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Poll: Do you have a 3d printer?

news.ycombinator.com

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

#201

Post by marblar »

aortega wrote: post #122
iamwil wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

I can see that unlike a 3d-printer, it's impossible to have a CNC in your desktop because of the waste. But I don't buy the "community" argument. Community has given us things like the arduino, a horrible technology obsolete from the very start. I do not think a technology is better just because many people use it.

What do you suggest in arduino's place?

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

#205

Post by Kliment »

ambrop7 wrote: post #154

I've built the RepRapPro Mendel from a kit about 2 months ago. Don't have any "real" use for it - it's just a cool toy to have, considering it doesn't cost that much (paid 640 EUR for the kit). But it may come very useful if I try to build some hobby RC plane or quadcopter though. Anyway, it's been working nice so far, though I did spend many hours tuning the machine and getting to know the various software (CAD, sli…

Hello, I'm a reprap developer. What specific intelligence do you have in mind? Want to come in to #reprap on freenode and tell us about it?

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

#206

Post by gurkendoktor »

cschmidt wrote: post #189
porter wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Any examples?

Some personal favorites I ordered off of Shapeways: http://www.shapeways.com/model/24470/gyroid.html http://www.shapeways.com/model/335195/the-code-prize-fire-co... http://www.shapeways.com/model/683524/super-mario-mobius-str...

These are useless gimmicks, and in the worst case they can't be recycled. I didn't know of shapeways before, and I couldn't find a single useful thing on it. Are there more pragmatic 3D printing sites?

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

#207

Post by Kliment »

iamwil wrote: post #133
aortega wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see that unlike a 3d-printer, it's impossible to have a CNC in your desktop because of the waste. But I don't buy the "community" argument. Community has given us things like the arduino, a horrible technology obsolete from the very start. I do not think a technology is better just because many people use it.

Perhaps I should have been more clear. The 3D printing community actively trades tips on how to make their printers better. The hobbyists and certain 3D printer companies alike embrace open source hardware. It is this activity within a community that helps them make progress. Are similar things happening in CNC machining communities? From my vantage point, it doesn't seem like it.

Cnczone is pretty cool as a community, but I do think the reprap community is more helpful by an order of magnitude. Having met many members of both groups in real life, the reprappers are generally more approachable. I get the impression that every CNC build is a custom design "because I can" whereas most reprappers tend to stick to a few common designs and possibly modify them. Modifications that work generally spread back to the community really really fast and improve life for everyone. The #reprap IRC channel on freenode is an absolute goldmine of a resource, people with questions or problems generally get answers within seconds and it's active, fun discussion the rest of the time. Haven't seen anything equivalent in CNC (cnczone comes closest).

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

#208

Post by Kliment »

iamwil wrote: post #92
anandkulkarni wrote: post #11

I can't wait to buy one, even if it's just to print gifts for friends and nameplates for the office. Every time I hear more about this domain (typically from folks like iamwil at CubeHero) I become more excited by the possibilities. It's a enabling technology, so looking for a "killer application" is probably the wrong way to think about it: the impact is likely to be more fundamental and spread across a variety of s…

Thanks for the shout out. :) I still maintain the same stance. Many people look at the technology as it is now, or too far in the future, rather than where it's headed in the next year or three. As for crowd labor market, there might be an application. 3D printers are slow compared to other types of manufacturing, and thus, to get any volume to sell, one needs to operate a printer farm, or try to do distributed 3D pr…

Hey. I prototyped an automagic part remover for unattended continuous operation for a client who prints continuously. Contact me if you are interested (kliment@0xfb.com)

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

#209

Post by SoftwareMaven »

gurkendoktor wrote: post #206
cschmidt wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some personal favorites I ordered off of Shapeways: http://www.shapeways.com/model/24470/gyroid.html http://www.shapeways.com/model/335195/the-code-prize-fire-co... http://www.shapeways.com/model/683524/super-mario-mobius-str...

These are useless gimmicks, and in the worst case they can't be recycled. I didn't know of shapeways before, and I couldn't find a single useful thing on it. Are there more pragmatic 3D printing sites?

One person's useless gimmicks are another person's stylish nick-knacks. I can't see myself buying a 3D printer just for stuff like that, but the ability to accent my home in an individual fashion is not unappealing to me.

Not everything is the world is purely functional.

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