
3D Printing is for more than making brightly colored plastic pieces of crap - ingve
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/3DPrintingIsForSoMuchMoreThanJustMakingBrightlyColoredPlasticPiecesOfCrap.aspx
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ChuckMcM
Interesting discussion. Reminds me of the "why would I ever want a computer?"
discussion I got from folks back when I was in High School when I showed them
a computer I had assembled from a kit.

And realistically they didn't need a computer ever, they needed a smart phone.
Although for a while they used a computer and complained bitterly that it
required too much maintenance and had a steep learning curve.

So here we are in the 3D printer 'nadir', the period of time between hype and
wide spread adoption. The thing is, 3D printers have gotten _much_ better
since the first rep raps were trying to print their own parts. And with that
has come more applications, and with that more fun. A 3D printer is the
ultimate expression of a Lego set these days.

Once I had internalized what I could do, which I could not do before, the
number of things I started printing went up dramatically. And so much has been
learned and developed in terms of how to best fabricate things in this way
that what used to be hit or miss can now be rock solid. For example I doubt I
will ever buy a project case for a gizmo ever again. Holders, jigs, struts and
braces, all are "need one? print one" these days. But if you aren't a maker,
if you didn't write any code on any laptop you owned, if you really just want
someone else to do the fabrication, then yes they are not for you at this
time, you'll still use a service. But that will change, I hope a bit faster
than it has, the first 10 years have not moved along as fast I would have
liked.

~~~
onion2k
_A 3D printer is the ultimate expression of a Lego set these days._

That's a good analogy, but I believe it's why 3D printing _won 't_ be
mainstream. The explosion in the popularity of Lego models recently is in the
brilliant professional designs with commercial licensing that Lego come up
with. Designing and making your own Lego models is popular among kids as it
always has been, but adults don't do it. For an adult a Lego set is a 3D
jigsaw puzzle. There's zero interest in making your own ideas.

------
jdietrich
In all seriousness, when did schools stop teaching shop class?

I'm not that old, but at school I learned to measure and mark, to drill and
tap, to saw and file. If I want a quadcopter frame, I'll cut it from a sheet
of aluminum or CFRP. I'll need nothing more than a hacksaw, a file and a hand
drill. In less time than it takes for a 3D printer to warm up, I'll have a
stiffer, stronger and lighter frame than could be produced by a consumer 3D
printer.

If you want to make stuff, I urge you not to waste your time with 3D printing.
Learn the basic skills of woodwork or metalwork. It isn't hard and the tools
aren't expensive. Despite endless pleas to the contrary, FDM machines will
only ever produce tchotchkes.

If cheap DMLS machines ever hit the market then I'll be first in line. Until
then, no amount of clever technology will overcome the basic materials science
that prevents FDM machines from being useful.

~~~
Fordrus
I took shop class, I made a chess board that I remain proud of to this day,
and I used a metal lathe CNC to make chess pieces- also, a really lovely
decorative shelf.

And I just can't _disagree with you strongly enough_.

Just recently, using the MakerBot2 at my university library, I was able to
replace this:
[https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1nePU5mz8Z4/maxresdefault.jpg](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/1nePU5mz8Z4/maxresdefault.jpg).
(The large, central gear that overlaps the metal framework close to the
screwdriver). (I got this Jumping Sumo Drone for free in a broken state, and
3D printed the central gear for less than 4 dollars, and that's with a 300%
markup on materials to use the school's 3D printer)

Now, I know that it'd be hard to merely repair the damage, or remake that gear
from scratch _because I spent several weeks and a lot of spare time trying_.
The 3D printed gear has stood up repeatedly to the same behavior the
originally broke the central gear (attempting a jump on a soft surface), and
is still going strong despite my having let my nieces and nephews run the
battery down half a dozen times over Thanksgiving break (I want them to be
excited to robotics, programming, etc.- I figured if they broke the free Sumo
I had fixed, it would be a worthy sacrifice- incidentally, I didn't actually
_mean_ to test the jump on a soft surface again and specifically warned them
against it, but- ah- well- they average age 9 right now, I knew shenanigans
would ensue when I set out! :) )

Some parts are really hard to make, 3D printers help a lot. Don't you cheapen
that, jdietrich, 3D printing is a fantastic stride for makers everywhere, and
the materials science is an obstacle made of tissue paper- as in, we're
already blowing through it handily. I don't know what you're printing with,
but I'm already making more than tchotchkies, and I am dang glad I didn't
encounter your sentiment before I tried it myself.

~~~
Tepix
Nice, did you put the 3d model of the gear on Thingiverse? To me, the access
to a large database of useful 3d objects that you can print easily is another
huge advantage of 3d printers.

