[HH] 3D printing

[Tom Metro]

We hear a lot about 3D printing these days. Anyone here with hands-on
experience? Does AA have a 3D printer?


$300 3D Printer
http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/28/is-the-300-3d-printer-finally-here-makible-thinks-so/

  MakiBox is a riff on the open source RepRap 3D printer that fits a
  print head and motor inside a box about the length and width (but not
  the thickness, silly) of a sheet of paper. The MakiBox kit will start
  at $350 while an assembled kit will cost $550.

  The question remains, however: do we need 3D printers on our desks? If
  not now, when?


A Look at 3D Printing and Open Source
https://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/542928:a-look-at-3d-printing-and-open-source
  Arthur C. Clarke said "Any sufficiently advanced technology is
  indistinguishable from magic." And it's still magical when you
  understand how it works. 3D printers are here, they're cool, and there
  is a large and enthusiastic open source 3D printer movement.
...
  Maybe someday, instead of making little architectural models, a giant
  unit will drive up to a building site and spit out a complete
  structure.

Not hard to imagine a printer that uses concrete as its medium to
"print" buildings.

  The open source printers we're going to look at spin out a melted
  plastic filament that comes off spools, which gives the finished item
  a woven appearance... Open source 3D printing is still in the hacker
  realm. There are no prefab personal open source 3D Printers; you have
  to build from kits or from scratch.

Obsolete by the above announcement.

After a good intro, the article loses steam once it gets down to the
specifics, spending just two paragraphs covering available printers, and
one covering the software. It mentions RepRap, Thing-O-Matic, and
Makerbot Replicator for printers, and ReplicatorG for software, and
Thingiverse and Google 3D Warehouse as model repositories.

 -Tom