There should be a simple "no" or at least "no, undecided"
Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
111–120 of 281 posts
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#112I'm excited by the potential of 3D printers but they aren't quite at the price/convenience/quality intersection I'm waiting for. I'd pay current prices for machines (the relatively consumer-level ones that are like $500-2000) that are faster and produce better output without having to do acetone-based "post-processing". I'd pay less than current prices for the current tech just to dick around with, but I don't want t…
What would you do with a 3d printer in your house? For manufacturing and business use, it kind of makes sense to me. But personal use? After you print off a few cups and toy soldier molds, what would you want to do with a 3d printer?
Mostly enclosures for electronics projects in my case, it would be nice to use something more custom made for the device than an altoids tin or plain ugly project box.
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#113I'm working in a lab where I need to design custom parts on a regular basis. It still doesn't make sense for us to buy one given how cheap and easy it is to use printing services. Even hobby grade services have been fantastic (Shapeways, etc).
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#114I would venture to say 3d printers are not going to be ubiquitous like the home paper printer. The power is in replacing manufacturing processes. You need 10,482 M5x30mm stainless screws? Print them rather than having some factory in China ship you them in lots of 50,000. And scale from there.
Arguably, a single factory in China will print the screws and make whatever larger device. The point is, simplifying the supply chain.
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#115IMHO 3d-printing is way overrated. We already have CNC machines that are reliable, faster, cheaper and more capable than 3d-printers, in that they can cheaply "print" in hard materials like metal with much better resolution. What are the advantages of 3d-printers? (except than being slightly more clean)
There are shapes you can achieve in 3D printing that you can't with CNC machines. Waste material is a significant problem if you were to have a machine on your desk or your living room.
Another advantage is that 3D printers actually have a community around it and people pushing its boundaries, as well as new companies forming in the space to push the tech forward. That's bound to make it better--or at the very least, explore what's possible. I don't see the same thing happening with CNC machines. No new CNC machine startups that I hear about.
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#116Yep.. sure do
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#117I was at a local hackerspace and paid about $180 into a building class, but then it didn't work out and other things came up in my personal life and that of the person giving the classes. I think the $200-$300 range is where it's going to have to get to before 3d printers become wildly popular. Most people can overlook the low quality of the prints and the acetone wash if the cost of the printer is less than that of…
The price/performance of 3D printers is improving very quickly. We're visiting Hong Kong + Shenzhen now and met with Makible who are focused on making low-cost 3D printers. Makibox will be sold as a kit for $200 later this year. http://www.hackthings.com/meet-the-most-affordable-3d-printe...
Word on the street in the reprap channel is that Makibox can't happen at that price.
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#118None of the options given in the poll felt quite right for my feelings, so I figured I'd comment instead.
My girlfriend had one in our apartment until we moved it out to another space recently. She can still visit it there if need be and I assume I can tag along if I wanted to use that one. I also have access to another two printers at TechShop. Then there's also one at noisebridge and a wide range of other printers available at various places and online on a kind of pay per print system.
Given all that, I don't know why we'd want one in our apartment again. I'm certainly glad not to still be up at 2am because the printer's still loudly doing its best to print a part it started on hours and hours ago. Also the technology at the moment is fairly limited especially when it comes to the type of printers you see in the "personal at home printing" space / budgets, and I think it'd be awhile before I found a compelling one I'd want for myself. (They're also a little pricey for most people I think.) Also it's nice that for a lot of the printers I have access to, I'm not the one who has to fix them when they break. Which is a thing that happened a bunch to some of the early models and something I don't think is a whole lot of fun to deal with. Obviously some people think it's a blast to tinker with the things and those are the type of folks that'll probably get a decent amount out of having one. I just prefer to tinker with other things.
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
MacOsX is based off BSD. His/her friends may not be in as big of a minority as you think. Edit: I stand corrected.
Linux and BSD are not nearly the same thing. And I'm not even being overly pedantic here. They have 2 things in common: * They try (and arguably succeed at) cloning Unix. * The adopt a permissive license for sharing and copying. Beyond this, they're 2 completely different projects with nothing more in common. Heck, even the "permissive licenses" they each use are contradicting in philosophy. You seem to imply that Li…
> Linux and BSD are not nearly the same thing. And I'm not even being overly pedantic here. They have 2 things in common:
> * They try (and arguably succeed at) cloning Unix.
No, the BSDs actually are Unix, in a genetic sense.
Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?
#120IMHO 3d-printing is way overrated. We already have CNC machines that are reliable, faster, cheaper and more capable than 3d-printers, in that they can cheaply "print" in hard materials like metal with much better resolution. What are the advantages of 3d-printers? (except than being slightly more clean)
Quiet. Simpler to operate. And don't kid yourself that you can use a desktop CNC to work with metal. Even aluminium requires a $10k+ CNC with steel frame, cooling liquid, etc.
Sure, but don't kid yourself that you can use a cheap 3d printer to work with metal either.