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Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

news.ycombinator.com

161–170 of 281 posts

Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

#161
I'm super interested in the (obvious) potential of 3D printing - you can get a pretty decent one for ~$400 nowadays. I'm not sure how much use I would get out of it personally at the moment other than printing random things when I'm drunk, but I'm still going to get one.

Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

#163

You know, I never even owned a 2D printer until last year. And my girlfriend bought that. Someone else always owned a printer and I just used it (Kinkos, library, work, school). I would hope it would be the same with a 3D printer. I don't want to have one. I don't want to buy ink or parts or worry about it or have it obsoleted in 2 years time. But if I want something 3D printed, I certainly hope that there will be st…

> I don't want to buy ink or parts or worry about it or have it obsoleted in 2 years time.

I've heard that with a 3d printer you can print another 3d printer, so maybe it can upgrade itself?

Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

#165
post #163

You know, I never even owned a 2D printer until last year. And my girlfriend bought that. Someone else always owned a printer and I just used it (Kinkos, library, work, school). I would hope it would be the same with a 3D printer. I don't want to have one. I don't want to buy ink or parts or worry about it or have it obsoleted in 2 years time. But if I want something 3D printed, I certainly hope that there will be st…

> I don't want to buy ink or parts or worry about it or have it obsoleted in 2 years time. I've heard that with a 3d printer you can print another 3d printer, so maybe it can upgrade itself?

It's not able to print all the necessary parts for a 3D printer, but one of the main goals of the RepRap project was to design a printer that could print most of its parts.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

#166

Whenever I think of 3d printers, I think of this essay: http://www.paulgraham.com/stuff.html I'm not sure whether 3-d printing will result in my having more stuff or less. In the long run, I could see it working out either way, but with the technology in its current state, it would definitely result in a net increase in the amount of stuff I have.

Here's an essay on that subject: http://tag.hexagram.ca/blog/tchotchke-theory-and-3d-printing...

Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

#167
post #163

You know, I never even owned a 2D printer until last year. And my girlfriend bought that. Someone else always owned a printer and I just used it (Kinkos, library, work, school). I would hope it would be the same with a 3D printer. I don't want to have one. I don't want to buy ink or parts or worry about it or have it obsoleted in 2 years time. But if I want something 3D printed, I certainly hope that there will be st…

> I don't want to buy ink or parts or worry about it or have it obsoleted in 2 years time. I've heard that with a 3d printer you can print another 3d printer, so maybe it can upgrade itself?

Wow, never thought about that. It will overturn traditional manufacture, though it cannot print all its parts now.

Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

#168
post #85

I'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?

A buddy has one at work: he prints replacement appliance knobs. Think of all the little things that break and there's really no easy way to get replacements.

Re: Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

#169
post #101
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

You print out the things you weren't able to imagine, but other people were. 3D printers allow objects that don't need the economy of scale to work in its favor to come into being. If you're to compare 3D printed objects to things you can buy at Walmart, then of course, in most specs the 3D printer would lose. However, what a 3D printer allows you to make are all the things that you can't get at Walmart, either becau…

Any examples?
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