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The Explosive Growth of 3D Printing
MojoKid writes "If you've ever attended a World Maker Faire, the first thing that strikes you is how organic the whole scene is. Inventors, creators, and engineers from all walks of life have their gadgets, science projects, and creations on display for all to see. Some of the creations you see on display range from downright amazing to completely bizarre. One of the big attractions, a technology area that has experienced explosive growth, is the land of 3D Printing. MakerBot took the open source RepRap 3D replicator project mainstream back in 2009 with the release of the Cup Cake CNC machine, then came the Thing-o-Matic and then a little bot called Replicator. With each iteration, improvements in process and technology are bringing better, more capable 3D printers to market, from MakerBot's new Replicator 2, to new players in the field like Solidoodle, Up!3D, Ultimaker, and Tinkerines. To watch a 3D printer in action is like witnessing art, science and engineering all working together in glorious unison."
Pity that there is now a bunch of lunatics trying to make printable guns. The world will not be a better place when everyone and their dog can download and print their own guns.
-- Cheers!
How long will it take before all the legalese crap breaks loose?
Sooner or later powerful people will want to appropriate this while shielding and litigate the rest of us.
The irony of your low-uid username and this comment is awesome.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
The Explosive Growth of 3D Printing
I thought we agreed not to print printable machines that print more printable machines. It's Second Life all over again ... IRL!
My work here is dung.
...Maker Faire was a goldmine. Every major vendor was there, and they all had samples of the classic objects everybody uses for demos, so it was very easy to compare the quality of the output. (That is, presuming that the ones that stood out didn't just print 500 identical objects and bring the one good one.)
Anyone who adds an e to town, old, or fair deserves a kick to the nuts, especially if those words are used in combination or with the word ye.
The 3D printer of today is a lot like the VCR. It has elements of robotics, complex control circuitry, and some even have an onboard LCD interface. But with all that technological brilliance, it's WHAT IT DOES that matters the most.
I assume this event is for True Geeks which would normally be dressed in chain mail and carry swords a la Dungeons and Dragons.
The extra E seems appropriate.
How can we innovate without the use of patents? Oh wait aren't these people innovating in a patent vacuum, either through their own ignorance or lack of jerks trying to lay claim to ideas that everyone else can come up with?
It's time for patents to go, they provide NOTHING.
Honest question here. How do you get started with 3D printing, and how do you do it cheaply? If somebody's at a "curious hobbyist" level, where do they start?
So, does anybody care to speculate about the mid/long term distribution/ownership of these things?
I keep seeing the breathless predictions of 'desktop manufacturing, one in every household!'; but I also see that (among the people, friends, family, neighbors needing computer assistance, etc. who I have cause to know about) ownership of inkjets is actually falling, despite the fact that those are nearly free; because it's easier to just upload the pictures to some service that owns a $20k+ printer but will sell you a tiny slice of it for under 10 cents a print. Laser printers are holding the line, so far, among people who push paper.
As a technology, 3d printing is obviously here to stay; but the value proposition of actually owning one, rather than renting a tiny slice of somebody's much classier one over the internet, seem about as mainstream as the economics of owning a high quality large format photo printer or a machine shop. Definitely something that certain professions would lead you to do, and definitely something that a hobbyist would want access to; but not necessarily something that you would seriously consider owning...
I'm especially looking forward to this printer, which uses stereolithography:
TheIr kIckstarter page
How incredibly 1970's... I think we're about to see an explosive growth of profits by hippy glass blowers, who reinvent themselves as "3D Silica Printers".
But they're still above my "fun toy" expense cap. If the MakiBox ever goes into production, I'll probably buy one just for fun but $300 is as much as I'd want to spend. It's cool to have the potential to just print off any little parts you need for a project but the reality is that it takes a lot of time to design objects. It would take hundreds of hours of practice to get competent at it and thousands to get good.
1) Every experience I have ever had with a printer has sucked. While every other aspect of technology gets faster and smarter, printing keeps getting slower and dumber. Logic would dictate that 3D printing would suck just as much as 2D printing, as well as sucking in an additional dimension.
