4 ms·

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic, but I'll bite. My guess is never. CNC plastic printing has been around for 30+ years, and is only practical for makin

I can't tell if you are being sarcastic, but I'll bite. My guess is never. CNC plastic printing has been around for 30+ years, and is only practical for making one of a kind parts. As soon as you are making something that 1000 people need, there is a better manufacturing method. Maybe I lack imagination, but I cannot imagine a plastic piece of junk that need to be tailor-made poorly. When the cost of a PC went from $30k to $2k, most people couldn't see the revolution happening. Maybe I am the same fool.

jonmrodriguez 14y ago
For small-to-medium manufacturing runs, you could use a two-stage printer that first CNCs a metal mold, then uses it to injection mold. All of this off a 3D model and within hours.
pauljburke 14y ago
>Maybe I lack imagination, but I cannot imagine a plastic piece of junk that need to be tailor-made poorly. I know a bunch of people printing off models of their characters from the game 'City of Heroes' (incidentally if you ever want to see how not to close a service, check out NC Soft's behaviour over the last couple of weeks) before the doors shut and a lot of them would probably pay a substantial amount for a slightly better quality painted one.