4 ms·

I just don't get it. Not that 3D printing is bad, just that these examples seem mostly silly for being billed as practical. Nearly every post about 3D printers

I just don't get it. Not that 3D printing is bad, just that these examples seem mostly silly for being billed as practical. Nearly every post about 3D printers reads like straight up satire. I'm acquainted with two families that own machine shops, and my father was very into handyman-ism. Another friend's dad works at the dump (or affectionately, "dump mart"). If we wanted something like a bicycle accessory or camera mount we just made one. Out of wood and wire and paracord. We just hammered and sawed stuff together. Welders can't be that uncommon, and they're a few hundred bucks if you can't find a used one. Fixing things with plastic? That's called a glue gun and they're ten dollars and existed since way back when Saturday Night Live was funny. To be fair to the article though, we couldn't make our own LEGOs. We could make our own boats and swords and (hairspray-powered) cannons, but not LEGOs. Is my experience growing up really that uncommon? Or is having a 3D printer just an expensive substitute for having friends that are in to making and fixing stuff? ~~~ I don't mean to knock the technology itself. 3D printers are really cool, but I think titling an article "Ten Practical Things..." and coming up with the list they did just feels very shoehorned.

auctiontheory 14y ago
It's partly a fixed cost versus variable cost argument. Once you have access to a 3D printer and learn how to use it, you can make (some) things much better and faster than you could by hand. Perhaps you get a lot of pleasure out of crafting stuff with your own hands. That's great. Some people may get a similar pleasure from designing stuff onscreen and seeing it take form in their printer.
mokkol 14y ago
You can download products and print it without any experience. Quite powerful.
- jlarocco 14y ago
  I just don't think people buy many items that are 3D printable. Using myself as an example, there's not a single thing in my Amazon purchase history that would be 3D printable. Even looking around my office for items which might be 3D printable (coffee mugs, drinking glasses, plates,...), I can't imagine it being more efficient or cost effective to 3D print them than simply ordering them off Amazon or running to the store. I think 3D printing is a great prototyping tool, and I'm sure it'll really speed up some manufacturing processes, but I have trouble seeing it as a break through with directly for consumers.
cfinke 14y ago
Is my experience growing up really that uncommon? Or is having a 3D printer just an expensive substitute for having friends that are in to making and fixing stuff? In the same way that C++ is just a verbose substitute for having friends that are in to writing assembly.
- fudged71 14y ago
  Yes, 3D printing allows people to get interested in DIY by letting them make these parts without much effort. Most city slickers have no idea how to get into DIY. For a long time, 3D printing will be useful as a "close-enough" alternative to more expensive models, parts, and replacements.
ericb 14y ago
Aside from all the things you couldn't make with that approach, 3d printing enables something like the classical lazy programmer. You can take an open source part, and print it (like using an open source project or library instead of reinventing the wheel). Also, you essentially need only 1 tool to make this, and one material. The effort and time is much smaller, so you can make many more things. You can iterate and improve. For a rough parallel, you're guy who wants to write a new web app in C. Nothing wrong with C, and without it, there would be no web apps, but the guy with the scripting language and framework will probably smoke you in getting it out the door.
ejlowry 14y ago
I wish I'd grown up with a machine shop, that sounds fantastic. I really like making stuff, but I'm a horrible handyman. I'm much more comfortable making (or just copying) a model on a computer and then printing it out. I think the interesting part of the technology is that it makes what you take for granted accessible to someone like me.
F_J_H 14y ago
You may be right - there are not many obvious practical uses...yet. I'm leery of calling "hype" on new technology simply because practical uses are not immediately evident. I remember reading that most people in the late 1800's couldn't imagine an economy that was based on jobs that were not related to some aspect of farming... Edit: In the early days of Twitter, most people couldn't think of anything useful coming out of tweeting 140 characters.
- Gormo 14y ago
  > In the early days of Twitter, most people couldn't think of anything useful coming out of tweeting 140 characters. Pretty bad example. Twitter's been around for quite a while, and I still can't find anything useful to do with it. There's way more immediate benefit from owning a 3D printer, even at this stage, than a Twitter account.
  - kunai 14y ago
    > Pretty bad example. Twitter's been around for quite a while, and I still can't find anything useful to do with it. Seconded. People say I don't "get" Twitter. I say, Twitter doesn't get it. Not only is the community filled with conformist pop-culture freaks with IQs well below 100, but the entire system of followers and following is not efficient. The 140-char word count is not sufficient for a full thought; requiring the use of the Information Age equivalent of shorthand (I thought we got rid of this years ago). When all is said and done, really, blogging is a far better solution.
    - binxbolling 14y ago
      Blogging is a better solution... to what though? Is it possible Twitter is a solution to a problem you're not facing, or even aware of?
      - kunai 14y ago
        In a business sense: Marketing and product releases. And in a general sense: posting about how your life is so awful or how this song was so good or how x programming language is better than y programming language is not as good as z programming language, but n programming language has features that neither x, y, or z has and it's the END OF THE WORLD.
DannoHung 14y ago
You didn't think the 3-axis gimbal camera assembly was pretty cool? You need some tight tolerances to be able to correctly mount motors into something like that.
forgottenpaswrd 14y ago
"Is my experience growing up really that uncommon? Or is having a 3D printer just an expensive substitute for having friends that are in to making and fixing stuff?" I probably made more things growing up than you, from my own microcomputer(from components you had to solder), my complete bicycle, lots of toys, my own welder from microwave transformers, my own tools like motorized saws and stuff including mechanizing all the gears and dioramas for the Warhammer(a UK lead figurines game, we also melted lead to copy dragons[the bigger super-expensive ones]). I also had lots of friends as a kid, but only a minority were into making things. Now as a grown up, I really, really LOVE my 3D printer. Why? Because is not just a maker machine like a saw, but it is a hidden mass production machine. I design once, I upload my design to thingiverse and 10.000 people or a million(if there were that much printers) could do it too without effort. I also don't need to spend hours thinking how to solve a problem, and more hours making it, I have a real job to fill most of my time, and my family for the remainder. I could go to the web and within five minutes put the printer to work while doing more important things like walking the dog or kissing my wife. PS: BTW, my job is in making things, we use 3Dprinters and routers for prototypes a lot.