2) I attended Maker Faire this year, and I have to say the single most disappointing aspect of it was the 3D printing exhibits. Booth after booth displayed rather cool-looking little trinkets that had absolutely no use whatsoever. From the looks of it, 3D printing is a technology that exists purely for its own sake. Thousands of geeks used hundreds of devices to produce massive piles of useless crap.
I'll consider being impressed by 3D printing as soon as someone actually starts doing something useful with it.
MakerBot took the open source RepRap 3D replicator project mainstream back in 2009 with the release of the Cup Cake CNC machine, then came the Thing-o-Matic and then a little bot called Replicator. With each iteration, improvements in process and technology are bringing better, more capable 3D printers to market, from MakerBot's new Replicator 2.
The Replicator 2 which is now closed source. That's one way to thank all the hard work of those who toiled and released open source hardware.
More Twoson than Cupertino
I just wish I could print a brand new ready to wear set of contacts every morning!
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Are full of crap. While such a thing might be possible in the future, current 3D printers just make plastic models. Now that's nice and all, and there's plenty of uses for it (industrial prototyping is a big one) that is far from household manufacturing. They can't work with metal, never mind electronics. You don't just go and print out a cell phone or something.
The only market that might possibly be threatened is the 3D miniatures market. Though I don't know how good they do at colour (all the ones I've encountered are monochromatic) so you might still need to paint things. Aside from that, there is little in the commercial space they threaten. They are extremely cool toys, but little more than that.
In terms of home manufacturing if they gain the ability to work with metal, particularly multiple metals, which would require a major change in how they operate, then they could produce more useful items. If they made metal and plastic parts on a fairly fine scale, they could manufacture many every day items. However unless they could either work on the micro/nano scales that electronics work on, or in some other way make use of it (like be loaded with various kinds of chips to use) their market would still be really limited.
They are nifty for making examples out of a somewhat weak plastic (it isn't super fragile but it isn't high impact) but a universal constructor they are not.
Blender doesn't work on my computer, but I could never figure it out anyway. (Maybe it's related to the viewport bug?)
While the prices of printers have plummeted, capable software remains high cost. Most people I know what it for engineering replacement parts, which include screw threads, but working screw threads are almost impossible to get right unless you're also making the other side of the fastener as well. While free-form modeling programs are common, Anyone know of a good parametric program?
I have experience in many CNC oriented CAD/CAM packages (SolidEdge) and other CAD packages (Rhino3D, Autocad), but I no longer have the access to these at work.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Seems like rather than actually growing explosively, its being pushed very hard on /. I rarely hear a peep about it elsewhere.
Ease-of-access to guns is just one aspect of technology that we'll just have to get used to. Destroying is always easier than creating, whether it be diy - firearms, diy - bioweapons, or diy - (insert your technology that can be used destructively here)
You stereotypers are all the same...
...what are they useful for?
I've seen all sorts of statements about how this is the second industrial revolution, people are going to be able to print medicines at home, etc. Such statements seem somewhat premature and misplaced. It's additive printing, of plastics.
I can get that they'd be useful to hobbyists who want to make some custom bits of plastic to go with devices. Outside of that, I've not hugely seen the point. Maybe they might get some use in the automotive industry, where retaining spare parts for the lifespan of a vehicle starts to be a bit of a burden. That is, of course, for plastic parts which don't need to be particularly strong. Similarly for equipment repair of eletronics, replacing broken laptop parts, but it's all very niche.
So what's left? Art objects for geeks?
Remember the Altair 8800. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altair_8800
The Altair was a pretty primitive and useless computer by today's standards but it was really the first personal computer. Looking at it, you wouldn't have predicted all the ways personal computers have changed our lives.
The 3d printers we have now are primitive and fairly useless. Almost nobody 'needs' one. What about thirty years from now? I'm guessing than many people's lives will be transformed. Many tradespeople will see their industries upended. Old style sign painters had to face competition from unskilled bozos with personal computers and a vinyl cutters. Skills that took a lifetime to learn no longer provided a competitive advantage. The 3d printing revolution promises to be similarly wrenching.