~~~
Fordrus
<mumbles something nearly unintelligible about having started modeling it
himself, but then having checked Thingiverse, he got it off of Thingiverse
because someone had already done a fantastic job of modelling the piece. :D >

------
vernie
(All images were of brightly colored plastic pieces of crap)

~~~
amalag
>I've made dishes, vases, pieces of art for shelves, and geometric shapes for
gifts this Christmas.

He is gifting his fancier plastic to others and they are now gifts.

------
theCodeStig
Brightly colored pieces of crap echoes my sentiments exactly. Eventually
they'll end up in the trash; only take up space in a landfill, or end up in an
ocean gyre. I don't doubt the utility of some of the "exotic filaments", but
these are even less recyclable (or biodegradable compared to PLA). The only
useful example he gives is a quadcopter. The majority will just print
stainless steel Yoda heads, and fractal vases, that sea life will choke on.

------
kbob
From the comments here, it looks like 3D printing has hit the trough of the
hype cycle.

Nonetheless, I'm a fan.

I've designed and printed about a dozen objects in the last week. None of them
are world changing, all of them could have been made some other way, and none
of them are high strength or high precision. Some of them had to be
postprocessed with an X-Acto knife. (-: But it's darned convenient to spend a
few minutes drawing CAD, then an hour (or two hours) later have a part good
enough to solve my immediate problem.

~~~
pen2l
We've reached the trough of the hype cycle for FDM 3d-printing. A new hype
cycle is for different branches of 3d-printing will happen soon (CLIP, multi-
color printing, etc.). Plateau of productivity is like ~8 years away I think,
when someone finally comes out with a nice machine that makes it all possible
elegantly in one machine.

------
ipsin
It's hard for me to see the case for owning your own 3D printer, unless that's
the hobby.

There's no point in having the printer until I have something I want to print,
if I want to print something, there are commercial services that can do it for
me.

If I understand the pricing, I'd have to print a _lot_ of pieces before a
printer paid for itself.

~~~
efnx
Sometimes it's a matter of time, not money. If you're prototyping a
complicated set of parts you'll quickly find that ordering parts from a
service results in a days long development cycle instead of minutes. I print
many small pieces each day and my designs change fast enough that ordering
from a service just doesn't make sense.

------
laughinghan
Summary:

"OK, how many brightly colored plastic pieces of crap do I really need in my
life?"

I've learned three things.

Lesson 1 - You can print upgrades to your 3D printer

Lesson 2 - You can print brightly colored non-plastic pieces of crap

Lesson 3 - You can print and then assemble brightly colored plastic pieces of
crap

~~~
beyti
Exactly what I get from the read, eventhough I'm a hanselman fan, couldn't
find anything usefull here.

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loup-vaillant
I currently work for a company that makes small drones (quad-copters and
flying wings), and they use 3D printing for many parts. This makes small-scale
fabrication and prototyping _much_ cheaper. The drones themselves take photos
for various purposes. Mostly inspections and measurements.

Prior to this, I didn't know 3D printing had actual industrial applications.

------
MCompeau
I run a small company that specializes in digital fabrication technologies
like 3D printing. We’ve been in business for about 3 years now with moderate
success. During that time, the progress I’ve witnessed in 3D printing
technologies has been extremely disappointing. Meanwhile, our studio’s laser
cutters do 10x the business of our 3D printers.

When desktop 3D printing was hitting the mainstream media in a big way a
couple of years ago, the message was about how the technology was
revolutionary and you could construct anything you could imagine at the press
of the button. The public ate this message up, while industry insiders knew it
couldn’t be further from the truth - of course that didn’t stop them from
riding the frothy crest of the hype wave, further fueling the public’s
misconceptions about the technology.

In the intervening 2 or 3 years, consumer desktop 3D printing technology
hasn’t improved in any meaningful way. Most desktop FDM printers (the kind
you’ve mostly likely seen that extrude a thin bead of melted plastic), are no
better than the early Makerbot Replicator launched in 2012. They’re still
slow, fairly user hostile (require a great deal of maintenance/calibration to
get consistent results) and have many limitations regarding the types of
geometries they are able to print due to limitations in support material.

The machines available at the consumer scale just aren’t capable of making
truly useful parts. This is why there is a glut of green Yoda heads, and
machines collecting dust on the back shelves of trendy digital agencies. This
isn’t to discredit the minority of scrappy makers who are willing to work
within the limitations of the equipment for novel projects - but for the
larger public there just isn’t a ‘killer app’ for this type of device, beyond
plastic trinkets.

The industrial/commercial scale printers are certainly much more capable. But
like other types of manufacturing equipment, the development of these
technologies is slow, mired by patents and driven by stakeholders who have no
interest in cannibalizing sales of their expensive product lines by offering
affordable consumer versions at a fraction of the price.

There are amazing things happening at the frontiers of digital fabrication.
Laser cutting and CNC machining technologies are becoming much more affordable
and easier to use for a wide variety of designers and engineers. For most
applications these types of machines are infinitely more useful than 3D
printers. They are providing an avenue for prototyping, short run production
and the mass-customization of products to segments of designers and
entrepreneurs who could never have afforded them previously. It’s almost a
shame that the crappy desktop 3D printer has become the poster child for a
much more varied and robust ecosystem of digital manufacturing technology.

~~~
bsder
> CNC machining technologies are becoming much more affordable and easier to
> use

I disagree with this. The first level of decent CNC machines has been in the
$7,000-$10,000 range for quite some time now. As they generally require
3-phase power and flood liquid (generally something which requires a non-
trivial MSDS) over the part being cut, they require a dedicated space in a
relatively dedicated shop. The "rent" to house the machine exceeds the cost of
the machine very quickly.

I would rather have an affordable SLS machine which could print nylon.