auctiontheory 14y ago

It's partly a fixed cost versus variable cost argument. Once you have access to a 3D printer and learn how to use it, you can make (some) things much better and faster than you could by hand. Perhaps you get a lot of pleasure out of crafting stuff with your own hands. That's great. Some people may get a similar pleasure from designing stuff onscreen and seeing it take form in their printer.

mokkol 14y ago

You can download products and print it without any experience. Quite powerful.

jlarocco 14y ago
I just don't think people buy many items that are 3D printable. Using myself as an example, there's not a single thing in my Amazon purchase history that would be 3D printable. Even looking around my office for items which might be 3D printable (coffee mugs, drinking glasses, plates,...), I can't imagine it being more efficient or cost effective to 3D print them than simply ordering them off Amazon or running to the store. I think 3D printing is a great prototyping tool, and I'm sure it'll really speed up some manufacturing processes, but I have trouble seeing it as a break through with directly for consumers.

cfinke 14y ago

Is my experience growing up really that uncommon? Or is having a 3D printer just an expensive substitute for having friends that are in to making and fixing stuff? In the same way that C++ is just a verbose substitute for having friends that are in to writing assembly.

fudged71 14y ago
Yes, 3D printing allows people to get interested in DIY by letting them make these parts without much effort. Most city slickers have no idea how to get into DIY. For a long time, 3D printing will be useful as a "close-enough" alternative to more expensive models, parts, and replacements.

ericb 14y ago

Aside from all the things you couldn't make with that approach, 3d printing enables something like the classical lazy programmer. You can take an open source part, and print it (like using an open source project or library instead of reinventing the wheel). Also, you essentially need only 1 tool to make this, and one material. The effort and time is much smaller, so you can make many more things. You can iterate and improve. For a rough parallel, you're guy who wants to write a new web app in C. Nothing wrong with C, and without it, there would be no web apps, but the guy with the scripting language and framework will probably smoke you in getting it out the door.

ejlowry 14y ago

I wish I'd grown up with a machine shop, that sounds fantastic. I really like making stuff, but I'm a horrible handyman. I'm much more comfortable making (or just copying) a model on a computer and then printing it out. I think the interesting part of the technology is that it makes what you take for granted accessible to someone like me.

F_J_H 14y ago

You may be right - there are not many obvious practical uses...yet. I'm leery of calling "hype" on new technology simply because practical uses are not immediately evident. I remember reading that most people in the late 1800's couldn't imagine an economy that was based on jobs that were not related to some aspect of farming... Edit: In the early days of Twitter, most people couldn't think of anything useful coming out of tweeting 140 characters.

Gormo 14y ago
> In the early days of Twitter, most people couldn't think of anything useful coming out of tweeting 140 characters. Pretty bad example. Twitter's been around for quite a while, and I still can't find anything useful to do with it. There's way more immediate benefit from owning a 3D printer, even at this stage, than a Twitter account.
- kunai 14y ago
  > Pretty bad example. Twitter's been around for quite a while, and I still can't find anything useful to do with it. Seconded. People say I don't "get" Twitter. I say, Twitter doesn't get it. Not only is the community filled with conformist pop-culture freaks with IQs well below 100, but the entire system of followers and following is not efficient. The 140-char word count is not sufficient for a full thought; requiring the use of the Information Age equivalent of shorthand (I thought we got rid of this years ago). When all is said and done, really, blogging is a far better solution.
  - binxbolling 14y ago
    Blogging is a better solution... to what though? Is it possible Twitter is a solution to a problem you're not facing, or even aware of?
    - kunai 14y ago
      In a business sense: Marketing and product releases. And in a general sense: posting about how your life is so awful or how this song was so good or how x programming language is better than y programming language is not as good as z programming language, but n programming language has features that neither x, y, or z has and it's the END OF THE WORLD.

DannoHung 14y ago

You didn't think the 3-axis gimbal camera assembly was pretty cool? You need some tight tolerances to be able to correctly mount motors into something like that.

forgottenpaswrd 14y ago

"Is my experience growing up really that uncommon? Or is having a 3D printer just an expensive substitute for having friends that are in to making and fixing stuff?" I probably made more things growing up than you, from my own microcomputer(from components you had to solder), my complete bicycle, lots of toys, my own welder from microwave transformers, my own tools like motorized saws and stuff including mechanizing all the gears and dioramas for the Warhammer(a UK lead figurines game, we also melted lead to copy dragons[the bigger super-expensive ones]). I also had lots of friends as a kid, but only a minority were into making things. Now as a grown up, I really, really LOVE my 3D printer. Why? Because is not just a maker machine like a saw, but it is a hidden mass production machine. I design once, I upload my design to thingiverse and 10.000 people or a million(if there were that much printers) could do it too without effort. I also don't need to spend hours thinking how to solve a problem, and more hours making it, I have a real job to fill most of my time, and my family for the remainder. I could go to the web and within five minutes put the printer to work while doing more important things like walking the dog or kissing my wife. PS: BTW, my job is in making things, we use 3Dprinters and routers for prototypes a lot.