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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 no

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.

tomhoward 13y ago
How will you ever be able to This kind of skepticism has been raised about everything, years, decades or centuries before it happens. The very thing that makes 3D printing an interesting field is that's it's in its infancy and the long-term possibilities are unknown/unknowable. I'm not making any predictions about what will or won't happen, but I'll be fascinated to see it unfold. Unless they will start being able to make things out of steal, glass, rare materials, and be able to vacuum seal things ...well yes, exactly.
- slacka 13y ago
  >"3D printing an interesting field is that's it's in its infancy" Infancy? We had 3D printers in the 80s along with 1Mhz processors powering home built computer kits. Yet, 30 years later those CPUs are running at 3000Mhz with multiple cores while the printers have barely advanced. The only reason you hear so much talk is the patents on early Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) units have expired. But these $1000 printers are only good for printing cheap plastic junk like this guy printed for his daughter which costs more to print and is worse quality than the stuff you can find at the local $ store.
DanBC 13y ago
"it is very possible that ... one machine would suffice to solve all the problems that are demanded of it from the whole country." -- Sir Charles Darwin in 1946 about computers.
mortehu 13y ago
Two things might interest you: Optomec's process of printing semiconductors onto 3D structures, and the NovoGen MMX Bioprinter, which prints human tissue. Still, I agree that fused deposition modeling is not going to be cost effective compared to injection molding if you need more than 2000 objects worldwide.
- deleted 13y ago
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tomhoward 13y ago

How will you ever be able to This kind of skepticism has been raised about everything, years, decades or centuries before it happens. The very thing that makes 3D printing an interesting field is that's it's in its infancy and the long-term possibilities are unknown/unknowable. I'm not making any predictions about what will or won't happen, but I'll be fascinated to see it unfold. Unless they will start being able to make things out of steal, glass, rare materials, and be able to vacuum seal things ...well yes, exactly.

slacka 13y ago
>"3D printing an interesting field is that's it's in its infancy" Infancy? We had 3D printers in the 80s along with 1Mhz processors powering home built computer kits. Yet, 30 years later those CPUs are running at 3000Mhz with multiple cores while the printers have barely advanced. The only reason you hear so much talk is the patents on early Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) units have expired. But these $1000 printers are only good for printing cheap plastic junk like this guy printed for his daughter which costs more to print and is worse quality than the stuff you can find at the local $ store.

DanBC 13y ago

"it is very possible that ... one machine would suffice to solve all the problems that are demanded of it from the whole country." -- Sir Charles Darwin in 1946 about computers.

mortehu 13y ago

Two things might interest you: Optomec's process of printing semiconductors onto 3D structures, and the NovoGen MMX Bioprinter, which prints human tissue. Still, I agree that fused deposition modeling is not going to be cost effective compared to injection molding if you need more than 2000 objects worldwide.

deleted 13y ago
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