3 ms·
This is invariably the top comment in any thread here about 3D printing. And yes, if you're not in the habit of making things (whether for fun or professionally
by cmsmith 12y ago
This is invariably the top comment in any thread here about 3D printing. And yes, if you're not in the habit of making things (whether for fun or professionally) without a 3D printer, then you probably won't find much use for one. Most people never interact with unique objects, objects which aren't produced by the thousands or millions. And those types of mass produced objects can be made much more easily and well using traditional manufacturing.
I agree that 90% of the 3D printing going on is just for novelty items like jewelry or statues, which doesn't seem worth it to me. But if the novelty printers provide enough of a market to ensure the availability of printers for people who are using them for inventions or scientific instruments, then it's fine with me.
Things I've printed in the last few months:
* a bracket for installing a PID controller into my homemade sous vide cooker
* brackets for clamping a shaft and pulley into a specific configuration for a tension testing rig
* a tiny clamp for holding ceramic fibers in said test rig
* an adapter for mounting a custom optical filter to a camera
* a prototype of a new strain measuring device
- bcohen5055 12y agoI'm a mechanical engineer and I use 3D printing for countless things at work and occasionally in my own life but unless you are making things at home at least once a month it doesn't make sense to have your own and I think that is what the OP is saying. The idea of a "household" 3D printer doesn't appeal to him because like most consumers they don't want to make things they just want to buy them. If you think of the 3D printer more like a tablesaw and less like a microwave the market shrinks but the use case becomes much more clear.
- Already__Taken 12y agoI always though this was especially weird because someone who would get that amount of use or more out of one probably wants something _really_ awesome and not something cheap. Maybe even something that could print metal? I get the super cheap novelty use. After that I thought what you want is a service to send your design to and get an awesome quality piece back.
- TeMPOraL 12y ago> someone who would get that amount of use or more out of one probably wants something _really_ awesome and not something cheap. You're forgetting about what was the primary driving force behind commercial 3D printers, which is hobbyists who don't have money for a full machine shop. Those are the people who popularized assembling Rep-Raps, and who are now buying cheap printers to play with them and use for their projects. If you're a professional with a good idea what you're going to do with the printer, you definitely should go for something expensive. But if you're just a Joe Random Hacker, you probably can't afford anything more than the cheap one (and even if you could, you also need money to buy other parts for hardware projects).
- hugs 12y agoI may want something awesome, but wanting something now is a higher priority. When prototyping, I value my time and how fast I can iterate through the create-test-modify cycle more than build quality. At home, the quality has to be good enough, but not perfect.
- dfc 12y agoHow much force can you put on the brackets and or strain measuring device?
- cmsmith 12y agoEh something like 1-10 pounds (5-50 newtons) max.