4 ms·

3D printing is exciting, but it's easy to get carried away. Paper printers exist, yet people still purchase books and magazines. By the same token, even if ever

3D printing is exciting, but it's easy to get carried away. Paper printers exist, yet people still purchase books and magazines. By the same token, even if everyone had a 3D printer, they wouldn't necessarily print every object they own instead of purchasing it. In addition, our culture has slowly eroded the usefulness of printing parts. Parts are great if you fix things, but consumers don't fix things. They break them and buy a new one! IMO 3D printing will provide a huge boon to 1-2 person commando hardware startups more than consumers, in the same way that access to free development tools and cloud services have been a huge boon to 1-2 person commando software startups. In that way, consumers lives will certainly be changed by 3D printing because of being provided more products, but not necessarily by actually owning them and printing things with the printers.

waterlesscloud 14y ago
If printer cartridges were cheaper and if home printers bound books, people might not buy as many books. To me, the key is going to be the cost of the feed stock. Get it low enough and people will 3D print everything. A side note, this weekend my 74 year old stepdad was asking me about the state of 3D printing. He has a mechanical engineering degree, so a bit atypical of his age group I guess, but he was really excited about the possibilities. I also told him about HN so he's probably reading this now. Hi!
- beambot 14y ago
  Indeed, you should check out the Espresso Book Machine. It's being installed in libraries around the world [1]. I've seen computations that suggest printing your book on demand might be more cost-efficient [2] than maintaining book inventories and hiring librarians to restock shelves. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso_Book_Machine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso_Book_Machine [2] Though probably much less environmentally sound!
  - Wingman4l7 14y ago
    As neat as it is, the potential problem with the Espresso Book Machine is the quality of the resulting book. IIRC, the binding was not something that would hold up very well over time. There's a limit on what it can do; you can kiss hardcovers goodbye! It does, however, get the job done; it reminds me of the Wired piece "The Good Enough Revolution": http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff...
    - derleth 14y ago
      > IIRC, the binding was not something that would hold up very well over time. I could say the same about a number of books I have bought at bookstores over the years. I mean, ask a librarian how well books hold up over time, and how often they need to be repaired simply from normal usage. And then when the paper itself begins to go south... (Admittedly, that was more of a problem before acid-free paper caught on.)
  - mseebach2 14y ago
    > [2] Though probably much less environmentally sound! Don't count on it. Paper isn't an environmental liability - all paper you can buy in the US and Europe is from sustainably farmed wood and recycling. As long and the resulting books are recycled, not inefficiently burned, it's fine. Also, remember, the cost to maintain libraries isn't just financial, it's environmental as well.
    - davezatch 14y ago
      Do you have a source re: sustainably farmed/recycled wood? I was not aware of this, and so often hear about disappearing forests in Brazil and Russia. But I'm curious.
      - vibrunazo 14y ago
        Here in Brazil, most of the forest currently disappearing is because farmers want the land to raise cattle and make money off selling meat. Not paper. Though forests used to be cut down for paper. That's no longer the case because it's not profitable anymore. Because of lack of demand. But while the parent poster is right that virtually all paper today comes from sustainably farmed wood. That's still an ecological problem. Because sustainably farmed wood is not native to our eco system. Brazilian flora might take centuries to grow, so farmers would chop down local trees to plant European pine trees instead. Their propaganda, which the parent poster bought into, is that if you chop a tree to plant another, then no harm is done. But that's not how eco systems work. Local fauna cannot live in foreign pine trees, just as they wouldn't live in a concrete city. So many local species are now endangered or extinct because of paper farms. I live on an area where a lot of paper farming used to happen. I had an American friend come here once. He told me the forest around the highway we were on surprised him. Because it looked nothing like the movies he seen, instead it looked just like Europe, with regularly spaced tall pine trees. He asked "is this where the monkeys are?", looking closely to the pines hoping to see one. Unfortunately, I told him, during my whole life here I have never seen a monkey in the wild. Even though this same place used to be the home of some really interesting species, like the golden lion monkey. But we could go to the zoo to see one if he wanted to. Source of this is my experience as a local who used to be an active Greenpeace volunteer, back in the day.

waterlesscloud 14y ago

If printer cartridges were cheaper and if home printers bound books, people might not buy as many books. To me, the key is going to be the cost of the feed stock. Get it low enough and people will 3D print everything. A side note, this weekend my 74 year old stepdad was asking me about the state of 3D printing. He has a mechanical engineering degree, so a bit atypical of his age group I guess, but he was really excited about the possibilities. I also told him about HN so he's probably reading this now. Hi!

beambot 14y ago
Indeed, you should check out the Espresso Book Machine. It's being installed in libraries around the world [1]. I've seen computations that suggest printing your book on demand might be more cost-efficient [2] than maintaining book inventories and hiring librarians to restock shelves. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso_Book_Machine http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Espresso_Book_Machine [2] Though probably much less environmentally sound!
- Wingman4l7 14y ago
  As neat as it is, the potential problem with the Espresso Book Machine is the quality of the resulting book. IIRC, the binding was not something that would hold up very well over time. There's a limit on what it can do; you can kiss hardcovers goodbye! It does, however, get the job done; it reminds me of the Wired piece "The Good Enough Revolution": http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff_goodenough?currentPage=all http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/magazine/17-09/ff...
  - derleth 14y ago
    > IIRC, the binding was not something that would hold up very well over time. I could say the same about a number of books I have bought at bookstores over the years. I mean, ask a librarian how well books hold up over time, and how often they need to be repaired simply from normal usage. And then when the paper itself begins to go south... (Admittedly, that was more of a problem before acid-free paper caught on.)
- mseebach2 14y ago
  > [2] Though probably much less environmentally sound! Don't count on it. Paper isn't an environmental liability - all paper you can buy in the US and Europe is from sustainably farmed wood and recycling. As long and the resulting books are recycled, not inefficiently burned, it's fine. Also, remember, the cost to maintain libraries isn't just financial, it's environmental as well.
  - davezatch 14y ago
    Do you have a source re: sustainably farmed/recycled wood? I was not aware of this, and so often hear about disappearing forests in Brazil and Russia. But I'm curious.
    - vibrunazo 14y ago
      Here in Brazil, most of the forest currently disappearing is because farmers want the land to raise cattle and make money off selling meat. Not paper. Though forests used to be cut down for paper. That's no longer the case because it's not profitable anymore. Because of lack of demand. But while the parent poster is right that virtually all paper today comes from sustainably farmed wood. That's still an ecological problem. Because sustainably farmed wood is not native to our eco system. Brazilian flora might take centuries to grow, so farmers would chop down local trees to plant European pine trees instead. Their propaganda, which the parent poster bought into, is that if you chop a tree to plant another, then no harm is done. But that's not how eco systems work. Local fauna cannot live in foreign pine trees, just as they wouldn't live in a concrete city. So many local species are now endangered or extinct because of paper farms. I live on an area where a lot of paper farming used to happen. I had an American friend come here once. He told me the forest around the highway we were on surprised him. Because it looked nothing like the movies he seen, instead it looked just like Europe, with regularly spaced tall pine trees. He asked "is this where the monkeys are?", looking closely to the pines hoping to see one. Unfortunately, I told him, during my whole life here I have never seen a monkey in the wild. Even though this same place used to be the home of some really interesting species, like the golden lion monkey. But we could go to the zoo to see one if he wanted to. Source of this is my experience as a local who used to be an active Greenpeace volunteer, back in the day.