People have made weapons out of blocks of stone, so we shouldn't build stone or concrete houses...?
Fast 3D parts you can handle, feel, assemble and use, if at least done gently with many of the printer polymers makes analyzing what you can think of for design a very quick process, whether for play or production prototyping.
Emphasis on guns, which is only partially possible is a joke. You still need barrels and other very highly stressed parts that can't be done by RP plastics. True there are RP titanium and stainless steel, but you don't do those materials on a $2000 desktop printer. Try a $500,000 SLS machine.
this finally separate us from the chimpanzee? Stay Tuned!
I have yet to see a low-end 3D printer that works consistently. TechShop has an "Up" and several RepRaps, but it seems to take several tries to make anything, and nobody gets consistently good parts. The machines that work by laying down a strand of ABS from a heated nozzle (which is all the low-end machines) have trouble getting a consistent bond to the previous layer. The temperature at the bonding point is too critical and not well enough controlled.
Somebody should try using some high power laser diodes to heat up the point where the ABS strands are fused. Those aren't expensive up to 2 watts or so. You only need a few watts, focused very tightly on the weld area. Welding is about applying heat to both sides of the joint in the weld area. The heated nozzle approach applies the heat on only one side, the new string approaching the weld. The material being joined to is cold. Of course the bond quality is poor.
The UV-bonded powder machines work fine, but cost about $50K. Laser sintering machines seem to produce good results. The E-beam deposition approach reportedly works very well, but is even more expensive. But ABS through a heated nozzle, not so much.
Right now all the cheap ones are only capable of making plastic parts. I'd like to see a low cost metal powder additive machine. I don't care if it's aluminum or titanium (cheap or expensive) base metal.
I know of a machine shop at a university which has several 3D printers -- why would you ever need a mill?
These are commercial Stratasys units, over $60k each -- and yet their output is inaccurate (-maybe- good to 20 thou) and incredibly brittle and weak.
People have ALWAYS been able to make things. This lowers the barrier of knowing how -- but the only people that have interesting things to make are those that know how to make them anyways.
I have found the self-congratulatory nature of the whole Maker movement, because it is entirely hype-driven, around a bunch of inane projects that yes -- while they increase interest in electronics -- take a computer-science perspective on something far, far older. There are so many things done with an Arduino that only would need a dollar of parts, and it just makes me sad -- but sadder still that OH MY GOD THIS IS THE GREATEST THING EVER!
Maybe I'm just an ornery EE...
This post has nothing to do with the goal of banning closed-source and open-source software and promoting only 100% libre software. Therefore it has no right to be on /.
Check out
http://www.silhouetteamerica.com/
http://www.sizzix.com/shop/eclips
http://www.cricut.com/
and there are many other brands of 2D cutters used by the crafting community.
The women who are really into scrapbooking, card making, and such will jump at the opportunity to make their own napkin holders, salt & pepper shakers, and other doodads.
I expect to see http://www.etsy.com/Etsy filled with 3D printed items in a few years.
- Jasen.
There are many reasons why I print my own pictures, cost being one factor, but artistic control of the process (especially in the use of "special" paper which a commercial printer could not use cost effectively) is more important. I use a Brother DCP 6690 CW printer fitted with a continuous ink supply system (think long range tanks) and I buy ink by the litre. The main cost for me is paper, and hand made 200gsm A3 paper is very expensive. For most work I use water colour paper and that runs to about £5 for 12 sheets of 10" by 14" depending on finish.
Now translating this to 3D printing, I can see the use for "craftsman standard" devices in the production of intaglio or relief decoration and items such as masks, plaques etc., especially if I can apply true colour (24 bit) to the surface. I don't believe that current devices are capable of producing such items to the required standard of finish, but hope that they soon will.
