Low cost 3D printer

[thought]

http://store.makerbot.com/thing-o-matic-kit-mk7.html

The video is pretty cute... I can't wait for this tech to be around the $200 mark and made by a brand name electronics manufacturer so it's in every house.  Stuff like this makes me realize we're all sort of living in the future already.  haha

[Drunken Monkey]

I'm member at a place called Techshop ("it's like a gym for nerds") and they have one of these puppies.

Very cool.

Although I'm hoping they'll get one of the ones that 'prints' via laser sintering of metal next year

Stuff like this makes me realize we're all sort of living in the future already.  haha

I predict in 10 years time we'll have the equivalent of Kinkos for 3d...

[thought]

The idea of being able to dl a cad file from the internet and then just print out mods for your bike makes me really happy.

The problem with being in the future is that you just want the rest of the future to happen faster.  haha

[Drjones]

Sort of like Kinko's for 3D.  CNC machined or injection moled prototypes in one day or thereabouts by effectively using C.A.M.  www.protomold.com

[Buckethead]

I was promised a flying car. 

[booger]

All that stuff is NOW, no waiting. It's been around for years even. Makerbot's been available for a while too, but it's just a toy.

All decent reprographics businesses do rapid prototyping. You bring in the file, they bang it out. We had a rapid prototyper in our CAD lab when I was in architecture school 12 years ago. It 3D printed small models in corn starch.

Laser cutters have been used for years as well. They are basically the same machine with a laser cutting head. Custom vinyl decals are made with a similar machine, a plotter/cutter. Computer numerical control utilizing a Cartesian coordinate system.

Making a complex machined part for say, you car or bike, is completely doable but still just a tad expensive because those machines cost $500k and need to earn $200 per hour; the CADCAM soft is expensive and the manpower ain't cheap either. The USAF bangs their own ridiculously awesome parts out daily using this equipment, and have been doing so for years and years. If they don't have it they make it. Punch a few keys and boom.

I made my own 3-axis CNC and played with it for a awhile. I learned enough to know that if I ever needed one to get serious and actually make things I would need to buy a commercially manufactured piece of equipment. It was fun to mess around with however. You can tear down old printers and make your own rapid prototyper a la Makerbot but it would only have educational value.

It's an industry that's very well mature but not yet completely on the radar in the US.