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"I mean, do I really need to invest a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars and hundreds of hours of my time to print off a low quality t-slot hinge when

"I mean, do I really need to invest a couple hundred to a couple thousand dollars and hundreds of hours of my time to print off a low quality t-slot hinge when I could just stop off at my local home deport and pick up a high quality metal hinge for $2.95?" If you find a 3D printing group, you will spend at most 5 hours to learn how to print something. Nowadays with automatic bed leveling is more like an hour or so. But yeah, if you are not a tinkerer, then it is not for you. But for those tinkering with the world, like architects, engineers, scientists... having a 3D printer is invaluable. We build calibration systems for cameras and recognition that will cost us thousands of dollars each for basically nothing, thanks to 3d printers. It is also amazing for sharing design work. We send a model over the Internet and someone in other country could understand how it works just printing in plastic, while the real piece will be aluminum, steel or carbon fiber.

bane 12y ago
Yeah, absolutely, for custom pieces and prototyping, 3d printing is more or less essential these days. I'm concerned about the hype that it gets though "download a car!" and the lack of understanding in the industry at the low end (among people who make 3d printers, investors and consumers) about what it is exactly that they do and how they work. There's a kind of weird hype that they're basically Star Trek replicators: 1) feed in plastic 2) download model from internet 3) print an entire household of goods for next to nothing But with some very rare exceptions, usually in the very expensive SLS levels, final items aren't being produced and the quality, durability and complexity of what gets produced is not yet at what a normal consumer would expect. Even among crap Chinese plastics junk I have all over my house, there's precious few items that a 3d printer can produce end-to-end -- even if I have to do some minor assembly. Nearly every item has some kind of metal spring or screw or lens or circuit board or something in it. There's no way for anybody right now to download a new remote control model and have it print off ready for batteries to go in. The very large number of low-end 3d printer makers and the excited investors makes me think that people don't fundamentally understand these limitations yet. The upside of this of course is that it's very hard for anti-piracy groups to make any kind of reasonable claim that 3d printing is going to put anybody out of business since a half hour looking into the technology reveals the limitations pretty quickly.
- Htsthbjig 12y ago
  I actually believe the same happened with personal computers. You bought an Apple, Spectrum, Amiga or Atari and it was basically a toy. Nothing compared with the real thing with 200 MB tape. People got a job at IBM because it was "safe" while they joked about the capabilities of those toys. And they were truly toys. My parents bought home those computers and my brothers and sisters used them basically for gaming, "wasting" time with them. But suddenly along the way things change, and it become really useful to have a personal computer and it gave my brothers and sisters an edge over everybody else. And those toys started being smaller, cheaper and faster as they were manufactured in the millions. The same people who got the job at IBM were fired as personal computers took the world by storm with Window95. And that was before tablets, before any grandpa could use a computer. Some applications like 3D prosthetics are really life changing for lots of people, like people without legs,hands,or the blind, or just old people that will be able to print something that supports them walking instead of living on a chair (with all the associated health problems, we humans are not designed to live on a chair). Most 3D printers makers use Metric3mm,or M4 steel screws and nuts for most projects. You could even embed them in your plastic pieces using a soldering iron. It is ironic that we have 10 years old children print remote controls with an Arduino,a led and some batteries. But yes, this is the equivalent of our experience playing the Amiga.
  - Pamar 12y ago
    I suppose you mean that we have to wait for a "Visicalc for 3D printers" then...
    - chillingeffect 12y ago
      that's what I think, too. Visicalc made computers to useful to people who moved lots of money and numbers around. What can 3-D printers do for people who move lots of money and numbers around.. can they help predict? can they simulate? can they help people compete? I hope so... the big thing many people miss with 3d printers is that they're excellent for making molds for better materials.
  - ekianjo 12y ago

bane 12y ago

Yeah, absolutely, for custom pieces and prototyping, 3d printing is more or less essential these days. I'm concerned about the hype that it gets though "download a car!" and the lack of understanding in the industry at the low end (among people who make 3d printers, investors and consumers) about what it is exactly that they do and how they work. There's a kind of weird hype that they're basically Star Trek replicators: 1) feed in plastic 2) download model from internet 3) print an entire household of goods for next to nothing But with some very rare exceptions, usually in the very expensive SLS levels, final items aren't being produced and the quality, durability and complexity of what gets produced is not yet at what a normal consumer would expect. Even among crap Chinese plastics junk I have all over my house, there's precious few items that a 3d printer can produce end-to-end -- even if I have to do some minor assembly. Nearly every item has some kind of metal spring or screw or lens or circuit board or something in it. There's no way for anybody right now to download a new remote control model and have it print off ready for batteries to go in. The very large number of low-end 3d printer makers and the excited investors makes me think that people don't fundamentally understand these limitations yet. The upside of this of course is that it's very hard for anti-piracy groups to make any kind of reasonable claim that 3d printing is going to put anybody out of business since a half hour looking into the technology reveals the limitations pretty quickly.

Htsthbjig 12y ago
I actually believe the same happened with personal computers. You bought an Apple, Spectrum, Amiga or Atari and it was basically a toy. Nothing compared with the real thing with 200 MB tape. People got a job at IBM because it was "safe" while they joked about the capabilities of those toys. And they were truly toys. My parents bought home those computers and my brothers and sisters used them basically for gaming, "wasting" time with them. But suddenly along the way things change, and it become really useful to have a personal computer and it gave my brothers and sisters an edge over everybody else. And those toys started being smaller, cheaper and faster as they were manufactured in the millions. The same people who got the job at IBM were fired as personal computers took the world by storm with Window95. And that was before tablets, before any grandpa could use a computer. Some applications like 3D prosthetics are really life changing for lots of people, like people without legs,hands,or the blind, or just old people that will be able to print something that supports them walking instead of living on a chair (with all the associated health problems, we humans are not designed to live on a chair). Most 3D printers makers use Metric3mm,or M4 steel screws and nuts for most projects. You could even embed them in your plastic pieces using a soldering iron. It is ironic that we have 10 years old children print remote controls with an Arduino,a led and some batteries. But yes, this is the equivalent of our experience playing the Amiga.
- Pamar 12y ago
  I suppose you mean that we have to wait for a "Visicalc for 3D printers" then...
  - chillingeffect 12y ago
    that's what I think, too. Visicalc made computers to useful to people who moved lots of money and numbers around. What can 3-D printers do for people who move lots of money and numbers around.. can they help predict? can they simulate? can they help people compete? I hope so... the big thing many people miss with 3d printers is that they're excellent for making molds for better materials.
- ekianjo 12y ago