more innovative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    MakerBot is the Microsoft of 3D printers, MakerGear is Apple.

    Makerbot is great a publicity and using ideas from everyone else, MakerGear is innovative.
    Before buying a 3D printer be sure to check them both out and decide for yourself.

    1. Re:MakerGear is more innovative by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      MakerBot is the Microsoft of 3D printers, MakerGear is Apple.

      Makerbot is great a publicity and using ideas from everyone else, MakerGear is innovative.
      Before buying a 3D printer be sure to check them both out and decide for yourself.

      I just hate Bre's self serving egotistical promotional attitude. If you listened to him, the Reprap project was a failure until Makerbot made it work. He's the visionary, he's a champion of Open Source (meanwhile the "open source" files for the Replicator are incomplete at best and willfully missing data at worst). He wants to be in a history book something fierce.

  15. They are wrong by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

    Businessweek is what is wrong with the world today....they brand him a throw back living in the future, yet this is how we got into this mess in the first place, by allowing Businessweek minded people to dictate it would be better to get stuff made outside of the US, and then we pay through the nose because not only do we have less jobs, and are dependent on other countries for our products, but now just like the oil, we do not control the price, if they want to sell us the dvd player at 1000$ a pop, who can stop them? Walmart has been great for bringing the price down, but the woerld is catching on quick to their scam, and although walmart is still pushing hard to get low prices, china, india, sri lanka, bangladesh etc, all those low cost production countries, are bringing up their pricing....soon you will have no advantage to to this across the sea, and there will be no factoiries here to bring it back home, we will be stuck with them controlling our prices.

    just a thought...

  16. Next Step: Reproduction by pubwvj · · Score: 1

    What we really need is printers that can make printers that can make other thing, including more printers. Then we can go exponential and take over the world... hehehe...

    1. Re:Next Step: Reproduction by ZeroSumHappiness · · Score: 1

      Skynet, oh you! :P

    2. Re:Next Step: Reproduction by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      That's called a RepRap.

      "RepRap takes the form of a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Since many parts of RepRap are made from plastic and RepRap prints those parts, RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself - a kit that anyone can assemble given time and materials."

    3. Re:Next Step: Reproduction by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      RepRap self-replicates by making a kit of itself

      It can print circuit boards, ships and motors?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  17. Entirely possible with our current Head of State by jabberw0k · · Score: 1

    Wesley Mouch, having earlier shuttered the Keystone Pipeline in favor of the Windmills Project, leans forward in his slightly misaligned overstuffed leather executive chair and puffs his cigar, and buzzes his secretary -- "Tell Mr. Slagenhop, good job on the robot factory."

  18. Very handly device. by jbeaupre · · Score: 1

    I'm reading Slashdot while waiting for my Replicator to finish printing parts for a client in China.

    I'm curious about the new Cubify from 3D Systems. Could be interesting

    --
    The world is made by those who show up for the job.
    1. Re:Very handly device. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I recently started looking at 3D printers and ended up ordering a Replicator. I did look into the Cubify, and while it looks like it has a few good features, I have to say I'm left with the impression that is belongs on a shelf at Sears and there's no way I could justify the price when there are options like the Maker-bot and Reprap out there.

  19. first of all by nimbius · · Score: 2

    stop saying throwback. throwback is a marketing term coined by cola companies and snack food conglomerates to gin up their respective markets and attract new customers to the same unhealthy vapid product theyve sold for 50 years. you can use big boy words like "homage" and no one will think the lesser of you on slashdot

    second, until makerbots start employing millions of people in well paid, safe factory conditions with competitive pay and honest retirement options, theres absolutely zero equivalent measure between a CnC factory that gets a building permit and a tax break from the city of brooklyn and the 1960's manufacturing explosion that dominated the northeast and ushered in american prosperity for hundreds of millions of people.

    makerbot is cool technology in its own right, but to even mention it in the same context as the industrial era that spawned an entire middle class america is almost an insult.

    --
    Good people go to bed earlier.
    1. Re:first of all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A fully automated factory employing only maintenance people sounds like pretty safe factory conditions to me.

    2. Re:first of all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, the manufacturing explosion in the US started in about 1820. In 1890, the US became the leading manufacturer in the world. Even during the Great Depression, the US was the world's leading manufacturer. Two world wars seriously impaired Western and Central Europe and then communism seriously impaired the Soviet bloc, China, and India (not truly communist, more of a centralized, planned socialist system). The last ranking I could find was for 2010; this is from the Financial Times, "According to the latest league table, Italy is in fifth position in the manufacturing stakes, with the US, China, Japan and Germany in the top four slots. Drawing up lists of manufacturing nations is seldom done mainly due to the difficulties of interpreting Chinese production statistics."

    3. Re:first of all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The term throwback existed well before soft drink companies started producing runs of retro-styled real sugar cola...

    4. Re:first of all by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      stop saying throwback. throwback is a marketing term coined by cola companies and snack food conglomerates to gin up their respective markets and attract new customers to the same unhealthy vapid product theyve sold for 50 years.

      Nope, though abused by those companies, "throwback" is a word that's been around a very long time. Taking a gander at Google's Ngram viewer shows the term in use back to the early 1800's. Other sources indicate it's origin as being 1855 or 1888.
       

      second, until makerbots start employing millions of people in well paid, safe factory conditions with competitive pay and honest retirement options, theres absolutely zero equivalent measure between a CnC factory that gets a building permit and a tax break from the city of brooklyn and the 1960's manufacturing explosion that dominated the northeast and ushered in american prosperity for hundreds of millions of people.

