4 ms·

It depends on what you mean by a renaissance of small-scale manufacturing. I see CNC and 3D printers much more often now in prosumer and small-business shops. P

by dymk 4y ago

It depends on what you mean by a renaissance of small-scale manufacturing. I see CNC and 3D printers much more often now in prosumer and small-business shops. People are making professional quality casts, with some work. Yes, it's effort, but it's going to be effort regardless of if you outsource the work, or learn how to do it the right way yourself. Plastic injection machines can be a few grand on eBay now. A very reliable 3D printer is $800, a Shapeoko Pro 4 XXL is $2.5k. Very much in the range of a small business, or even an enthusiast. I started off with a 3D printer for my shop and that was great for making slipcasting molds for ceramics, and then jigs for woodworking. I bought a CNC for the shop for flattening, carving, and inlaying, and the two have a nice synergy with traditional woodworking methods. "Maker youtube" has been popping off for years. People love small shops and DIY.

legitster 4y ago
I am specifically thinking of a Christmas bazaar I was just at. You had all of these booths selling beautiful customized phone-cases and earrings and candle-holders and etc. And nearly all of them are starting with Chinese made plastics and putting labor intensive value on top of it. And there was a single 3d print shop booth that sold glorified paperweights. It just seemed to me that there is clearly a market failure between these two industries.
- jacquesm 4y ago
  Mass market junk is cheaper to make in China and ship by the containerload than it ever will be to produce locally no matter what method you use to manufacture them. Personally I wished people would stop buying these things whose only real goal seems to be to end up in landfills.
  - legitster 4y ago
    I mean, what do you think most people are using 3D printers to make?
    - jacquesm 4y ago
      Sorry? What I think isn't really relevant. What I see is relevant and what I see is a lot of people making prototype hardware and small series stuff that would be very costly (sometimes impossible) to produce using any other method. It all depends on where you are looking. You claim - fairly categorically - that 'the "makerspace" has seemingly failed to produce any sort of meaningful Renaissance in small-scale US manufacturing' but that is a complete strawman, it only works if you assume that a renaissance in smallscale US manufacturing was the original goal and that never was the case. Makerspaces are not even a requirement to be part of the maker scene. Over the past couple of years I've seen elements of it all over industry and in series production up to several 100 units (probably a few in excess of that) of parts that you would have a pretty hard time making otherwise and with such low start-up costs. That you have an entirely different bar for success isn't an issue with the maker scene. I don't doubt that there are people that end up making things they throw away. But if you're building custom machinery the tools from the 'makerscene' have long escaped the hobby lab and are now a mainstay in any prototyping shop. Tooling, jigs, parts, gears(!), brackets of all shapes and sizes, adapters, custom plugs, cases, scientific gear for lab setups and so on. The list of items I've seen produced with these tools is longer than I care to list here.
- dymk 4y ago
  I used my 3D printer and CNC to assist in making these: https://www.longtailwoodcraft.com/gallery.html https://www.longtailwoodcraft.com/gallery.html There's no 3D components in the cutting boards or wall art itself. I make jigs and spacers and all sorts of things to assist in assembly and manufacture. An FDM 3D printer is useful for much more than making glorified paperweights. There's immense value in being able to make any jig you can think of, very precisely, and be able to reproduce it in an hour if you need another.
  - legitster 4y ago
    Sure. I am trying to limit my comments to the value of 3D printers in the consumer space since I know they are not without their applications.
RobotToaster 4y ago
>"Maker youtube" has been popping off for years. People love small shops and DIY. People love watching small shops and DIY, not actually doing DIY, or paying small shops.
- dymk 4y ago
  Disagree, that's not been my experience at all (as the owner of a small shop, who was inspired much by maker-youtube)

by dymk 4y ago

legitster 4y ago

I am specifically thinking of a Christmas bazaar I was just at. You had all of these booths selling beautiful customized phone-cases and earrings and candle-holders and etc. And nearly all of them are starting with Chinese made plastics and putting labor intensive value on top of it. And there was a single 3d print shop booth that sold glorified paperweights. It just seemed to me that there is clearly a market failure between these two industries.

jacquesm 4y ago
Mass market junk is cheaper to make in China and ship by the containerload than it ever will be to produce locally no matter what method you use to manufacture them. Personally I wished people would stop buying these things whose only real goal seems to be to end up in landfills.
- legitster 4y ago
  I mean, what do you think most people are using 3D printers to make?
  - jacquesm 4y ago
    Sorry? What I think isn't really relevant. What I see is relevant and what I see is a lot of people making prototype hardware and small series stuff that would be very costly (sometimes impossible) to produce using any other method. It all depends on where you are looking. You claim - fairly categorically - that 'the "makerspace" has seemingly failed to produce any sort of meaningful Renaissance in small-scale US manufacturing' but that is a complete strawman, it only works if you assume that a renaissance in smallscale US manufacturing was the original goal and that never was the case. Makerspaces are not even a requirement to be part of the maker scene. Over the past couple of years I've seen elements of it all over industry and in series production up to several 100 units (probably a few in excess of that) of parts that you would have a pretty hard time making otherwise and with such low start-up costs. That you have an entirely different bar for success isn't an issue with the maker scene. I don't doubt that there are people that end up making things they throw away. But if you're building custom machinery the tools from the 'makerscene' have long escaped the hobby lab and are now a mainstay in any prototyping shop. Tooling, jigs, parts, gears(!), brackets of all shapes and sizes, adapters, custom plugs, cases, scientific gear for lab setups and so on. The list of items I've seen produced with these tools is longer than I care to list here.
dymk 4y ago
I used my 3D printer and CNC to assist in making these: https://www.longtailwoodcraft.com/gallery.html https://www.longtailwoodcraft.com/gallery.html There's no 3D components in the cutting boards or wall art itself. I make jigs and spacers and all sorts of things to assist in assembly and manufacture. An FDM 3D printer is useful for much more than making glorified paperweights. There's immense value in being able to make any jig you can think of, very precisely, and be able to reproduce it in an hour if you need another.
- legitster 4y ago
  Sure. I am trying to limit my comments to the value of 3D printers in the consumer space since I know they are not without their applications.

RobotToaster 4y ago

>"Maker youtube" has been popping off for years. People love small shops and DIY. People love watching small shops and DIY, not actually doing DIY, or paying small shops.

dymk 4y ago
Disagree, that's not been my experience at all (as the owner of a small shop, who was inspired much by maker-youtube)