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Dreambox: the World's First 3D Printing Vending Machine
coolnumbr12 writes "Frustrated by the lack of access to 3D printers at their school, three recent graduates from UC Berkeley have installed Dreambox, the world's first '3D printing vending machine,' on their campus. Dreambox gives everyone access to the 3D printer for a small fee, allowing them to print objects from their own designs or from an online store. The creators hope that it will help democratize 3D printing and help more people realize the technology's potential."
There already exists a popular Linux based satellite receiver called Dreambox.
They're already offering a printer in the class shown in the "Dreambox" promo video for $1200.
Go to select Staples and buy it. If your Staples isn't one of the select ones, you can have it ordered site-to-store with no shipping from their web site.
I see it being something "useful" for students and people that can't afford that printer- but it's not such the big deal as people are making of it here.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
This is as much a vending machine as the printers at the repro desk are.
I'd be fine with calling it this, if the newsworthyness wasn't solely based on the alledged 'vending machine'-ness.
Jeez give it a rest, there are people on this planet who'd do anything to live in our democracy and you cheapen the word with your trinket dispenser.
Im not looking foward to eating 3D food honestly. I dont know what it woud taste like, but I know it wouldnt be good. Anyone agree?
Search for "fluid".
Someone starts printing out controversial things.
- Sex toys.
- Weapons.
- Copyrighted stuff (like Mickey Mouses)
x all of the above.....
As long this stays small it will stay under the radar. But if the scale is increased there will be more rules about this.
Soon we'll be living in a Charles Stross world with machines creating fountains of brightly coloured plastic utensils just because they can!
Hooray! Another fucking IBTimes article with unrelated automatically streaming video.
Why isn't there a co-operative set up around the idea of these machines self-replicating?
Buy a machine kit --- get a rebate against the cost of the machine if you then print / mill the parts for 2 more kits and deliver them to the next 2 people who order kits and live near you (so as to save on shipping)
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
will become a legislative nightmare, after all, now, there will have to be restrictions on what can be printed if it's copyrighted or not, etc.. Won't be long before someone prints something which someone holds a functional patent. Fun fun fun..
This doesn't really sound like a vending machine experience. This feels more like an automated service bureau. As yourself, is the Dreambox experience more like buying a bag of chips from a true vending machine, or is it like sending a PDF to FedEx (Kinkos) and picking up your prints later?
Virginia Tech unveiled their DreamVendor on March 16, 2012.
http://www.dreams.me.vt.edu/dreamvendor/
I wonder how long it will take for this to be banned. Is this unregulated 3D printing or are projects approved by the owners of the device? Imagine a student printing out dorm keys to steal computers. One of them already tried to print a gun. This would only be preventable if the items to be printed are being approved by a human being or an insanely accurate 'safety' algorithm. But at what point does that become a privacy concern? Then the data on what we're 3d printing will be farmed out to the big corporations!
The Blade Itself
Between graphene, 3d printing, and a very short list of other emerging technologies that represent an impending new era of technological wizardry, this is a great idea but I think it would most likely be limited to schools. Any commercialization of the technology would likely die within a few short years. The problem being the prolific uptake of home 3d printers by consumers combined with their quickly lowering cost. Economies of Scales in motion: The more people who purchase 3d printers, the more rapidly and efficiently they are produced, consequently a competitive consumer environment is created forcing prices down. On the one hand, paying $10 or even $20 to be able to email a 3d design to a kiosk up at say, Walgreens, then wait an hour and go pick it would be awesome. Finished products could be shelved in the machine, allowing many people to use it, if you don't pick your creation up in time to ensure room for others, you are refunded half and the print is melted down to be used again. But as I said, commercialization of such a technology would not be profitable past a few short years. I am willing to bet we have sub $500 comprehensive 3d printers in three years, the price will continue to fall precipitously making kiosks unprofitable.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
Step 1: use 3d printer to make more 3d printers.
Step 2: stop paying to use first 3c printer.
Step 3: managerial: ?????
Step 4: profit.
Can it print me a slice of pizza?