      Wait, what? By the 1960's, the "explosion" in the Northeast was over - and manufacturers there were already feeling the cold touch of winter as production (and consumers) fled to other part of the country and overseas to avoid rising land and labor costs. Manufacturing was running on inertia not "exploding".

  20. Ultimaker by mhajicek · · Score: 1

    I've been shopping around a bit for a 3D printer, and it looks like Ultimaker is the current best choice. It's a bit more expensive than some, but the stock is significantly cheaper (and non-proprietary) and the speed, quality, and work envelope are all great.

    1. Re:Ultimaker by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The huge warning with that, in case I'm not too late,

      a) is that it's false-open source. You will find aspects of it are simply not documented, but are required knowledge in order to replace or maintain certain parts. They like to call it open source when it suits them (earning cookies from the community) but not when it doesn't (BOM, dimensions of critical parts in the hot end). So if you need critical replacement parts, you need to go to them. And you know what they say about single-source....

      b) The bowden extruder design (motor at one end pushing a long length of plastic) appears to be an elegant design to those that aren't informed, but the hysteresis of the filament springiness means you get drips and blobs and strings all over the place.

      c) the work envelope is large, but it's just for show unless you're making lots of little objects. For anything with a large footprint, you're going to be disappointed with prints lifting themselves off the bed. Hell, if you wanted to print in ABS you can forget about anything larger than the smallest objects.

      d) You're not going to get as good results with the toolchain as the "demo pictures" show. They are made with a proprietary slicer and printing driving software. The secret sauce to those quality prints are held, well, secret, to the core team. If you pay 200 EUR you can get their closed-source software.

      e) Speaking of the demo pictures, there is a very good reason why you see amazing resolution with busts and vases and statues but not a lot of machine parts. This is because at the insanely small layer heights, extrusion of plastic simply doesn't work correctly for the size nozzle and you cannot bridge.

      f) The only way they are getting super fast prints from the machine is by heavily modifying it. The motors will work as fast as they show in demos, but to actually extrude something useful and not have it be a wreck?

        and finally,

      g) Other big envelope printers also derived from RepRap machines that are truly open can print just as good, if not better, than the Ultimaker. You have lots of different vendors for non-printed parts like motors, electronics, pulleys, belts, and hot ends. You learn more about the operation of the machine and you might be able to even give something back.

      I wanted to like mine for a long while, but I've just come to terms that I made a 1100 EUR mistake and had moved on to a proper RepRap Prusa and never looked back.

  21. They're laid back in Brooklyn... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does this explain why their production lead times are 10-12 weeks? :-)
    http://store.makerbot.com/replicator-404.html (yes, that's the real URL with real content, not a 404)

    Gerv

  22. Cubify by freeze128 · · Score: 1

    It looks like a really slick device... Smooth curves and all self contained.... But a quick look at the details shows that it requires you to REGISTER your device! This is the way of implementing DRM into the machine. It runs on proprietary software that required you to activate the machine so you can download all sorts of shape files from "the cloud". What a way to take a great idea and make it terrible.

    1. Re:Cubify by jbeaupre · · Score: 1

      Thanks. The information provided is more hype than substance. I gave up looking for the catch. I'd assumed it was going to be the cartridges holding the materials ... just like ink jet printers.

      --
      The world is made by those who show up for the job.
  23. Re:Subject goes here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    thanks to manufacturing from 100 years ago.

    What?

  24. makerbot is ludicrous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they will exist for a very short period, and then, some one like epsom, or one of the established players who currently sell 10,000 dollar + instruments, will make a cheap 3D printer and little companies like makerbot will be seen as the high cost boutiques that they are.
    I mean, this is like flashback to 1980, some guy assembling PCs in his garage - how many of those companies survivied ?
    and how many deserved to survive ?

    1. Re:makerbot is ludicrous by mruizcamauer · · Score: 1

      All that survived deserved to survive, in a Darwinian way... All that perished deserved it too.

  25. Lighten up Francis by daninaustin · · Score: 1

    Lighten up Francis.

  26. "Bre Pettis: 3D Printing's First Celebrity " by Onymous+Coward · · Score: 1

    I thought Bathsheba Grossman was "3D Printing's First Celebrity".

  27. Hype and Realitiy by mruizcamauer · · Score: 1

    Hype: everyone will print all their stuff at home. Mass production will be replace by 3d printing. Reality: Some specific manufacturing will be done at smaller, nimbler, less expensive factories (sometimes neighborhood print shops) using 3d printers. Hobbyists will have fun with home 3d printers, like with PCs in the early 80's. A lot of people will be able to get into manufacturing, due to low entrance price, ability to print interesting parts (witness Shapeways), and advantage of being local/imaginative/sell personalized stuff/have not stock (so lower financial needs). It's great to see a new industry arising, current ones are boring.

  28. Good Luck Bre... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I were Mr. Pettis, I'd be worried about these things:

    http://www8.hp.com/uk/en/products/3d-printers/index.html

    They're significantly higher quality (and cost right now), but if this thing catches on, HP will probably demolish Bre's little company...

  29. Nearly purchased one last week. by codepunk · · Score: 1

    I nearly purchased one last week, then I saw the 12 week lead time. Nope sorry not happening, fix the supply chain, bad management and or labor shortage problem and I may think about it.

    --


    Got Code?
    1. Re:Nearly purchased one last week. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh well. 8 week lead time when I ordered mine. Just arrived yesterday. Worth the wait!

      It is still a niche market, just account for that and all is well.

  30. Mini Circuits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has been in Brooklyn for ages. RF electronic components. Much more high-tech than Makerbot.