3-D wrap around

Check out Shapeways for one company's approach: http://shapeways.com

 

The technology is evolving so quickly that an individual would be hard-pressed to get his money's worth before what he purchased has become obsolete. Using a service like Shapeways lets you get parts almost immediately with the investment and learning curve handled by others.

 

-Mark

 

Go to your local bakery and watch them decorate some cakes.  That is how the 3d printer works.  The plastic is heated up like in your hot glue gun and then by going back and forth and up and down (computer controlled) it BUILDS the 3d object.  BTW you can buy a ready to use 3d printer now for under $500.  Russ

Why is it called a "printer," then; why not a "modeller" or "fabricator," I wonder.

FrankM.

Frank, it certainly is amazing technology. You ponder where this may leave companies that today make models.v

My take is that as demand may change for prebuilt models or kits, the tech savvy suppliers will also become software suppliers and sell the building programs to customers to print their own building of whatever. They might also supply the raw materials for the printer. This speculation begs the question of how the pricing would be pitched to cover a customer making duplicates or how a supplier may control this. Time will tell. One thing is for sure, 3D printing will become a major hobby in it's own right.

In the mean time, there's time to learn how to use 3d cad software. The basic stuff is perfectly usable and free.

 

-Mark

The plastic starts as a coil of plastic. It's about $50 per coil. They can use ABS or a corn based degradable thing. The lowest price on an assembled machine I've seen is $600. I've seen people hack video game 3D sensors like the Kinect to make homebrew 3D scanners that can then be printed out. I have a small version of my head that was made like that in 20 minutes.

Ostensibly, then, might that mean one could place a photo of oneself on the machine and have it produce a 1/48 figure for the layout, and have it be in complete color?

Some pretty complex devices can be 3D-printed nowadays. I was quite amazed to see 3D-printed Strandbeests that are ready to operate straight out of the printer. These have zillions of moving parts. 

 

You'd need to have a laser scan done of your entire body, a picture doesn't have the information needed for a 3D rendering.

 

Jerry

 I saw one working at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for the first time. It was like watching a science fiction movie. I couldn't believe what I was watching. The price will come down to where every home will have one. You need a new building for your layout? No problem. Make them for your friends? No problem. Think how this will change retail. Wow, the possibilities are endless. Maybe companies will license things through your computer and you just make it with your magic machine. No more mail. Just like a regular printer. WOW! Don

True about the scans but I've also seen industrial machines that can 3D print in color. There was a pop up shop place in NYC over the holidays that had a machine that was printing people head busts in color. Pretty neat. Printing tech is pretty high these days. I am printing some images on AstroTurf for another project. I thought I would have to cut out all of the different colors from separate pieces of turf. It saved me alot of time.

Here's the PBS short

Wow, nice video. I could use that to make stone walls and tunnel portalls and more.

 

Tom Cat

Good question. I think the term "3-D printer" is confusing because printing has always referred to two-dimensional work. "3-D fabrication" sounds more descriptive. The only parallel with printing is in the evolution from the ink-jet printing process.

 

I've given up maintaining a computer printer at home because of the cost of ink cartridges and their quirks and limited life. Now we can go that route with "3-D fabrication": rapid obsolescence of equipment and high maintenance costs make it more trouble than it's worth for average home use? Anyhow, it will be interesting to see how it develops.

The plastic used in 3-D printing right now ranges from expensive to very expensive!

(and remember if your art is not 100% correct you just get a pile of junk and you get to do it again)

Add to it the cost of either buying artwork to print or the time to learn the software to create your own art. I am a graphic artist and took a stab at 3-D art....but found the time to learn it took too much time away from real work and hobbies.

It has potential but as a retired analyst I feel all the PR surrounding the tech is to drum up venture capital investment more than it TRUE potential in the coming years.

All.....the way this works is that the plastic is fed into the print head(s) and melted. It is then "fired" from the nozzles " called Jets" within the industry. The idea is that the printer keeps going back and forth printing over the same lines over and over until the designed height and details are printed. Now days as far as manufacturing goes there are many types of today's common plastics that can be used. Many times these machines are referred to at "rapid Prototype machines". They enable an engineer to design a part, print it out, verify the design and make changes and then reprint all in the matter of a normal work day. Some daily complex parts can be printer. A fellow technician I work with has a section of chain that is all individual links printed interconnected with each other. I have see ball printed with a smaller ball in side it that can roll around on the inside. With this ever be practical for us hobbyists who knows. Yes the cost of the basic units are coming down but printheads can be expensive to replace as well as the cost of the materials. Then there is the software. Yes you need to be able to create the 3D model and then save it in the format required for the printer so only time will tell if they wii catch on. Remember that when Spock talked to Capt Kirk on his communicator we all though that was cool!

The price of doing this will come down, just like the prices of flat screen monitors and TVs have come down over the last 10 years.

 

I saw some items at a IPMS show in Va. Beach in 2006 and was amazed at how good they looked.  They were parts of 1/48 and 1/72 airplanes and tanks someone had made on a 3D printer.

 

I agree they need to make a name change, I would choose "Star Trek Replicator" as a good new name, but that name has already been taken

"The price of doing this will come down, just like the prices of flat screen monitors and TVs have come down over the last 10 years."

Unless there is a major change in the way these work, these will be niche devices.  There are millions of millions of people that want flat screen TV's, tablets, cell phones.  These are also devices that require little or no expertise to set up and use.

How many people are going to actually want a glorified tchotchke machine for their home?   While you can make a "chain" using one I wouldn't recommend trying to pull anything with it.  A master modeler can use one to make super detail parts for modeling but it takes way more time to program the "image" and an insane amount of time to actually print.  In many cases a good sculptor can make a master pattern for you in less time and at lower cost than it will take someone to program in a "model".  

 

These are still cranky and expensive devices. The materials tend to clog the printing mechanisms and if you thought cleaning ink jet heads was a pain, try doing that with plastic goo.  Many of the units we have at work spend more time being serviced than they do actually printing stuff.

 

These devices do make rapid prototyping a reality and can significantly cut down on the turn around time to make tools and dies to mass produce other products.  They don't do very well as a direct replacement for traditional MANUFACTURING methods (i.e. casting, stamping, cutting).