Well-put. Perhaps, distilled, it's this: having a 3D printer, by itself, won't turn you into a MechE. But, if you do have a 3D printer, you can learn the basi

Well-put. Perhaps, distilled, it's this: having a 3D printer, by itself, won't turn you into a MechE. But, if you do have a 3D printer, you can learn the basics of ME and try out some practical ideas with real parts. I specifically got my 3D printer to make gears. I do have a Sherline mill, as well as a 12" (Chinese) lathe; so I do have the specific tools to create involute gears out of metals. However, since I planned on doing so many different gears, as I wasn't really sure what I needed, AND the fact that with subtractive manufacturing, if you make certain mistakes, you throw the whole piece away and start over -- 3D printing makes creating new parts as trivial as starting it up again. The other total win of 3D is e.g. Thingverse where you can d/l a design -- it's the closest thing we have to Star Trek's replicator. Lastly, Michael Faraday wrote an entire book on candles. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_History_of_a_Candle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chemical_History_of_a_Cand... So much can be learned from little!