> Electroplating requires a clean environment, high voltage and usually rather odd and sometimes nasty chemicals. The voltages are actually very low - you want

> Electroplating requires a clean environment, high voltage and usually rather odd and sometimes nasty chemicals. The voltages are actually very low - you want to get as close to the ideal electrode potential as possible. Most galvanic cells have a potential of only a few volts. In the case of copper electroplating, for example, you want between 0.5 and 2.5V. Potentially you could have a high current setup (the higher the current the faster the deposition) but if you care about safety more than print speed there's no reason you can't run it on a few milliamps. As for chemicals, it differs with the material you want to print, but most are pretty mundane. Again in the case of copper, copper II sulphate is a common fungicide applied to fruits, you don't want to drink it obviously but it's no more dangerous than common household cleaners. Sintering may be doable for a few thousand dollars, but electrodeposition could potentially be done with a $20 print head on a standard 3D printer. Further, the same setup can be used for subtractive operations (just reverse the voltage) and it's trivial to set up multi-material printing (which sintering can't do). Given that 3D printing is mostly for hobbyists who can sacrifice time to save on cost, electrochemical printing seems like a strong option.