3D Printing

PogMoThoin wrote: »

3D printing will be the next huge piracy thing. There will be schematics of everything before long. Pring your own car parts, print anything. The fun starts then when they start 3D printing Glocks.................

Strangely, printing a receiver is not yet illegal in the US. Only the upper part of the weapon is illegal in many states. Odd situation. That will probably change soon enough..

I don't know why you used the word piracy, it taints a wide 'scene', a lot of users gladly put their designs up on the likes of thingiverse.

Here's a good run down of the current wave of 3D Printer manufacturers and self builds.

Courtesy of Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/29/3d-printer-guide/

I'm eyeing up building a MendelMax (http://www.mendelmax.com/) myself, or giving in to laziness and buying a Leapfrog Creatr. (www.lpfrg.com)

My goal for this year is to save up and build one, I probably don't need a 3D printer (especially since I don't even have a 2D printer) but the geek in me badly wants one.

It's an awesome technology that fascinated me eight years ago when I first saw it and I've wanted one ever since.

will someone print me a 3d printer?

Ive been following these since I saw them at Cebit 5years ago. They were pulling in big crowds then, printing things no larger than chess pieces with industrial looking machines. Already we are miles from that.

While I would like the seamless finish of the Laser Sintered Formlabs, it has two huge drawbacks for my purposes:

- $3300 and limited production (not sure if it was even released)
- Very small build volume at 12.4 x 12.4 x 16.5cm

IMO its better suited to Jewelry prototyping and similar (25micron build size) and other applications were no further finishing is required/desired.


The one to get, IMO, is one of the Delta Printers, like Rostock Max ($1100) or DeltaMaker (not released yet?). Not only can these models print incredibly fast at decent res (sub 100micron), they do curves better, has a huge build volume with the ability to keep scaling Z height (just extend the legs and pulleys) but it also looks the most impressive in operation:

That is timelapsed but its still super fast.


Thanks to Taulman 618 Nylon they can now print in much more durable (ie for working gears etc) Nylon too.

ScumLord wrote: »

I love 3D printing but I don't know how it's ever going to realistically replace any standard manufacturing methods. It just takes to long, in the time it takes to produce one part standard techniques would have produced hundreds. It's never going to be fast enough to be used in manufacturing.

In the same way that traditional printers would never replace dark rooms because it would never be possible to print images at a resolution that wouldn't appear pixellated.

While I agree that for many things it will practically always be faster to use traditional methods - a big arm stamping a shape into a piece of metal is pretty damn quick - printing's big draw is that it can produce single pieces that can't be otherwise produced.
A simple example is a hollow sphere with a ball inside it. OK, it's practically useless, but the only way you can produce this traditionally is to make the two halves of the sphere, insert the ball, weld them together and then polish it up. A printer can do this in one piece with no welds. And while it may be faster to produce the individual pieces, when you factor in construction time and manual effort, the 3D printer may just edge it out.

One example is a guy who's developed a printer which "prints" buildings. Basically a massive 3D printer on scaffolds which uses sandstone and chemicals to "print" the structure of a solid building in one go. So while it may be quicker to produce the individual blocks and planks you would use to build a traditional building, this building is created and constructed in one go, which in time will work out faster than putting one together from pieces.

The process at the moment produces these things which look like messy sandcastles, but it will get to the point where it can produce a perfectly square & polished concrete building - load in the architectural drawings, have 5 guys monitor the machines and a week later your five-storey building is done, exactly to spec and ready to decorate.

seamus wrote: »

In the same way that traditional printers would never replace dark rooms because it would never be possible to print images at a resolution that wouldn't appear pixellated.

Not exactly the same thing, time is the issue. You still wouldn't use a domestic printer commercially because it would take to much time. It's fine printing off one or two photos at home but once you want a run of hundreds your home printer is effectively useless.

The same problem would happen with 3D printing to feed a commercial market. If you had a 3D printer shop you would never be able to keep up with demand and keep costs in line with what standard factories are charging. You'd need too many printers. With a printer producing lots of different parts taking different times to produce it would be a nightmare to manage because you wouldn't know what machines would be free from one week to the next. Then you have lots of different people picking up different parts going in different directions it would be mayhem compared to the well oiled manufacturing and transport systems already in place.

A simple example is a hollow sphere with a ball inside it. OK, it's practically useless, but the only way you can produce this traditionally is to make the two halves of the sphere, insert the ball, weld them together and then polish it up. A printer can do this in one piece with no welds.

That's a good point and I can see things like that being added to current manufacturing processes, but it will only be added were there is no other option rather than replacing anything current.

One example is a guy who's developed a printer which "prints" buildings. Basically a massive 3D printer on scaffolds which uses sandstone and chemicals to "print" the structure of a solid building in one go. So while it may be quicker to produce the individual blocks and planks you would use to build a traditional building, this building is created and constructed in one go, which in time will work out faster than putting one together from pieces.

The process at the moment produces these things which look like messy sandcastles, but it will get to the point where it can produce a perfectly square & polished concrete building - load in the architectural drawings, have 5 guys monitor the machines and a week later your five-storey building is done, exactly to spec and ready to decorate.

Hadn't thought of that kind of application. They already do something similar in concrete so it wouldn't be that difficult to do.

I'm being conservative but of course people will find new uses for it and develop it in ways I couldn't dream of and who knows what could happen but as I see it now, even if it became 10 times faster it won't become the miracle replicator as seen in Star Trek.

If they can just get the porn industry involved somehow, this will be huge in 2 years.

ScumLord wrote: »

I love 3D printing but I don't know how it's ever going to realistically replace any standard manufacturing methods. It just takes to long, in the time it takes to produce one part standard techniques would have produced hundreds. It's never going to be fast enough to be used in manufacturing.

Aside from media hype and some people cashing in on it, why would you expect it to replace mass production technology and industry? IMO, thats not what its for.

I spoke to a jeweler and they currently have a multiple layer rubber molding process, posting away moulds, getting them back, testing with customer etc... a whole chunk of that process could be replaced with rapid (and its a lot more rapid than the many layers and geographic elements of traditional prototyping) 3D printing.

Personally I can see endless applications in making low production volume car parts, especially things for old cars. The Merc Im selling is known for having cracked grilles, people pay upto EUR250 for used "less broken" examples. A 3D Printer, with some finishing of the print, could produce these in small quantities no problem, good a new (better probably).
Smaller pieces are obvious too, such as gears for Sunblinds, snaps, switches, custom facia's for radios etc etc. Id love to make flared/wide body pieces modeled from limited production Audi RS cars for instance, currently very few options other than $10k in plastic parts from old and diminishing stock. Obviously some finishing required (and professional painting) but its in the realms of possibility. No real interest despite the 10years of customer demand from any commercial entity.

There are niche demands there for every remotely interesting car/marque out there, but as they are dispersed and require some 3D modeling (or 3D scanning) skills they will never ever get mass production support (or at best the cost per unit would be astonomical due to machining setup costs with mass pro).


Aside from "car stuff", I can see making model aircraft and RC cars, totally custom as finally being possible now thanks to 3D printing.
It would allow small teams looking for VC funding to create scale functional models of things where before they had to show simple drawings. It would allow rapid alteration to aerodynamic designs which would be spread out over weeks otherwise (given real world aero testing still trumps expensive simulations).

I dont see it competing with mass production, I see it as filling a massive gap between niche/cottage industry and mass production that was created by the Industrial Revolution (which wiped out small scale and local innovation).