3D Printing - Eventually for All?

[PGHammer]

With all the buzz lately about new uses for 3D printing, we keep forgetting something ELSE that is happening at the same time - with the same technology.  Prices are dropping, as the printers themselves are becoming more common.  A tag-team of Makerbot's Digitizer and Replicator 2 has an SRP of $3500 - however, didn't laser printers (of the black and white sort) have similar pricing in its infancy?  Windows supports this same printer right now - as pricing drops, the remaining issue is "what can you do with it".  (However, the same was true of laser printing, then inkjet printing, etc. - why is 3D printing any different?)

[Gerowen]

I've long considered buying one and building a small business around it, eventually buying more printers to increase capacity, and just taking orders for anything people want that I can make or find a 3-D model for.  Need a new drain plug for your bath-tub?  Plastic part on your rifle break?  How about some durable plastic silverware you can wash and re-use?

 

I will eventually own one, the question is just now if, but when.  Got some debt I'm paying off, a little bit at a time, and I need to get a house set up on the property we own so I can stop renting, THEN I can worry about taking chances like that.

[PGHammer]

I've long considered buying one and building a small business around it, eventually buying more printers to increase capacity, and just taking orders for anything people want that I can make or find a 3-D model for.  Need a new drain plug for your bath-tub?  Plastic part on your rifle break?  How about some durable plastic silverware you can wash and re-use?

 

I will eventually own one, the question is just now if, but when.  Got some debt I'm paying off, a little bit at a time, and I need to get a house set up on the property we own so I can stop renting, THEN I can worry about taking chances like that.

Gerowen, that's exactly my point - and why I made the original post.

I was into computing (mainframes) when the PC became truly personal (and Windows was just hitting its stride - with 3.0).

That was ALSO around the time that prices for laser printers started to drop - and we found out that original HP LaserJets were nearly unkillable.

I would bet that nearly a third of them are still printing today.  (That is scary-reliable.  Think - an original HP LaserJet is thirty-plus YEARS old.)

Affordable 3D printing is basically CAD/CAM For All - how do you even begin to unring THAT bell?

[HawkMan]

They need more accuracy then the current range of cheap printers like marker ot though. Graduated lines don't look good or feel good. :)

[n_K]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25878078

Shame it's ?200,000 though

[HawkMan]

I'd be happy with a standard powdered plastic laser 3D printer for 500-1000$ color would be a bonus but not a necessity. unfortunately those prices for that kind of printer is a LONG ways off. I have no interest in extrusion printers, at the very least they would need to become a LOT better before they have any use outside of playing with and showing how cool it is to make something at home. But since my primary use would be to print figures and models mostly, they're level of detail, accuracy and artifacts is a big put off.