"But for serious fabrication, good old machining is still the best bet" Obviously you are talking about the present, not the future. I believe that 3d printin

"But for serious fabrication, good old machining is still the best bet" Obviously you are talking about the present, not the future. I believe that 3d printing metals is the future, recycling your shavings is not a bonus, it is a serious problem when you waste from 50% to 90% of your metal blocks, not only if you use expensive metals like titanium, but also when you need to wear expensive tools and a lot of time and toxic lubricants to get it done(you need the lubricants to make the ultraslow process fast). In 5 axis CNC you also have the problem of having to design the order of the operations and grab positions. The good thing about 3d printing is that you have the geometry, you print it, you are done, no hassles, very small waste. Of course, once you have the main geometry done, you could use 5 axis CNC to make it perfect finish, just wasting less than 0.5-1% of the material weight and time.