3D Printing BayBay!

[GuerrillaUnReal]

Can we talk about how awesome this technology is?

Long story short, I have a project I'm working on to create some statues. My search online led me to 3-D Printing. Now within a few days the idea that was in my mind is now a reality for under $75 (hiring a 3D designer and then hiring a 3D printer) My mind is boggled at the awesomeness of that.



I am so buying a 3D Printer now. The more I reach about this tech and where it's at now, the more I am obsessing on it.

Your thoughts or experiences?

[chefist]

I have a MakerBot...use it for most of our fixtures on the production equipment...

It's simply awesome...saves us $10s of thousands in SLA and machine shop fees

[starrmtn001]

Can we talk about how awesome this technology is?

Long story short, I have a project I'm working on to create some statues. My search online led me to 3-D Printing. Now within a few days the idea that was in my mind is now a reality for under $75 (hiring a 3D designer and then hiring a 3D printer) My mind is boggled at the awesomeness of that.



I am so buying a 3D Printer now. The more I reach about this tech and where it's at now, the more I am obsessing on it.

Your thoughts or experiences?

Next, the 3-D Fax.

Pizza delivery shops will make a fortune!

[Astrid Galactic]

What are the materials used to make the final product? Would assume some sort of plastics. I just can't imagine, at least, at this time, an edible silicon pizza.

[WOTR]

What are the materials used to make the final product? Would assume some sort of plastics. I just can't imagine, at least, at this time, an edible silicon pizza.

I choked down some domino's last month and would have rather chanced edible silicone from my 3-D fax machine.

[Threaten the Hoover]

I've seen the industry grow from basically nothing/highly specialist to the mainstream in the last decade, I offer a service designing 3d printable digital prototypes, creating the shape files that you drive the printer with.

Those playing along at home right now are basically printing with a plastic filament, but i guess you could feed just about anthing into the right extruder... It melts a new layer of cheese plastic over another, over and over until it forms the pizza 3d shape.

With consumer gear, the printed parts don't have a great amount of detail or finish straight out of the printer with this process but better desktop tech is coming along.

You can order your prints in different materials from online print services, like gold or silver (via wax printing) or metallic plastics (a bit like sintered metal), rubbery materials and sandstone-esq materials, some places will let you print large objects, some small but with lots of detail. 

[GuerrillaUnReal]

I've seen the industry grow from basically nothing/highly specialist to the mainstream in the last decade, I offer a service designing 3d printable digital prototypes, creating the shape files that you drive the printer with.

Those playing along at home right now are basically printing with a plastic filament, but i guess you could feed just about anthing into the right extruder... It melts a new layer of cheese plastic over another, over and over until it forms the pizza 3d shape.

With consumer gear, the printed parts don't have a great amount of detail or finish straight out of the printer with this process but better desktop tech is coming along.

You can order your prints in different materials from online print services, like gold or silver (via wax printing) or metallic plastics (a bit like sintered metal), rubbery materials and sandstone-esq materials, some places will let you print large objects, some small but with lots of detail.

Can you recommend any online print services? I've been playing around on 3DHubs with different printers and it's been a very cool experience. For someone like me who likes to pretend they're artsy but has no discernable talent, this is incredible. I am so enamored with building 3D models and having them designed for me by professionals.

What can you tell me about Sandstone printing? What I'm really interested in is eventually making and selling statues for fun. I realize the printers are 20k+ but I never say never.

I'm thinking about buying myself a MakerGear M2 for Christmas.

The more I read about this stuff and watch videos on YouTube, the cooler I think it is.

[albrecht]

Next, the 3-D Fax.

In the words of the great Hank Jr: won't someone please fax me a beer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U--QeIACsA
(Commercial, not the longer album or live version, which is even more ridiculous/hilarious.)

[Threaten the Hoover]

Can you recommend any online print services? I've been playing around on 3DHubs with different printers and it's been a very cool experience. For someone like me who likes to pretend they're artsy but has no discernable talent, this is incredible. I am so enamored with building 3D models and having them designed for me by professionals.

What can you tell me about Sandstone printing? What I'm really interested in is eventually making and selling statues for fun. I realize the printers are 20k+ but I never say never.

