VIDEO One year with my 3D Printer

[whoosh]

 

[Josephur]

Very nice video, especially since I'm getting ready to purchase my first 3d printer soon!

 

[whoosh]

Keep us posted on your adventure with the 3d printer

 

[Mike]

@Josephur Don't make the PC fan ionizer filter with it. If mass produced, you'll destroy the earth with ozone!
(Old Joke)

This is actually a quite interesting video. Seems like a dream for DIY people, mechanics, and inventors. It looks like this man paid roughly 1,700 Euros or $2,259 US dollars. What is amazing to me is what it runs on:

Link Removed
PLA - Biodegradable corn starch or sugar-based plastic. It can be sanded and machined and turned back into composite. Naturally transparent, colored, and opaque. Glossy feel. Not as easy to use as ABS which is a petroleum based polymer. I guess this is just getting started. Also great for simulated silver and brass.

ABS and PLA for 3D Printing

Industrial 3D printers have existed since the early 1980s and have been used extensively for rapid prototyping and research purposes. These are generally larger machines that use proprietary powdered metals, casting media (e.g. sand), plastics, paper or cartridges, and are used for rapid prototyping by universities and commercial companies. Industrial 3D printers are made by companies including Mcor Technologies Ltd, 3D Systems, Objet Geometries, and Stratasys.

However...

Companies have created services where consumers can customize objects using simplified web based customization software, and order the resulting items as 3D printed unique objects. This now allows consumers to create custom cases for their mobile phones. Nokia has released the 3D designs for its case so that owners can customize their own case and have it 3D printed.

As early as 2010, work began on applications of 3D printing in zero or low gravity environments. The primary concept involves creating basic items such as hand tools or other more complicated devices "on demand" versus using valuable resources such as fuel or cargo space to carry the items into space.

Additionally, NASA is conducting tests to assess the potential of 3D printing to make space exploration cheaper and more efficient. Rocket parts built using this technology have passed NASA firing tests. In July of 2013, two rocket engine injectors performed as well as traditionally constructed parts during hot-fire tests which exposed them to temperatures approaching 6,000 degrees Fahrenheit (3,316 degrees Celsius) and extreme pressures.

Source: Wikipedia

I suspect as the 3D printers become more complex, so will the 3D designs, the composite material used, and the digital schematics that drive them. Really fascinating when you take a look at it from that angle. Some day, if lucky, someone will be able to 3D print a new 3D printer. What it ultimately means, if it works out, is a large amount of self-sustainability. So someone makes a 3D printer and I think the first shock will be when someone makes a fire or a lantern, which may have already happened. It all starts there and gets more complex. Yes, they were used since 80's in an industrial environment, but to what extent, I don't know. Big companies and governments were (and some are) still using line printers when dot matrix was already available. You'll remember the continous form paper, aka carbon paper.. when I first saw this in literal use, since decades gone by, several years ago, I was astonished by the size of the monolith, and the fact that it broke down and needed re-alignment so much.

Now, today, we have laser and inkject printers. Reproduction is done in mass assembly, and large companies either have mail rooms with modernized equipment or have learned to digitize and digitally secure all of their documents by either doing it themselves or exporting it to a document imaging and indexing company. I would say the same could be said with these 3D printers. They are in their total infancy. Who knows what the future will hold?

Truly an amazing find, @whoosh

 

[Josephur]

Shhh.. your revealing my secrets

I've been eyeballing the SolidDoodle series of 3d printers, they seem to require a lot of tweaking but once you get it set it prints good prints. (What do you expect for 800 clams?)

 

[whoosh]

Very interesting replies