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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?

#101

Post by iamwil »

porter wrote: post #85
georgemcbay wrote: post #10

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?

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 because the volume wasn't big enough to get it made, or people that could imagine didn't know how to get something made.

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

#102

Post by bwilliams18 »

jheitzeb wrote: post #95
AUmrysh wrote: post #83

I 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...

give me an easy way to scan as well and i'll buy this in a second.

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

#103

Post by iamwil »

mercuryrising wrote: post #100

Here's a story. I always wanted to make a CNC machine. I got a bunch of parts off Craigslist from a guy, got some stuff off eBay, I was in college at the time so I never really had time to do anything with it (and money was tight), so I couldn't get it finished. But in college I saw some 3D printers, decided I wanted one. Moved back home with my parents, christmas / birthday was coming up. I was looking into some pri…

I have to agree here, that one of the magical experiences of having a 3D printer is to be able to think something up, design it, and have it in your hands within an hour or two. Until people are able to experience that themselves, I think people won't really understand 3D printing. Currently, 3D printers and 3D modeling software doesn't make this easy, but I think there's a lot of effort being put into ease of use.

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

#104

Post by iamwil »

bwilliams18 wrote: post #102
jheitzeb wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

give me an easy way to scan as well and i'll buy this in a second.

I believe Makerbot is coming out with a scanner, and a YC company, MatterPort, also does scanning.

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

#105

Post by sliverstorm »

aortega wrote: post #86

IMHO 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)

People like the idea of 3d-printing because the dream is that you could print any material, and you would not have the limitations CNC has due to angles and bits.

That's the dream, of course. It isn't really a reality yet.

Oh, and CNC machines are big an expensive. Again, people dream that 3d-printers will be smaller, cheaper, and even faster.

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

#106

Post by dchichkov »

aortega wrote: post #86

IMHO 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.

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

#107

Post by johnvschmitt »

Yes. http://makerschmitt.blogspot.com

I have actually used it for not just the toys/fun you see on the blog, but also some actual parts in my home that broke too.

Yes, it's truly an early adopter's point, with pain, & costs, & trouble. Yes, you can order parts from shapeways.com & ponoko.com without having your own machine.

But, this is truly magic, in that it brings mechanical iterations into the realm of software, with reduced cycle time.

Before these things, as a mechanical engineer in the 90's, any iteration would be 2-4 weeks, & $2-4k, and now, I can do 3 iterations in one afternoon for If you've studied other fields, you might know how radical a transformation reduced cycle times alone can make.

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

#108

Post by iamwil »

sliverstorm wrote: post #99
jack-r-abbit wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd put them firmly in the same stage that computers were back when you had people in their garages soldering together homebrew computers.

I don't agree. The main obstacle for computers was cost and size, which naturally scale down as technology improves. Applications were already everywhere even decades ago. 3D printing on the other hand fundamentally has difficulty delivering many things people want it to do, and the things it actually can do are fairly niche. Mainly prototyping, to my knowledge. If 3D printers could already print forged steel or 14nm…

There's been some work already into printing circuits, but I think it will probably look different than the traditional electronics we're use to thinking about, as metal may not be the only way to print circuits.

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

#109

Post by mindcrime »

edwardio wrote: post #13

You should include "I have access to one that I can use".

Same here. I don't own one (yet), but we have one at SplatSpace for members to use.

That said, I plan to build one for myself at some point. A fellow Splat'er has offered me his partially assembled Reprap, but I don't have time to work on it right now. :-(

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

#110

Post by Jack000 »

sliverstorm wrote: post #105
aortega wrote: post #86

IMHO 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)

People like the idea of 3d-printing because the dream is that you could print any material, and you would not have the limitations CNC has due to angles and bits. That's the dream, of course. It isn't really a reality yet. Oh, and CNC machines are big an expensive. Again, people dream that 3d-printers will be smaller, cheaper, and even faster.

I just wish CNC machines would get some press alongside 3d printers, then maybe some better kits would materialize.

Cheap CNC machines are about the same price as 3d printers now.

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