[Discuss] 3D Printers

[markw at mohawksoft.com (markw at mohawksoft.com)]

I've had the 3D printer working for about a week now, I have to say its
interesting.

Some of my friends at work and I have been thinking about this.. Are they
a fad or a technology with a big future?

I'm still not sure. Yes, they can make a lot of things, but the pieces
will never be cheaper than mass production. They will probably never have
the "quality" of a molded plastic. Then there is "plastic," metal would be
nice. So assuming plastic only.That has a wide range of application, so
maybe that's enough?

One thing I did print was a Raspberry PI project box. it only took 4% of a
1kg roll of filament. The filament was on sale at Microcenter for $14.99.
The box cost about $0.60 in materials, and maybe 5~10 cents of
electricity. It 10 hours to print. About 5 hours for the top and the
bottom.

I also printed a camera holder for the Raspberry PI camera, probably $0.05
worth of filament.

So, it may make sense for people like me who like to build things.


> I recently bought an ANet A8 3D printer for 163.99 (a week ago counting
> shipping)
>
> www.gearbest.com/3d-printers-3d-printer-kits/pp_343643.html?currency=USD&viphttp://www.gearbest.com/3d-printers-3d-printer-kits/pp_343643.html?currency=USD&vip=760163&gclid=CJLTpfywoNMCFduEswoddZsDaw=760163&gclid=CJLTpfywoNMCFduEswoddZsDaw
>
> I am currently printing stuff right now. Its kind of cool. I have a number
> of thing I want to print, but it will take days to get them done. 3D
> printing is not terribly fast.
>
> A co-worker of mine dismissed 3D printers as gimmicks and while I sort of
> agree, I think the technology is interesting. Here is one issue that drove
> home the issue for me.
>
> I was trying to set up a raspberry pi camera as a web cam. I was double
> sided taping the camera to a box. Then I asked myself, "I bet
> thingiverse.com" has a 3D cad of what I want, and, of course, they did!!.I
> printed the camera mount. Easy.
>
> This technology is in its infancy. It has so much potential. Anyone else
> have a 3D printer?
>
>
>
>