I had never put two and two together on this, probably in part because the sewing machines I own are 70 and 90 years old (A Singer 15-90 and a Standard SewHandy

I had never put two and two together on this, probably in part because the sewing machines I own are 70 and 90 years old (A Singer 15-90 and a Standard SewHandy, which I adore) I've seen modern ones that do computerized embroidery, and I guess it makes sense that there's a lot of overlap between the technology underpinning a sewing machine that does embroidery and a printer. They both require precisely positioning something in two axes over a fairly large area. I wonder if Brother or somebody else who makes embroidery machines is really the perfect company to bring 3-d printing to the home. They have the expertise at not only the software and hardware side of building the embroidery machines, but also the experience of doing it cheaply and reliably enough for the mass market. Assuming there's really a market for a 3-d printer in the $200 to $500 range, anybody who makes embroidery machines should be a Z-axis, build platform, and extruder head away from taking the world by storm. As an added bonus, they don't have to make all the other stuff that makes an embroidery machine expensive: the parts that actually do the sewing. Thanks for making that connection for me!