Then I'm interested...
A lot of disappointed dreams coming out of this thing, just like what comes out of a dollar store.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
So far, 3D printing seems like a solution in search of a problem. To date, what's the most useful item made by 3D printing? Clips for firearms? But all that really does is demonstrate the ineffectiveness of laws against weapons. Maybe customized medical implants are the most useful items? Even if they can design it themselves, no one is able to put an item like that to use by themselves, need lots of medical help. No reason to employ a vending machine in that process.
How about prototypes? Maybe, but while good for the start, a 3D printer could not be a serious contributor to the end of a design process that started with a scaled down prototype. It's not so good for full sized models of even modestly sized items, as most machines are limited to about 25 cm^3 (1 cubic foot). Can't fit a building or a car or just a car door in that area. Even the interior handle of a car door could be too large, if it includes a grip and arm rest in the design. Separate pieces that are held together by mechanical means may be fine for prototypes, but maybe not the final product, because when it gets old and loosens up a bit, it will cause all kinds of annoying rattles and squeaks in a environment subject to vibration, such as a car. If the prototype appears to be a good design, the production of the full sized product would be done with other methods.
Even in cases where the 3D printer could make the final product, there is still the issue of quantity. 3D printing is just too slow for runs of thousands of copies of an item.
All you can really do easily with a low cost 3D printer is small artistic sculptures and custom toys such as model cars and figurines for role playing games, and that's limited. A person can store thousands of flat items like photo prints, but can't so easily store thousands of 3D items, takes too much space.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
I'm not sure what "democratizing 3D printing" means.
Does he mean free people in a free society seeing a potential mass and low-cost market addressing the issue because, the society being free, one doesn't need permission of government to pursue one's interests?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
So this is like Mold-a-rama for the 21st century?
Hell, I'd be happy with 1960's Mold-a-rama!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
how many dildos or related items will be printed?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
Heh, kids and their big ideas. Who is going to maintain these machines? That is going to be a full time job in itself just for one machine and will obliterate and profits you might make. In fact I bet it will be a massive net loss to operate one of these machines.
All those moving parts with melted plastic flowing all over, etc. These machines currently require a LOT of upkeep to operate.
I think this is great. Sure, the 2013 Dreambox is only going to print you a piece of plastic crap. But they've got to start somewhere, and they're first in the space. That counts for something, haters opinions notwithstanding.
At the rate we're going, the 2017 Dreambox will be able to print you a functional circuit board to go with your plastic, and that's when things get really, really interesting.
But for now, yeah, plastic crap. Stay tuned.
3D Printing Tips and Tricks at Zheng3.com
I give it five years, max, until we see at least one unit like this in every Home Depot. It's unlikely to accept user-created models, but it would have an immense database of odds and ends that are hard to maintain an inventory of because they take up so much space and sell so little. Even better would be going to Home Depot's (for instance) site, ordering something printed, paying for it, and they'll hold it until the next time you go there so you're not having to wait at the machine for it to print.
Could even have two separate styles: the "consumer-facing" model that has a nice container and touchpad for selecting the product, and the "industrial" model that is more bare bones and is used in the back for online orders or in-house stuff.
I;m sorry, but anyone who wants to get 3D designs can go to Autodesk for FREE (as in beer) 3D modeling tools, then shoot them off to Cubify's cloud printing service. The open folks can use Blender and a wide host of other tools to create STLs from their various 3B models (of which there are huge numbers online, the Sketchup Library alone is chock full of 3D model goodness.)
I don't know a single Maker who hasn't got 8 ways to skin this cat, and there are a plethora of groups forming daily sharing information. Why would you need a kiosk at this point in time when you can do everything you need right from your PC? I guess maybe it's for the Literary Students who want to print busts of Shakespeare or Keats?
3D Print it on campus, ready to use.
Virginia Tech has had a similar machine up and running in a lobby of one of the engineering buildings since at least Aug 2012...similar name, too. http://www.vt.edu/spotlight/innovation/2012-08-13-3d/dreams.html