4 ms·

I wish the 3D printing enthusiasts would spend some time learning about the fantastic capabilities we already have in making useful things. We have CNC mills an

I wish the 3D printing enthusiasts would spend some time learning about the fantastic capabilities we already have in making useful things. We have CNC mills and lathes and grinders and cast makers and mould makers, we have industrial robots and super spiffy warehouse robots, we have automatic measuring machines and moving machines, we even have pneumatic flying cranberry sorters, we have many, many amazing things. 3D printing isn't the first, and it still can't make good machine parts. I realize well enough that what some dismiss as toys may in decades to come be foundational to how we do things, but the point is that future isn't really here yet. To those who believe they can bring it faster, good luck and godspeed.

phy6 14y ago
Do you sincerely think those advancements are lost on common 3D printing enthusiasts? It's not that it's some magical piece of tech, it's that the freedom to make things is now in a form palatable to lifestyles of non machinists and 3D CAD enthusiasts. A mid grade consumer 3D printer may cost the same as a used Bridgeport with a CNC retrofit, but what good is that for the hobbyist in the city with no dedicated workshop space? The point is 3D printing is relatively clean, relatively inexpensive way to do fun, plastic prototypes designed on a computer. It's also very non-intrusive to the casual hobbyist's life, to the point it can be done in a 400sqft studio without pissing off a landlord.
- DaniFong 14y ago
  You could be right but it sounds to me like you're back fitting a story. 3d printing has a much more convoluted history than that. It's not trumpeted as something for hobbyists to make fun plastic prototypes. It is being heralded as the future of manufacturing. There once was, and still is, hope for making actual useful components. 3d printed prosthetics. 3d printed casting moulds. 3d printed blood vessels and kidneys. 3d printed jaws. 3d printed mass customizations. 3d printed drones. 3d printed RepRaps. Clearly the tech press has been going mad for the stuff. But one shouldn't believe the hype: your makerbot cannot do any of that, and even the nifty flexing Objet printed business card I received (which must have cost $4 to make) broke after a few months -- I have a shard on my desk.
primitur 14y ago
I know the guys behind the original Makerbot, and if you think that they had no clue about CNC mills, lathes, grinders, cast makers and mould makers, industrial robots and so on: you're very, very definitely mistaken. What is this generalization that "things that are not new are not good"? The point of the entire 3d-printer movement is that its no longer in the hands of industrial masters: its in the hands of the users. In some ways, your argument is kind of like saying "you know, I wish those Linux guys would learn about operating systems .. didn't they know there were already VMS and DOS and bigger OS's and stuff out there, made by bigger and better people than them, sheesh.."
- DaniFong 14y ago
  Two things: 1) Awareness is not knowledge 2) The inventors of the technology are not who I meant by the enthusiasts. I am not trying to reproach the technologies developers. I am simply trying to warn off the over-impressionable, and calm the hype artists. Surely you are aware of the plethora of 3D printing enthusiasts and the great dearth of useful things to do with it? I particularly hold those hype artists responsible who have not tried to 3D print anything. This obviously doesn't hold for the 3d printer inventors. But one tends to have one's enthusiasm muted when the jet clogs, the material spills out on the edges, the refills cost enough to bail out a small european island, the software barfs, the whole process takes HOURS and the eng product is a liney, smooshy, oozy, breaky catastrophe. This technology is NOT READY FOR THE HYPE and in the glories of rapid commercialization there are going to be damnable, industry draining, momentum churning, radical to conservative turning, uber-disappointment, and public opinion will again overshoot, and we will again be forced back into enterprise software, and it will all be preventable and all our fault. --- Check this stuff out, instead, to get a broader view of new construction: Pop-up machine assembly. Mass producible, high quality materials. Machine components are possible -- things you could never otherwise have. http://vibrantresearch.com/ http://vibrantresearch.com/ Pneumatic robots. Moving. Human compatible. Flexible. Packable. Lightweight. Strong. These are simple sown and braised (sometimes unbraised!) polyurethane. Way faster than 3D printing. Actually does things. Super cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqP3IpEqkk4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqP3IpEqkk4 Computer sciences should have by new realized the great advantage in the methods here outlined. A linear element cutting or sewing a surface which then pops out works much faster than a linear element zigging and zagging building up layer by layer. This is a fundamental characteristic of the technology. Also you can use less material, and stronger. --- A friend of mine, Tim Anderson, founded ZCorp, one of the first useful 3D printers. The basic advance played to strengths, and worked fast, you could build up layers quickly, cheaply, and even use color, thanks to printing liquid onto a powder on each layer. The material kind of sucked for material properties, but you'd have color, so you could show something in 3d, (stress concentrations in 3d, for example) and you could do art with it. Awesome. But that's about what you can do with it. Show things. Make art. That's cool. But that's not why people are getting into it. They're trying to take magic from their minds, to the computer, out to the real world. But you're stuck in a lame version of the real world when it takes 14 hours to make something out of expensive by cheap seeming plastic. And it sucks because people already can make such amazing things.

