4 ms·

Maybe this always happens when something is 'new', but it seems like people put 3D printing in the same category as computers. A computer is a device that allow

Maybe this always happens when something is 'new', but it seems like people put 3D printing in the same category as computers. A computer is a device that allows you to communicate with (almost) anyone on the planet, learn about almost anything, or entertain yourself into oblivion. A 3D printer is a device that makes plastic doo hickeys. It's cool (I have one, I printed some cases today and just got done plastidipping them), but almost no one that I know would benefit from having one. Most people aren't designers, they aren't driven to design something they have in their head. There's only so many 'cool' things that you can make from browsing Thingiverse. Once you print those cool things, what are you going to do next? Wait until something new and cool comes that you think you need (once a week? once a month?) then print it? Most people will not use a 3D printer every day, unlike they will with computers. 3D printers have a severe print time limitation - it takes me a lot of time to find/design something, slice it just right, print it, and have it in my hands. 3D printing has an incredibly high ping. My browser gets me any information about anything I want to know about in seconds.

phil 13y ago
Don't forget the metal doohickeys, too. How much of the stuff in your life could be made by snapping together plastic and metal doohickeys?
- marssaxman 13y ago
  As little as I can get away with!
- greeneggs 13y ago
  Almost nothing. (Is my sarcasm detector not working? Do normal people really have houses full of printable plastic?)
  - daned 13y ago
    The kitchen is a good place to do this exercise.
damian2000 13y ago
But its likely that with improvements in the technology, the downsides you mention like print time, small range of applications, etc. might be solved. Its really similar to when the first PCs came out - only hobbyists were using them, and most people probably didn't have much use for them, until easier to use OSes like Mac/Windows came out.
obviouslygreen 13y ago
While I understand and (for the moment) agree with your point, this was most certainly true of computers in their infancy as well. Most people had no context to assume that computers would take off and become ubiquitous and vital to so many parts of our lives. It also takes a lot of time to conceive of/design a program, develop or have someone develop it, debug it, distribute it, and get people to download and install it. But this has happened, and on a grand scale, due to a steady progression of improved demand and increased efficiency of supply. I do not mean to suggest that 3D printing will find the same reach as computing, or in the same way. I simply mean to point out that we do not yet have the perspective to see where it might go or how it might make itself indispensable (or at least invasive) on a commercial level.
- daned 13y ago
  I think there is a worldwide market for maybe five 3D printers.
kposehn 13y ago
Each and every point you make is along the same lines as what originally happened with computers. Think about it this way; 3d printers will eventually expand. You'll be able to print more and more things. Soon, they'll be useful things. Then, you'll be using a printer to make essentials. One day, they'll be indispensable, just like computers today. They won't be the same as what you see now. They'll work with metals, they will mold and polish. They may even do some crazy assembly in addition. Whatever they will be, we probably can't envision yet.
- ynniv 13y ago
  The alternative to a computer in every home is... well, there really isn't any other way to talk with people around the world. The alternative to a 3d printer in every home is Amazon Prime.
  - zachkatz 13y ago
    However, 3D printing is nearly instant delivery. With Amazon Prime, as of now, it still takes 1-2 days for packages to arrive. Imagine if Amazon Prime were to adopt 3D printing into their model...
    - bigiain 13y ago
      Clearly written by a guy who hasn't left a Makerbot (sloooooowly) printing something overnight, only to wake up to a room full of PLA fairy floss… ;-)
  - Taylorious 13y ago
    How will you ever be able to print transistors, capacitors, anything made of metal, or most anything useful? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of cool uses now for very specific things like robots, prototyping, or medical things, but the idea that one day soon everyone will have a 3d printer and you will purchase schematics for things on Amazon is far fetched. I cant think of a single thing I have purchased on amazon in the last year that could be made on a 3d printer. Unless they will start being able to make things out of steal, glass, rare materials, and be able to vacuum seal things, etc.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
JDDunn9 13y ago
I agree. Who ever said, "Boy I wish I could manufacture that in my house"? Plastic goods are already cheap, so what does this save me? 2 days waiting for my Amazon order? Revolutions happen when you drastically reduce costs, or increase functionality. 3D printing does neither. F.Y.I. The next revolution will be in robotics.
- Tsagadai 13y ago
  Almost everyone asks "Boy, I wish I could have a house like I want". You are thinking too small, imagine a 3D printer that makes houses at a 10th of the current costs. Just looking at what they do now is not enough. Techniques are improving, technologies are changing, materials are being discovered. What is today is not the limit of what is possible.
  - dagw 13y ago
    But virtually nobody is going to buy a 3D printer to print a house for themselves. They're going to call up their local house building company, send over the drawings they came up with together with their architect and then the house-building company will make the house using whatever technique is best, which may very well be a 3d-printer. I think 3D does have future in commercial settings and offering on demand print services, but I still doubt most people will have one in their home in the near future.
  - sp332 13y ago
    Mass-produced prefab houses can be really cheap. I don't think a printer is the right way to make things cheaper. You can always make things cheaper at scale in a factory than you can as one-offs in your house.
- thangalin 13y ago
  Using 3D-printed robotic parts.
- prewett 13y ago
  I think you could have made the same argument for laser printers. Who ever said, "Boy I wish I could have my printouts look like they came from a professional printer"? Yet, now they cost $400 and many people have them in their homes. And even those that do not have ink jets with output quality almost as good. Increased functionality: I can have exactly what I want. It can look exactly like it was professionally created. Decreased costs: It saves the cost of shipping it from China, then driving it on the freeway. This might be worth it for heavier items. If 3D printing can be scaled to a factory level, this might be very attractive, since you wouldn't have to hire expensive American workers to produce in the US. It might make things with high capital cost much more affordable: imagine being able to 3D print out custom car body parts and have them assembled for the price of a high-end car. Impossible now.
Taylorious 13y ago
I completely agree. I keep hearing people talking about printing electronics, car parts, and all kinds of ridiculous things. Yes you can make plastic stuff and molds etc. but no 3d printer is going to be able to make a blueray player or anything that isn't just plastic and looking like it was made to be sold in a dollar store. Sometimes I feel like tech people get focused on new ideas that they overvalue them and don't realize there are other ways to do things. A lot of the stuff I hear people dreaming about can already be done on a CNC milling machines or even on a regular milling machine with a competent machinist. If you want something cool made out of metal draw it up and go to a machine shop. No need to wait for 3d printers to progress to Star Trek functionality (they probably wont in your lifetime).
jarrett 13y ago
Most of what I see in my house is made from a fair number of parts, each of which took some rather complex tooling to manufacture. Even the simple-looking stuff took a lot to produce. Those plain sandals on the floor? They needed three different looms for the three kinds of fabric, plus whatever kind of molder is used for the rubber sole. And sewing machines in various configurations. That tea kettle? It needs to be made of parts that can withstand extreme heat. It's got a copper bottom and steel sides, plus a handle that must be made of some kind of heat-resistant plastic. That briefcase? Fake leather (however that's made), steel hardware of various sorts, and zippers. All hooked together with riveters, sewing machines, and other tools. Most items you own are the result of a large number of industrial processes. There's an amazingly intricate web of raw materials producers and manufacturers behind nearly everything. Conceivably, some or many of these processes could be replaced with printing, but that's not even on the horizon at this point. To be more specific, I see big challenges in printing materials with the right properties: flexibility, tensile strength, etc.. There's a reason we use so many different materials in today's products. And then there are the challenges of printing electrical devices. Many of these involve quite a few materials, such as copper, silver, gold, tungsten, and on and on. Many also involve a high degree of miniaturization (I'm thinking of chips here).

