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Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

judegomila.com

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Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#21

Post by ambrop7 »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #7

I see the same breathless optimism here as in the dawn of the WWW in the laste nineties. People with little to no understanding of what 3d printing is or its limitations, making wild extrapolations that don't take much reality (especially the social, legal, and political implications) into account. The fact is, we do not have any idea where 3d printing will take us. The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our hom…

> The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our home is possibly a bit silly.

I have a 3d printer at home, or at least a half-assembled one :) You can get one for yourself at http://reprappro.com/ . The smaller one is only around $669.

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#22

Post by paul9290 »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #7

I see the same breathless optimism here as in the dawn of the WWW in the laste nineties. People with little to no understanding of what 3d printing is or its limitations, making wild extrapolations that don't take much reality (especially the social, legal, and political implications) into account. The fact is, we do not have any idea where 3d printing will take us. The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our hom…

?

3d printing in our home via cubify.com runs a customer $1300, but no doubt in time that cost will decrease. I say in the next couple of years prices for home 3d printers will be consumer friendly.

On a side note, I think 3D printing is going to hurt many industries and possibly be used nefariously (creating a weapon and or other illegal vices).

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#23

Post by zanny »

DigitalSea wrote: post #4
DVassallo wrote: post #2

> Extreme future 3D printers will print entire planets or create new suns for new colonies. I can understand the printing of rockets and jet engines, but can someone give me a hint into understanding the printing of planets and suns?

I presume after the economy of scale kicks in, we'll be able to buy our own planets and suns from Walmart for next to nothing. A sun in every home. In all seriousness though, being able to print planets and suns, that is one of the craziest things I have ever heard.

The end game for 3d printing is assembling things at the molecular level to our design. Kind of how Star Trek had its food fabricators, just have carbon and have the machine rearrage and orient it to make food, add some h2o and other trace molecules, and bang you got a chicken leg. Or some ultra-nutrient-calorie dense superfood.

If you can do that, making a planet is easy. Doesn't even require a printer - just dump a ton of iron, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, etc into a tight area of space and let them collapse together gravitationally, or just throw it in concentrated orbit around a star so they coalesce.

I almost want to recind my original statement, because the real end game is manipulation of the most discrete components of matter, space, or reality. Right now its fundamental particles but who knows what else we may find. In usability terms though, crafting molecules seems like it would have the most benefit.

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#24

Post by Mordor »

nakedrobot2 wrote: post #7

I see the same breathless optimism here as in the dawn of the WWW in the laste nineties. People with little to no understanding of what 3d printing is or its limitations, making wild extrapolations that don't take much reality (especially the social, legal, and political implications) into account. The fact is, we do not have any idea where 3d printing will take us. The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our hom…

Then you should learn your lesson and invest in 3D stock, ready to pull out when the hype has reached crazy heights :-)

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#25

Post by jpdevereaux »

jayfuerstenberg wrote: post #5

I wonder if LEGO can stave off the doom 3D printing presents since blocks are the easiest the things to replicate. They do a lot of tie-in based LEGO sets that I believe are protected by copyright. However, their basic blocks lost their patent last year so it's open season for those! http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/expired-patent-of-the-day-l...

Maybe they can start selling plastic and part plans?

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#27

Post by Avshalom »

jayfuerstenberg wrote: post #5

I wonder if LEGO can stave off the doom 3D printing presents since blocks are the easiest the things to replicate. They do a lot of tie-in based LEGO sets that I believe are protected by copyright. However, their basic blocks lost their patent last year so it's open season for those! http://boingboing.net/2011/10/21/expired-patent-of-the-day-l...

A dramatically smaller LEGO could still probably make a living off selling model design/instructions and Mindstorms software.

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#28

Post by dagw »

ambrop7 wrote: post #21
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #7

I see the same breathless optimism here as in the dawn of the WWW in the laste nineties. People with little to no understanding of what 3d printing is or its limitations, making wild extrapolations that don't take much reality (especially the social, legal, and political implications) into account. The fact is, we do not have any idea where 3d printing will take us. The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our hom…

> The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our home is possibly a bit silly. I have a 3d printer at home, or at least a half-assembled one :) You can get one for yourself at http://reprappro.com/ . The smaller one is only around $669.

I don't think price will be the limiting factor, rather the fact that most people won't think of a realistic use for them. Look at photo printers, they're getting cheaper and cheaper yet sales are declining since they just don't make financial sense for most people. Most people I know (even many professionals) get many or all of their photos printed by third parties.

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#29

Post by olefoo »

jayfuerstenberg wrote: post #8
stevenrace wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the success and 'feel' of LEGO are due to the close tolerances - ~.01mm. This is an order of magnitude (or two) greater than my RepRap Mendelmax on it's best day. However, it will be a great boon to the LEGO community - as they will now have greater access to non-structural, unlicensed parts such as guns [1] and the ilk. [1] http://www.brickarms.com/

True. I read once that only 4 bricks in a million are defective. Who knows, LEGO's .01mm accuracy might become the mark by which 3D printing measures itself someday.

I'd bet that day comes by the end of the decade.

Re: Manufacturing a Renaissance with 3D Printing

#30

Post by nakedrobot2 »

ambrop7 wrote: post #21
nakedrobot2 wrote: post #7

I see the same breathless optimism here as in the dawn of the WWW in the laste nineties. People with little to no understanding of what 3d printing is or its limitations, making wild extrapolations that don't take much reality (especially the social, legal, and political implications) into account. The fact is, we do not have any idea where 3d printing will take us. The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our hom…

> The idea that we'll all have 3d printers in our home is possibly a bit silly. I have a 3d printer at home, or at least a half-assembled one :) You can get one for yourself at http://reprappro.com/ . The smaller one is only around $669.

Yes, and my electrical engineer friend has built an X-ray device in a briefcase. And it is useful. And a hundred years ago, people were saying that everyone would have an X-ray device in their home. But it didn't quite work out that way.

And yes, I DO want a 3-d printer in my home. The Form1 looks awesome. My neighbor has a Prusa reprap, and it is definitely too finicky for anyone but the most hardcore early adopter types, in my opinion.

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