3d Printing and the Future of Piracy

Roland is apparently going to be showing off a color 3d printer next month. Yeah. Color.

We've got 3D printers all over the place here. To say they're not robust is ridiculous, because they get used for rocket parts. If the products are able to withstand the temperature fluctuations and vibrations of a rocket, I think you could say they're pretty sturdy.

Personally, I want a food printer. Can you imagine watching say, Food Network, and being able to print off whatever crap they're making? The future will be awesome.

I recently got a quote for a printer which can print with stainless steel and inconel for work...well my boss did not think it was feesible for us to jump into 3d printing for $650,000

http://www.gpiprototype.com/services/eosintm280.html

We make Oilfield tools for well work-overs, I am hoping in the next 10 years the price comes down a bit and the materials are better suited to withstand the types of forces, tempuratues, and corrosive envioments we have to deal with.

Is any sort of hardening process available for the 3d metal printed stuff? If I'm going to be printing up an intake manifold or control arm it needs to be just as strong as a cast/cnc milled part.

Lambourne_sl said:

Is any sort of hardening process available for the 3d metal printed stuff? If I'm going to be printing up an intake manifold or control arm it needs to be just as strong as a cast/cnc milled part.

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If you are seriously considering metal 3D printing for a commercial application,call this companyor someone like them.

So, these things are getting pretty cheap in a hurry. I'm thinking about picking one up to familiarize myself with the technology and tool around with. I don't want to spend more than around 5-600 dollars since there's a pretty good chance I'll mess around with it for a month or two before it begins collecting dust in my workshop. With that budget in mind, I'm currently looking at the various RepRap options, the EZ3D Phoenix, or the XYZ da Vinci.

RepRap's advantage of the three seems to be the community. Since it's been around for a while, it's got a well established user base. The possible disadvantage I can see is that it appears very open source / hobbyist, as in I might have spend a lot of time tinkering to get things into working shape.

EZ3D appears to have some interesting software ideas and a pretty decent looking product, but I'm a bit leery since the entire company looks like it might just be a family. It looks to be sort of in a vaporware phase, I don't see any reviews or owner's forums popping up.

The da Vinci looks most like a commercial product in line with the Makerbot and other products currently out there. If it lives up to its claims from CES, I could see it quickly catching on and gobbling up market share. My only concern is the inkjet-printer-ish business model. It looks like they're planning on making their profit on the cartridges.

Anyone have any thoughts?

I started a company that's been working with consumer 3D printers pretty intensively for the past couple years. I've seen/tried a lot of different models and seen a number of projects succeed and fail on Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites. At this point, given your budget and the fact that you seem to have some interest in the DIY aspect of it, I would highly recommend a Printrbot (Printrbot.com). They have full kits available in your price range which you can assemble yourself. This removes a lot of the uncertainty of procuring parts for your own Reprap, but still gives you the opportunity to build the whole thing yourself. The assembled printers perform reasonably well and they have a decent sized community should you run into any trouble.

There is probably a point at which the technology become cheap and widespread enough that it reaches critical mass and everyone wants one. I can see how this would become a standard household appliance where you would download plans for something you want then go to your local 3d parts print store (kinkos 3d) and pick up the pre numbered packages you need then load them up at home and go.

It's not a fast process (hopefully it gets faster) but if I broke a spatula I'd be happy to queue a new one up over night. Kids broke my dishes? Create a dozen funny kids plates. Create a new sprinkler since I seem to break them every fall/spring. Lost two pieces of my matching Tupperware set? No problem. I wonder if there are any decent looking picture frames it could print. Could use a dozen of those too.

There is all sorts of potential and though a 3d printer couldn't do everything there might be workarounds to combining printed objects with some pre made multiuse objects to get around that limitation.

Intropy_sl said:

I started a company that's been working with consumer 3D printers pretty intensively for the past couple years. I've seen/tried a lot of different models and seen a number of projects succeed and fail on Kickstarter and other crowd funding sites. At this point, given your budget and the fact that you seem to have some interest in the DIY aspect of it, I would highly recommend a Printrbot (Printrbot.com). They have full kits available in your price range which you can assemble yourself. This removes a lot of the uncertainty of procuring parts for your own Reprap, but still gives you the opportunity to build the whole thing yourself. The assembled printers perform reasonably well and they have a decent sized community should you run into any trouble.

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Thanks for the advice, I'd say that definitely edges out the EZ3D product. It looks like a fun kit to put together. Also, the aluminum extruder head looks a lot more robust than a lot of the designs I've seen. Reading the reviews on Amazon, it sounds like it's not something you want to move around a lot. Is this a valid concern? I'm moving around the end of the month, so, in that case, maybe I'll hold off a bit on a decision and see where things fall.

readmorepostless_sl said:

Thanks for the advice, I'd say that definitely edges out the EZ3D product. It looks like a fun kit to put together. Also, the aluminum extruder head looks a lot more robust than a lot of the designs I've seen. Reading the reviews on Amazon, it sounds like it's not something you want to move around a lot. Is this a valid concern? I'm moving around the end of the month, so, in that case, maybe I'll hold off a bit on a decision and see where things fall.

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I'm not really sure what issue the review is referring to, but I don't think moving things around would be too big of an issue assuming you keep it somewhere safe, like one of those large Rubbermaid containers. The only thing you might have to do is re-level the build platform after moving it, which is sort of standard maintenance for all consumer 3D printers anyway. On the other hand, you might need a day or two to assemble it depending on your technical expertise, so doing that amidst the chaos of moving might not be the best idea.

Big Phoenix_sl said:

3d printers gonna put legos and just about every toy maker out of business lawl.

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I don't think home 3D printers are close to the precision needed for this to happen any time soon. Lego's are made with ridiculously strict tolerances to make them work right. The number you see thrown around is "as little as 2 micrometers". I could be way off, but I don't think home printers are near that exact yet.

Megblocks might be in trouble though=P