phy6 14y ago

Do you sincerely think those advancements are lost on common 3D printing enthusiasts? It's not that it's some magical piece of tech, it's that the freedom to make things is now in a form palatable to lifestyles of non machinists and 3D CAD enthusiasts. A mid grade consumer 3D printer may cost the same as a used Bridgeport with a CNC retrofit, but what good is that for the hobbyist in the city with no dedicated workshop space? The point is 3D printing is relatively clean, relatively inexpensive way to do fun, plastic prototypes designed on a computer. It's also very non-intrusive to the casual hobbyist's life, to the point it can be done in a 400sqft studio without pissing off a landlord.

DaniFong 14y ago
You could be right but it sounds to me like you're back fitting a story. 3d printing has a much more convoluted history than that. It's not trumpeted as something for hobbyists to make fun plastic prototypes. It is being heralded as the future of manufacturing. There once was, and still is, hope for making actual useful components. 3d printed prosthetics. 3d printed casting moulds. 3d printed blood vessels and kidneys. 3d printed jaws. 3d printed mass customizations. 3d printed drones. 3d printed RepRaps. Clearly the tech press has been going mad for the stuff. But one shouldn't believe the hype: your makerbot cannot do any of that, and even the nifty flexing Objet printed business card I received (which must have cost $4 to make) broke after a few months -- I have a shard on my desk.

primitur 14y ago

I know the guys behind the original Makerbot, and if you think that they had no clue about CNC mills, lathes, grinders, cast makers and mould makers, industrial robots and so on: you're very, very definitely mistaken. What is this generalization that "things that are not new are not good"? The point of the entire 3d-printer movement is that its no longer in the hands of industrial masters: its in the hands of the users. In some ways, your argument is kind of like saying "you know, I wish those Linux guys would learn about operating systems .. didn't they know there were already VMS and DOS and bigger OS's and stuff out there, made by bigger and better people than them, sheesh.."

DaniFong 14y ago
Two things: 1) Awareness is not knowledge 2) The inventors of the technology are not who I meant by the enthusiasts. I am not trying to reproach the technologies developers. I am simply trying to warn off the over-impressionable, and calm the hype artists. Surely you are aware of the plethora of 3D printing enthusiasts and the great dearth of useful things to do with it? I particularly hold those hype artists responsible who have not tried to 3D print anything. This obviously doesn't hold for the 3d printer inventors. But one tends to have one's enthusiasm muted when the jet clogs, the material spills out on the edges, the refills cost enough to bail out a small european island, the software barfs, the whole process takes HOURS and the eng product is a liney, smooshy, oozy, breaky catastrophe. This technology is NOT READY FOR THE HYPE and in the glories of rapid commercialization there are going to be damnable, industry draining, momentum churning, radical to conservative turning, uber-disappointment, and public opinion will again overshoot, and we will again be forced back into enterprise software, and it will all be preventable and all our fault. --- Check this stuff out, instead, to get a broader view of new construction: Pop-up machine assembly. Mass producible, high quality materials. Machine components are possible -- things you could never otherwise have. http://vibrantresearch.com/ http://vibrantresearch.com/ Pneumatic robots. Moving. Human compatible. Flexible. Packable. Lightweight. Strong. These are simple sown and braised (sometimes unbraised!) polyurethane. Way faster than 3D printing. Actually does things. Super cool. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqP3IpEqkk4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqP3IpEqkk4 Computer sciences should have by new realized the great advantage in the methods here outlined. A linear element cutting or sewing a surface which then pops out works much faster than a linear element zigging and zagging building up layer by layer. This is a fundamental characteristic of the technology. Also you can use less material, and stronger. --- A friend of mine, Tim Anderson, founded ZCorp, one of the first useful 3D printers. The basic advance played to strengths, and worked fast, you could build up layers quickly, cheaply, and even use color, thanks to printing liquid onto a powder on each layer. The material kind of sucked for material properties, but you'd have color, so you could show something in 3d, (stress concentrations in 3d, for example) and you could do art with it. Awesome. But that's about what you can do with it. Show things. Make art. That's cool. But that's not why people are getting into it. They're trying to take magic from their minds, to the computer, out to the real world. But you're stuck in a lame version of the real world when it takes 14 hours to make something out of expensive by cheap seeming plastic. And it sucks because people already can make such amazing things.