phil 13y ago

Don't forget the metal doohickeys, too. How much of the stuff in your life could be made by snapping together plastic and metal doohickeys?

marssaxman 13y ago
As little as I can get away with!
greeneggs 13y ago
Almost nothing. (Is my sarcasm detector not working? Do normal people really have houses full of printable plastic?)
- daned 13y ago
  The kitchen is a good place to do this exercise.

damian2000 13y ago

But its likely that with improvements in the technology, the downsides you mention like print time, small range of applications, etc. might be solved. Its really similar to when the first PCs came out - only hobbyists were using them, and most people probably didn't have much use for them, until easier to use OSes like Mac/Windows came out.

obviouslygreen 13y ago

While I understand and (for the moment) agree with your point, this was most certainly true of computers in their infancy as well. Most people had no context to assume that computers would take off and become ubiquitous and vital to so many parts of our lives. It also takes a lot of time to conceive of/design a program, develop or have someone develop it, debug it, distribute it, and get people to download and install it. But this has happened, and on a grand scale, due to a steady progression of improved demand and increased efficiency of supply. I do not mean to suggest that 3D printing will find the same reach as computing, or in the same way. I simply mean to point out that we do not yet have the perspective to see where it might go or how it might make itself indispensable (or at least invasive) on a commercial level.

daned 13y ago
I think there is a worldwide market for maybe five 3D printers.

kposehn 13y ago

Each and every point you make is along the same lines as what originally happened with computers. Think about it this way; 3d printers will eventually expand. You'll be able to print more and more things. Soon, they'll be useful things. Then, you'll be using a printer to make essentials. One day, they'll be indispensable, just like computers today. They won't be the same as what you see now. They'll work with metals, they will mold and polish. They may even do some crazy assembly in addition. Whatever they will be, we probably can't envision yet.

