3D Printers.

[Ansel]

How cool is this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw

[lxskllr]

A little bit closer to replicators. I can't wait until I can print out some snus :^D

[CoderGuy]

Amazing. I have seen 3D printers before, but never with color and especially moving parts, that's incredible. Lx, yes, imagine we could sit at home and print any snus we want!

[RobsanX]

3D printers have been around for a while, but they are damn cool. Every semester at Oklahoma State they have a robot competition in the Mechanical Engineering Dept. There was a guy in my group that had access to a 3-D printer at the school he worked at, and we were the first team to ever use 3-D printed parts in our robot.

Here is a custom handle that I had made up not too long ago.

[devilock76]

That is neat, in a way a additive polymer evolution of a CNC machine.

Ken

[lxskllr]

What does a setup like that cost? I imagine it would be way too expensive to use in the home, but it might make a good business plan doing amateur prototyping. If Joe Handy Homeowner could get his awesome ideas realized for $30 or so, I think he'd happily pay it.

[RobsanX]

I got two of those handles for about $650. The material is very expensive, and the machines are well into the tens of thousands if not more. We had those made to check the fit up to other parts, and to check the ergonomics of the handle. It would have been unreasonably expensive to have a prototype made any other way. The final part was made from die-cast aluminum, which is very economic in high quantities. 3-D printing is still not used for high production manufacturing, but it may not be far away.

[lxskllr]

I got two of those handles for about $650.

Ouch. Not very practical for amateur use :^(

[sgreger1]

You can buy your own small-scale 3d printer for about $600. The materials are cheap from that point forward. You can print things like those handles for a dollar or two once you have the machine.

They have a cool open source 3d printer that goes by the name of "MakerBot" here which costs about 1300, but you can make a million usefull things.

These are really cool, you just have to make a 3d model in CAD or some similar program and it will print it out.

The cool ones use metal, which has a huge advantage over a CNC machine for art or prototyping because it prints layer by layer, so you can have hollow objects and things of that nature. Like you could print a house with all of the furniture inside, something you can't do with a CNC machine.

I have been meaning to buy one of these for my house to make toys for my daughter. The $600 one (I forget the name) is pretty sweet and is open source, it can print just about anything out of plastic that is the size of a large action figure.


Relevant links:

UP!, the $1500 personal portable 3D printer

Everyday Fixes with Makerbot #3 - why you need a 3D printer.

3d printer can print functional tools. Incredible!

A self-replicating DIY 3D printer that costs approximately $1000. The "RepRap" or a similar machine will completely change society when it goes viral.

RepRap is the first 3D printer that can reproduce its own components.

3D printer for under $1000 (but you have to put it together yourself)

And of course, the obligatory Minecraft re-creation: Fully programmable 3d printer in minecraft!










The MakerBot Automated Build Platform is truly a revolution in 3D printing. Updated to be larger for the Thing-O-Matic, it allows you to have a print queue where your machine will clear the build surface between builds by printing, then ejecting. It prints objects one after another, turning your MakerBot into a little high-production factory that sits on your desktop. Best of all, this is completely automated: you hit print, and the machine does all the work. Want to print 100 butterflies? Easy. Want to print an entire chess set? No problem. Want to start a business selling printed things that you've designed? Awesome. Have the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer do all the work while you design new things.


Welcome to the future, personal manufacturing! I bet you could make a small business out of things that you print on one of these. Either art, prototypes, action figures or something else, I bet there is a money in it somewhere. Maybe I should buy one and go around making 3d models of all of the hi-rises and cool architecture in San Francisco, then go sell plastic replicas of the buildings to the owners, I bet these rich guys would pay to have a cool model of their masterpiece building on their desk to show off.

[sgreger1]

Gallery of cool things you can make with these:








Man I would have a blast with one of these things. I think Las3r and GN should go in together and buy one fo these and open up a GN extreme dildo store or something lol.


EDIT: The question is, can it make a fleshlight?

[devilock76]

Now I REALLY want one.

Ken

[sgreger1]

Research: 'Printing' human organs with 3D bio-printer

Invetech 3D bio-printer is ready for production, promises 'tissue on demand'

Insanely high resolution homemade 3d printer

$750 3D Open Source Printer

Really cool:
Solar-powered 3D sand-printer -- "Markus Kayser built a 3D printer that works with solar power to heat up sand and form objects like a regular 3D printer, by taking the energy and the raw material directly out of the desert."

^^ Video if it: Something a little different: making a glass bowl using sun, sand, and a 3D printer



The World’s First Printed Building - 3d printer makes buildings. This machine could be used to construct anything. Dini wants to build a cathedral with it. Or houses on the moon.

In other news:

In the year 2050 the rows upon rows of these 'terafoam' buildings will line the slums of America and keeping the millions of unwashed barely fed proletariat in check http://www.marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm






The ones that use metal are great for art:




For those who wanta cool DIY project, here is how to build one yourself out of inexpensive materials, open source:

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Looks like this, but there are 4 differnt models you can build, this one being the easiest:





If you have any mechanical, electronic, or coding skills, get a Prusa Mendel kit from MakerGear, or piece one together yourself. It'll be quite a lot cheaper than the MakerBot of the UP, more reliable than the Thing-o-matic, and open source.



For gun enthusiasts:

Making High (Normal) Capacity Magazines Through a 3D Printer. Yeah, let's see the Brady Campaign and the VPC try to ban everything involved in making these.


These things are so cool, it's like having a China on your desktop!

[lxskllr]

These things are so cool, it's like having a China on your desktop!

RoFL! You can go to the dollar store($2.50 store for you Californians :^P ), and never leave your bed :^D

[MGX]

We had access to these at Oklahoma State, they're quite fun and much cheaper than laser sintering machines. They've been around 15 years or so and the costs keep dropping.

Also, I heard on a science podcast the trend will be that of making food on a 3d printer. Replicators here we come!

[RobsanX]

Also, I heard on a science podcast the trend will be that of making food on a 3d printer. Replicators here we come!

Sorry, I couldn't help it!