I'm thinking about buying myself a MakerGear M2 for Christmas.

The more I read about this stuff and watch videos on YouTube, the cooler I think it is.

I use shapeways, statues can be produced in plain or full-color sandstone there, so if you're good at 3d texture painting you can get some great results.

I don't know much about the home printers tbh, that one might be fantastic, but so far from what I've seen you might need to do a lot of finishing work on the output itself to make it into a nice display piece/something you can sell... The older makerbots were a bit difficult to setup and get good results from, sometimes printing utter messes or getting halfway through and malfunctioning with interesting results, i'm sure things have improved by now.

The problem with home printers that I've seen so far is that they tend to be FDM type, more advanced technology like SLS was protected by patents until recently, other tech is in the pipeline which should give rapid results which are as good as Injection molded plastics. 

[GuerrillaUnReal]

I use shapeways, statues can be produced in plain or full-color sandstone there, so if you're good at 3d texture painting you can get some great results.

I don't know much about the home printers tbh, that one might be fantastic, but so far from what I've seen you might need to do a lot of finishing work on the output itself to make it into a nice display piece/something you can sell... The older makerbots were a bit difficult to setup and get good results from, sometimes printing utter messes or getting halfway through and malfunctioning with interesting results, i'm sure things have improved by now.

The problem with home printers that I've seen so far is that they tend to be FDM type, more advanced technology like SLS was protected by patents until recently, other tech is in the pipeline which should give rapid results which are as good as Injection molded plastics.

The problem I find with Shapeways is that it's so expensive. In order to have them make some sandstone statues, I believe it was up $100 a statue. Yet when I see similar sandstone 3D printed statues online, they're around $20 retail. That cost disparity prevents me for using them. That also makes me really want a sandstone printer with that kind of return. I like that Shapeways can do an all platinum statue for me though, when I have 375 thousand dollars to burn, I am all over that. 

Do you recommend waiting a few months before going into the 3D printing game until this new technology reaches consumer level?

[Threaten the Hoover]

Without examples i can't speculate on the difference, I know that as things start to scale up the cost goes up disproportionately, a straight doubling of size of the same prototype = approx 8 times the cost, so things can quickly get expensive.

That said, its vastly cheaper than it used to be, and will be cheaper still in future. 

I think the biggest strength for the home user who wants a basic model is for practical/custom items and parts, for repairs, projects etc... If you want output that looks nice, like a mass produced item straight off the bed, the home printer is probably going to be a let down for you at this point but look at some of the bleeding edge developments in the industry at this point and you can see a lot of promise here.

[GuerrillaUnReal]

Without examples i can't speculate on the difference, I know that as things start to scale up the cost goes up disproportionately, a straight doubling of size of the same prototype = approx 8 times the cost, so things can quickly get expensive.

That said, its vastly cheaper than it used to be, and will be cheaper still in future. 

I think the biggest strength for the home user who wants a basic model is for practical/custom items and parts, for repairs, projects etc... If you want output that looks nice, like a mass produced item straight off the bed, the home printer is probably going to be a let down for you at this point but look at some of the bleeding edge developments in the industry at this point and you can see a lot of promise here.

Your knowledge is a gold mine man. I greatly appreciate your chiming in. 

[Threaten the Hoover]

NP, whatever you buy right now is going to feel obsolete pretty quickly, its like buying a home computer in the early 80's.

[GuerrillaUnReal]

NP, whatever you buy right now is going to feel obsolete pretty quickly, its like buying a home computer in the early 80's.

Hmm... maybe I'll wait until the new year and wait for a sale or a deal on a 2016 model?

Here's some glow in the dark frogs I had made and designed. 

[Threaten the Hoover]

If you're really interested then get one, like an 80's computer, you can still have fun with it as a toy and it can be a useful tool, we're just nowhere near a development plateau. like today a 10 year old computer can still do most of the computer-ey things we need to do on a day to day basis...

Maybe 2d desktop printers are a better analogy, we're still at the dot matrix stage with FDM processes, but the lasers, inkjets and more professional output is on the way, a technology that today is basically static in development, its as good & cheap as its going to get i guess.

