4 ms·

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 Ama

by 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.
- interpol_p 13y ago
  I think that's a poor argument. Personal printers are on the way out. I recently got rid of my laser printer. It's large, clunky, I almost never used it (who needs things on paper anyway?). Every time I need something printed (once every two years, maybe) I would much rather go to OfficeWorks and get it done. So much more convenient than plugging the printer in just to use it. I think 3D printing is a cool niche, but I don't see it becoming a mainstream thing. People simply don't need to have physical objects produced often enough in their homes — there are odd times where it's useful, but they are rare enough that a trip to a store, or online order outweighs the inconvenience of having a large machine dedicated to a single task in your home.
- Taylorious 13y ago
  I'm in my early twenties and I have never owned a printer and likely never will. I have always had access to them at libraries, my university (which is when I actually printed a lot of stuff), work, etc. I can't imagine ever needing to get one, let alone spending a large amount of money on a high quality laser printer. Printers just always seem to be around me. Anytime I need to print something I am giving what a printed to someone or mailing it etc. Which means that I am going somewhere. So, on the way there, I just stop somewhere and do my printing there.
sp332 13y ago
3D printing lets you print something custom quickly and cheaply. You can make a unique thing and hold iterations of it in your hands. You could also tweak a file you get from someone else to make it fit your exact idea, on a whim. That's drastically reduced costs when you compare it to other ways of making one-off custom parts.

by JDDunn9 13y ago

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.

interpol_p 13y ago
I think that's a poor argument. Personal printers are on the way out. I recently got rid of my laser printer. It's large, clunky, I almost never used it (who needs things on paper anyway?). Every time I need something printed (once every two years, maybe) I would much rather go to OfficeWorks and get it done. So much more convenient than plugging the printer in just to use it. I think 3D printing is a cool niche, but I don't see it becoming a mainstream thing. People simply don't need to have physical objects produced often enough in their homes — there are odd times where it's useful, but they are rare enough that a trip to a store, or online order outweighs the inconvenience of having a large machine dedicated to a single task in your home.
Taylorious 13y ago
I'm in my early twenties and I have never owned a printer and likely never will. I have always had access to them at libraries, my university (which is when I actually printed a lot of stuff), work, etc. I can't imagine ever needing to get one, let alone spending a large amount of money on a high quality laser printer. Printers just always seem to be around me. Anytime I need to print something I am giving what a printed to someone or mailing it etc. Which means that I am going somewhere. So, on the way there, I just stop somewhere and do my printing there.

sp332 13y ago

3D printing lets you print something custom quickly and cheaply. You can make a unique thing and hold iterations of it in your hands. You could also tweak a file you get from someone else to make it fit your exact idea, on a whim. That's drastically reduced costs when you compare it to other ways of making one-off custom parts.