I think that we need to stop thinking about duplicating existing objects and see the technology as a means of producing novel products or novel forms designed to take advantage of the characteristics of the device, and especially to the production of "one off" or very limited "editions". How about a specially designed dinner service for that crucial business lunch?
nec sorte nec fato
We have firearms regulations not unlike that.
Hardly anyone is ever killed by firearms in NZ, and, when they are, it's almost always the result of a hunting accident, or suicide/suicide-by-cop.
Go look up THOSE stats.
Killing people has been illegal for a while now. Does it matter if its done with a beer bottle, a vehicle or a 3D printed gun?
Being able to print workable guns would be a phenomenal technological feat. This is one more example of dangerous technology.
If you're scared of your govt then you need to further restrict its powers
Vote 3rd Party in 2016 and beyond
There has not been any explosive growth in 3d printing. Maker has recently made the community miffed by going closed source. A move driver by their stakeholders, I am sure. The problem is that they are alienating their core supporters in hopes to grow sales and prevent others from selling the same design. The prosumer market they are now targeted at just doesn't exist in a sustainable level imo. Sure you want to look ahead but you don't do that by sacrificing your core competencies which got you there in the first place. There also has been a backlash on thingiverse as it seems their TOS gives them the rights to the designs submitted to the site, something that should not exist in an open source community website. Makerbot will have it's place in the 3d printer market but they have seemed to make a big hole for real open source companies to move in. It looks like there are some new machine builders emerging and I am curious to see what www.zatopa.com is going to turn out to be.
Just checked on Amazon
Brother MFCJ5910DW Printer (Print/Scan/Copy/Fax)
Price: £98.32 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
Not quite the same beast, but ink system is available at £30
Total cost about £130 or $210
If your Grandma is called Moses, then that's just what she needs.:)
Seriously, I replaced one A4 HP monochrome laser and two HP inkjets with one wirelessly networked printer which I could locate in the kitchen (easy to keep an eye on it, and that's where the coffee is kept). My model has two big paper trays and I can print a couple of hundred sheets before I have to "attend" to it. The ink tanks are clear, so I can check the levels as I walk past, and it's only a minute to pour some more ink in if needed. Full tank is 80 ml, or about four times what you get in a cartridge, so I never run out in the middle of a print run. To be honest, the A3 scanner is rarely needed, and I don't have or want a fax.
You can get ink system for most Epson printers so I guess you can probably get a similar set up with one of them, but I can only report my own experience, and that's with the Brother. A few people have bought similar set ups after seeing mine, and all are happy with the results.
As for picking up paper at an electronics store, you must be mad! Office supply if you want "photocopy" standard, but for decent prints to go on the wall in a frame you need acid free, Thank god Amazon does both, especially for those of us in rural areas. It is a major outing for me to go to my nearest "electronics store", takes at least an hour each way.
Yes most people don't put effort into printing, and boy does it show.
nec sorte nec fato
Which of these 10 statements Applies to the FT Hood Massacry? 1.) Because they have seen "Full Metal Jacket"? 2.) You give the recruit 99.9 % of the rifle to sleep with. (They don't work very well without firing pin.) 3.) You cannot have a black powder rifle or pistol on a military installation. 4.) You are required to store your rifle and pistol in the armory. 5.) You need the CO's permission to check your privately owned weapon out of the armory. 6.) You will carry this permission chit with you & the weapon must returned within the times specified or the MP's will be searching for you. 7.) If you live off base these rules do not apply. 8.) Don't get caught on base with a weapon and no weapons card for it. 9.) You need the commanders permission to store your weapon on base. 10.) Private gun ownership + military base = no go at this station.
I don't follow this scene too closely - I didn't have room at the old house to build a 3-d printer. But it's still on the agenda for the not too distant future. If you actually care about the ideas of Open Source (hardware, firmware or software), then you need to examine this question extremely carefully. There is a lot of sound and fury ; how much that signifies, I'm not sure. I was considering buying one of Caveat emptor, very much indeed.
Links : 1, 2, 3 (with a lot of comments!)
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"