31–40 of 52 posts
The $400 Duplicator produces parts that I immediately put into production. They are very high quality (in appearance, in tolerance, and in strength).
We saw this before when the PC cloners ate IBM's profit margin for lunch.
A lot of the reliability problems with desktop 3D printers comes from the fact that they're forced by patents encumbering better methods to use Fused-Deposited Material (FDM) style printing. Extruding plastic thread and building up a model from that requires a lot of moving parts, some with extreme thermal changes being applied to them. I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently s…
If I need a photo, I send the digital images to a printing service and receive a inexpensive high quality prints on professional quality paper, or bound in a coffee table book, or on a mug or birthday cake, etc.
The only time I print anything on my personal 2D printer is when I need it right now. All the while, I hate the experience; it's time consuming and requires expensive consumables.
I expect 3D printing will go the same way. If and when I ever start doing my own personal 3D printing, it will be through an online printing service where I can upload designs and have high quality prints done in various quality materials and shipped to me quickly via Amazon Prime or some other delivery service.
A lot of the reliability problems with desktop 3D printers comes from the fact that they're forced by patents encumbering better methods to use Fused-Deposited Material (FDM) style printing. Extruding plastic thread and building up a model from that requires a lot of moving parts, some with extreme thermal changes being applied to them. I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently s…
I'm surprised that hobbyists building their own printer aren't going for the patented laser methods that actually make high quality parts. Surely you can make your own copy of a patented item, just not sell it. Even if you're not allowed to, nobody's going to know.
From the USPTO site: "Patent infringement is the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell a patented invention...
http://www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/patent-litig...
A lot of the reliability problems with desktop 3D printers comes from the fact that they're forced by patents encumbering better methods to use Fused-Deposited Material (FDM) style printing. Extruding plastic thread and building up a model from that requires a lot of moving parts, some with extreme thermal changes being applied to them. I've seen a lot of DIY folk waste a lot of time on 3D printers. As it currently s…
I disagree. it took a weekend to build my reprap from a parts kit imported from China. it took another weekend to tune it. easy.
It's not the "you won't get anything done on the first year", but it's also not the "just a week of tinkering" either.
3D printers are in fact booming. Each year the market doubles in size or more, hardly "falling flat".
USD30.000 printers are falling flat, precisely because you can do lots of the things you only could do in $30.000 machines with $1.000 and companies are not stupid.
Imagine someone telling you "computer firms are falling flat" when Apple II appeared, because IBM was loosing market in $1 million mainframes as some people in companies started wondering if those little microcomputer toys maybe could be used just for some things mainframes were used at the time.
"The expected household market for printers hasn’t caught on, despite widespread availability of printers at big-box retailers for under $5,000. Less than 10% of Stratasys’s annual sales come from home users, according to an analyst estimate."
Why don't they ask Brook from printrbot, Josef Prusa or RichRap?.
Of course I won't buy a printer that is not Open Source,a printer I can't improve, has no drivers for my OS, sells me electronic signed filament cartridges at silk price from StrataSys at "for under $5000!!!" when my printrbot simple metal cost me less than $600 and run circles around any cheap stratasys.
I have 3 printers in my house: A printrbot, a Prusa Steel and a delta minikossel, and it is just the beginning, resin 3d printers, good resolution 3d scanners, and CNCs are improving enormously, specially on price side.
The title is unfortunate and misleading. 3D printers are in fact booming. Each year the market doubles in size or more, hardly "falling flat". USD30.000 printers are falling flat, precisely because you can do lots of the things you only could do in $30.000 machines with $1.000 and companies are not stupid. Imagine someone telling you "computer firms are falling flat" when Apple II appeared, because IBM was loosing ma…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm surprised that hobbyists building their own printer aren't going for the patented laser methods that actually make high quality parts. Surely you can make your own copy of a patented item, just not sell it. Even if you're not allowed to, nobody's going to know.
No, we can't use a patented method even if we don't sell stuff we make with it. From the USPTO site: "Patent infringement is the act of making, using, selling, or offering to sell a patented invention... http://www.uspto.gov/patents-maintaining-patent/patent-litig...
For a 3-D printer to be useful to a home consumer a bunch of non-obvious conditions have to be met- 1- You have a need for an object you can't pick up at Home Depot, dollar store, etc. 2- You need the skills to model it in a 3-D program and make it suitable for printing. 3- You need to not have the skills to make it some other way- whether in wood, metal, or clay. I think the combination of 1 and 3 is probably the re…
4. 3-D models are available for purchase to instantly print an item in any dimensions you'd like.
I look at my personal 2D printer usage as a guide. I rarely print a anything at home anymore. If I need a photo, I send the digital images to a printing service and receive a inexpensive high quality prints on professional quality paper, or bound in a coffee table book, or on a mug or birthday cake, etc. The only time I print anything on my personal 2D printer is when I need it right now. All the while, I hate the ex…