I'd look for reliability, reasonable cost (and running cost, avoid proprietary systems perhaps?) Just don't necessarily expect speed and resolution as well.

I think a lot of the 3D printers sold and built so far eventually get put away in a corner somewhere and forgotten about, esp if they're a pain to setup and un-reliable, even vibrations from passing trucks can screw up a print.

[GuerrillaUnReal]

If you're really interested then get one, like an 80's computer, you can still have fun with it as a toy and it can be a useful tool, we're just nowhere near a development plateau. like today a 10 year old computer can still do most of the computer-ey things we need to do on a day to day basis...

Maybe 2d desktop printers are a better analogy, we're still at the dot matrix stage with FDM processes, but the lasers, inkjets and more professional output is on the way, a technology that today is basically static in development, its as good & cheap as its going to get i guess.

I'd look for reliability, reasonable cost (and running cost, avoid proprietary systems perhaps?) Just don't necessarily expect speed and resolution as well.

I think a lot of the 3D printers sold and built so far eventually get put away in a corner somewhere and forgotten about, esp if they're a pain to setup and un-reliable, even vibrations from passing trucks can screw up a print.

I totally understand what you're saying. What do you think the future for 3D Printing is? What will that development plateau look like?

I get what you're saying about 3D Printers being pretty basic now. They do look like they're in their relative consumer level infancy. I think that's one of the reasons I find it so appealing.

I would think hopefully 3D Software is around it's development plateau. What are your thoughts on 3-D designing software?

Hmm... that is all very interesting. I'm pretty sure after reading for a few hours I'm going MakerGear.

I think you could say that about all tech though. I have a cubby filled with just old cell phones. I'm enamored with it now and just want to get my hands on it so I can start learning about it.

Here is two wood fill frogs. 

[Richard Groyper]

I totally understand what you're saying. What do you think the future for 3D Printing is? What will that development plateau look like?

I get what you're saying about 3D Printers being pretty basic now. They do look like they're in their relative consumer level infancy. I think that's one of the reasons I find it so appealing.

I would think hopefully 3D Software is around it's development plateau. What are your thoughts on 3-D designing software?

Hmm... that is all very interesting. I'm pretty sure after reading for a few hours I'm going MakerGear.

I think you could say that about all tech though. I have a cubby filled with just old cell phones. I'm enamored with it now and just want to get my hands on it so I can start learning about it.

Here is two wood fill frogs. 

Viva La Pepe! 🐸🐸🐸

[Threaten the Hoover]

I'm personally waiting for a relatively affordable machine which will provide a mass production quality item (adequate size, detail, finish & durability), thats the tipping point where they will become relatively ubiquitous. If it doesn't print in multiple materials at the same time it will be able to form clean, precise shapes from many materials - or at least provide different finishes.

It's a machine that could print you a dinner service, a new phone case, a replica Matt Tracker MASK figure complete with factory authentic paint job... Maybe even new designer eyeglasses complete with prescription lenses so avoiding the embarrassing situation of taping your old broken pair to your face for the month... It will also form shapes relatively quickly, on the order of minutes and not hours.

You can imagine how such a machine will make many services obsolete overnight & take a significant chunk of conventional manufacturing away from industry.

Turning 3D objects on a computer into real world forms is not a new concept, not in industry and manufacturing for both subtractive (milling) and additive processes (rapid prototyping).

Only the consumer aspect of it is new, and I mean 'new' as in its been around for almost a decade, this really began with Shapeways and the first generation of home printing machines like Makerbot, Rep-Rap.

As for software, building 3D shapes on a computer ceased being challenging for the average joe about 15-20 years ago when reasonably powerful computers with fluid 3D graphics, lots of RAM etc, became affordable consumer items.

If you go the traditional CAD or 3D modelling route then pretty much anything will do - I can make something I can 3D print on my Amiga, so its not difficult per-se.  But if you're not a weirdo CAD guy or if fiddling around with wire-frames fills you with fear, then the de-facto standard for 3D sculpting is zbrush, which aims to emulate a more traditional way of working, at a basic level its very much like working virtual clay.