I saw an episode of CSI where they made plastic replicas of a working gun to make one-time-use self-destructing untraceable weapons en masse. Sounds like a good idea to me! (just joking, don't anybody get all butthurt)

its already been used to print a rat heart; which started beating within minutes of print completion, all on its own

anything will be 3d printable eventually, maybe tied in with subtractive manufacturing as well for the more complex things

I prefer Double-D printers.

They work at Kinkos.

I'm in engineering and I've used them a couple times already to get prototype parts and they work great to get visuals and figure out space constraints.

I see personal size ones on Kickstarter from time to time. I'd love to own one to play with, but the price is a little high for now. I know there are print shops, but I'd have to drive about 5 hours to get to one, so it's not worth it for me. Overall they are really cool though.

tigerfish313 wrote:I saw an episode of CSI where they made plastic replicas of a working gun to make one-time-use self-destructing untraceable weapons en masse. Sounds like a good idea to me! (just joking, don't anybody get all butthurt)

Hmm... Sounds pretty improbable, like they might just explode in your hand and not shoot the bullet down the barrel at all.

This is going to be just one more printer to break that I'll have to fix. Thanks a lot, technology.

Will this be the next item on tech!woot?

I can see in the future, high-power laser 3D printers being used to make objects out of alloys rather than the plastics in use now.

That will be cool but totally out of the reach of homeowners, a laser capable of fusing metal requires some serious power.

This is pretty random but I was googleing for info about the tiles on space shuttles and stumbled across this:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/news/wireless_scanner.html

If you click the pictures on the linked page and zoom in you can see that the device was created using a 3D printer (the layers give it away).

So if 3D printing is good enough for NASA, I would say there's a future for it.

The technology sounds really good, and we've seen so many prototypes demonstrated in the last decade. However, small-scale 3D printing is still reserved for rich hobbyists (or those lucky enough to live near a hackerspace).

We are still majorly lacking in large-scale 3D printing. For example, I read at least 15 years ago about how 3D printing of concrete was supposed to revolutionize the home-building industry within the next ten years. I've been watching, but I haven't seen it yet.

So the real question should be: Why are we, after so many years that the technology has existed in a complete and working state, still asking questions where half the options are in future tense?

I don't know about "revolutionize" but it is useful and its uses will continue to grow.

I still see a lot of people not really understanding what its capabilities are. You get some people thinking create an exact working copy of a gun with all the inner movable mechanisms in a single step.

And so the printer companies will sell us 3X the ink cartridges? Printers cheap, ink not so.

Sorry, I'll wait for the 3D rendering on portable devices.

Meh, they are fine right now for prototyping. Takes too long for any sort of mass production.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) has been in use for a while.

pukeboy wrote:I can see in the future, high-power laser 3D printers being used to make objects out of alloys rather than the plastics in use now.

That will be cool but totally out of the reach of homeowners, a laser capable of fusing metal requires some serious power.

pukeboy wrote:I can see in the future, high-power laser 3D printers being used to make objects out of alloys rather than the plastics in use now.

That will be cool but totally out of the reach of homeowners, a laser capable of fusing metal requires some serious power.

They already DO print in metals, resins and LOTS of other stuff. I've seen a lot of cool stuff at www.shapeways.com This is going to be SOOOO cool.

I heard the plastic is a little too hard/brittle for practical general use, and is best for custom items only right now.

jtobin wrote:Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) has been in use for a while.

mydragonmail wrote:They already DO print in metals, resins and LOTS of other stuff. I've seen a lot of cool stuff at www.shapeways.com This is going to be SOOOO cool.

Time travel is cool but it sometimes confuses me, I don't always remember "when" I'm supposed to be.

They seem pretty cool, but you gotta wonder just how many little plastic gewgaws you need? I might craft a custom drawer handle or something, but that's about it. Probably better off whittling.

We use it at my work, and even though we've only had the machine a few months it's already sped up the process we use it for exponentially, and decreased costs! Can't wait until the price comes down more so I can buy one myself =)

From a mass production standpoint, 3D printed (plastic) parts will never be as strong or as fast to produce as injection molded parts. 3D printing is good for rapid prototyping and for parts that won't take much abuse. From my experience, the CAD software required to make 3D printed parts isn't exactly cheap...

A friend of mine works at Makerbot, and they're already printing their own manufacturing equipment. I think the layperson underestimates how pervasive they will be.

Moueska wrote:I heard the plastic is a little too hard/brittle for practical general use, and is best for custom items only right now.

Most recent consumer-based printers use ABS plastic (what LEGOs are made out of). This is more than strong enough for most applications that don't involve heavy torque or high temperatures.

SLAs(StereoLithography Apparatus), use resin that cures at specific light frequency and draw with a LASER. This is not as strong, but considered ABS-like.

SLS (Selective LASER Sintering), as someone said earlier, involves metalsooo which can range from aluminum to titanium to amorphous metals. This is the technology that NASA is using for their next rocket engine.

In addition to these main types, they are working on tissue printers, wax and powder printers already exist and a huge number of other possibilities.

I personally think that 3D printers will be revolutionary in certain fields.

I personally am hoping to eventually move into the field of 3D printed prosthetics, where they 3D scan someone's knee or hip, someone recreates it in a CAD program, the prosthetic is printed and then a surgeon implants it into the patient.

Source: I am an engineer in charge of my company's SLA equipment.

I think 3D printing will dramatically change the manufacturing processes beyond imagination, but amazed with the answer percentage to the poll. Really users of new technology--some people are just to afraid of change or stupid.

It will be banned by large corp's before it will become mainstream and useful.

Purdue offers a class where the major project is to design a toy, and then 3D print it out.

https://engineering.purdue.edu/toydesign/wp/

http://defcad.org/

Only a matter of time before individuals are prohibited from owning 3D printers now... For our own good, you know? And maybe to protect the intellectual property and profitability of companies that might see local competition if these become common.