ynniv 13y ago
The alternative to a computer in every home is... well, there really isn't any other way to talk with people around the world. The alternative to a 3d printer in every home is Amazon Prime.
- zachkatz 13y ago
  However, 3D printing is nearly instant delivery. With Amazon Prime, as of now, it still takes 1-2 days for packages to arrive. Imagine if Amazon Prime were to adopt 3D printing into their model...
  - bigiain 13y ago
    Clearly written by a guy who hasn't left a Makerbot (sloooooowly) printing something overnight, only to wake up to a room full of PLA fairy floss… ;-)
- Taylorious 13y ago
  How will you ever be able to print transistors, capacitors, anything made of metal, or most anything useful? Don't get me wrong, there are a lot of cool uses now for very specific things like robots, prototyping, or medical things, but the idea that one day soon everyone will have a 3d printer and you will purchase schematics for things on Amazon is far fetched. I cant think of a single thing I have purchased on amazon in the last year that could be made on a 3d printer. Unless they will start being able to make things out of steal, glass, rare materials, and be able to vacuum seal things, etc.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

JDDunn9 13y ago

I agree. Who ever said, "Boy I wish I could manufacture that in my house"? Plastic goods are already cheap, so what does this save me? 2 days waiting for my Amazon order? Revolutions happen when you drastically reduce costs, or increase functionality. 3D printing does neither. F.Y.I. The next revolution will be in robotics.

Tsagadai 13y ago
Almost everyone asks "Boy, I wish I could have a house like I want". You are thinking too small, imagine a 3D printer that makes houses at a 10th of the current costs. Just looking at what they do now is not enough. Techniques are improving, technologies are changing, materials are being discovered. What is today is not the limit of what is possible.
- dagw 13y ago
  But virtually nobody is going to buy a 3D printer to print a house for themselves. They're going to call up their local house building company, send over the drawings they came up with together with their architect and then the house-building company will make the house using whatever technique is best, which may very well be a 3d-printer. I think 3D does have future in commercial settings and offering on demand print services, but I still doubt most people will have one in their home in the near future.
- sp332 13y ago
  Mass-produced prefab houses can be really cheap. I don't think a printer is the right way to make things cheaper. You can always make things cheaper at scale in a factory than you can as one-offs in your house.
thangalin 13y ago
Using 3D-printed robotic parts.
prewett 13y ago
I think you could have made the same argument for laser printers. Who ever said, "Boy I wish I could have my printouts look like they came from a professional printer"? Yet, now they cost $400 and many people have them in their homes. And even those that do not have ink jets with output quality almost as good. Increased functionality: I can have exactly what I want. It can look exactly like it was professionally created. Decreased costs: It saves the cost of shipping it from China, then driving it on the freeway. This might be worth it for heavier items. If 3D printing can be scaled to a factory level, this might be very attractive, since you wouldn't have to hire expensive American workers to produce in the US. It might make things with high capital cost much more affordable: imagine being able to 3D print out custom car body parts and have them assembled for the price of a high-end car. Impossible now.

Taylorious 13y ago

I completely agree. I keep hearing people talking about printing electronics, car parts, and all kinds of ridiculous things. Yes you can make plastic stuff and molds etc. but no 3d printer is going to be able to make a blueray player or anything that isn't just plastic and looking like it was made to be sold in a dollar store. Sometimes I feel like tech people get focused on new ideas that they overvalue them and don't realize there are other ways to do things. A lot of the stuff I hear people dreaming about can already be done on a CNC milling machines or even on a regular milling machine with a competent machinist. If you want something cool made out of metal draw it up and go to a machine shop. No need to wait for 3d printers to progress to Star Trek functionality (they probably wont in your lifetime).

jarrett 13y ago

Most of what I see in my house is made from a fair number of parts, each of which took some rather complex tooling to manufacture. Even the simple-looking stuff took a lot to produce. Those plain sandals on the floor? They needed three different looms for the three kinds of fabric, plus whatever kind of molder is used for the rubber sole. And sewing machines in various configurations. That tea kettle? It needs to be made of parts that can withstand extreme heat. It's got a copper bottom and steel sides, plus a handle that must be made of some kind of heat-resistant plastic. That briefcase? Fake leather (however that's made), steel hardware of various sorts, and zippers. All hooked together with riveters, sewing machines, and other tools. Most items you own are the result of a large number of industrial processes. There's an amazingly intricate web of raw materials producers and manufacturers behind nearly everything. Conceivably, some or many of these processes could be replaced with printing, but that's not even on the horizon at this point. To be more specific, I see big challenges in printing materials with the right properties: flexibility, tensile strength, etc.. There's a reason we use so many different materials in today's products. And then there are the challenges of printing electrical devices. Many of these involve quite a few materials, such as copper, silver, gold, tungsten, and on and on. Many also involve a high degree of miniaturization (I'm thinking of chips here).