~~~
sokoloff
Rotary phase convertors or variable frequency drives can efficiently (enough)
create 3-phase power from single-phase power, so that's no barrier to even
serious home users. I know several people with CNC-converted mills/lathes in
their garage/home shop.

------
vdewillem
I've been 3d printing for over 5 years now and launching a 3d printing
education site [http://start-to-print.com](http://start-to-print.com). Here
are some of the pain points we hear a lot.

3d printing is expensive

\- You can have something 3d printed the size of a tennis ball for 5-10 euro's
at 3dhubs.com. You save 10 euro on shipment compared to shapeways and you'll
have your object in 2 days rather tan 2 weeks.

It's complicated

\- Well the first thing I 3d printed wasn't something I designed myself but
was something I found online. Chances are that somebody already created the
thing you were looking for. \- Even after 200 models I still curse when I try
a new (supposed super easy) modelling tool. But hey they are free now and you
can find lots of video tutorials. Like me you're probably a fast learner. It's
more taking the first step to spend an evening on it.

Desktop 3d printers suck

\- Until 2 weeks even I had that impression, but since I bought my 3rd: a
2,000 dollar Zortrax M200 I changed my mind. I'm all into open-source but this
thing is really plug and play and take away a lot of the hazzle I had before.
Even my wife can start a print now. So far it's been printing for 50 hours and
25 model with zero print failures. I't no longer kickstarterish.

There are better alternatives

\- Yes. But 3d printing it's just a good fit for me. I'm a software engineer,
I just like to work digital and I'm very lazy. Often I can just download it
and print.

The 3d printing hype is over

\- Yes, but 500k-1M free 3d models on thingiverse.com is REAL. My 2000 Zortrax
printer really works well and is what I was hoping 3d printing would be like.

------
legulere
So instead of brightly colored plastic pieces of crap you can also make dark
coloured plastic pieces of crap?

I see very few things in my life where plastic makes sense, except because
it's cheap when mass-manufactured. I actually would like to reduce the amount
of plastic in my life.

One advantage of 3D printers is that you can repair parts that have broken
down and can't be bought again. But with plastics you can usually only repair
broken plastic parts - maybe you shouldn't have bought a cheap plastic thing
that breaks down fast in the first place.

3D printers are a tool with very limited use cases where they make sense.

~~~
Htsthbjig
"But with plastics you can usually only repair broken plastic parts - maybe
you shouldn't have bought a cheap plastic thing that breaks down fast in the
first place."

That's what I believed when I started. But you can "print" a CNC machine and
make pieces in aluminum, copper or bronze.

I do it routinely. The CNC uses very similar components to the 3d printer.

In fact, you are not printing lots of metal components, like the steel bars.
But those things are commodities and incredibly inexpensive.

The best thing you can do is find a maker community so you don't need to have
all the tools yourself, but can share it. My CNC is not in my house, but in a
maker space. I only use it for like 5% of the time. Giving it away I can use
other's people tools(and expertise) for free.

------
wlll
I thought the same about 3d printing, I lazily didn't look past the trinkets
and crap that was on show.

When I finally thought about the possibilities I realised there was probably a
whole lot more potential, did some experimenting and ended up printing a robot
(scroll down for the best pictures):

[http://blog.willj.net/category/ping-pong-
robot/](http://blog.willj.net/category/ping-pong-robot/)

That's not the final design, I really need to update the site with the latest,
but it shows what's possible.

------
sklogic
The real game-changer is yet to happen. The missing bits of technology are
printing the circuits (embedding the wiring, ideally with something more
conductive than a paste or conductive ink) and combining a robotic, CV-guided
pick and place with 3D-printing for adding non-printable components to the
designs.

Once we're there, an entire design and production process can be heavily
automated.

~~~
fit2rule
The missing technology is the ability to grind the old plastic junk into re-
usable filament and re-use the material for new plastic junk. Give me a 3D
printer that has a funnel on top for pouring in the old crap, and you've got a
customer ..

~~~
jakeogh
These exist: [http://www.filabot.com/collections/filabot-
core](http://www.filabot.com/collections/filabot-core)

------
draw_down
I must say, I don't think the author made his point very well here. That stuff
all looks like crap to me. That's ok, it just means it's still early days.

------
Animats
There is progress. I see the 3D printers at TechShop making useful stuff now.
TechShop has had filament-type 3D printers around for about five years, but
few people got beyond the Yoda head. Now the newer units are producing useful
parts. They also have access to services with better 3D printers.

------
evanscottgray
The USAF currently has planes flying with 3D printed parts that serve an
important purpose!

------
rasz_pl
lesson 1: 3d printing is about ... upgrading your printer?

The best use case for personal 3d printing I found is RPG board gaming. Custom
D&D miniatures, battle maps, even crazy fancy dice (sometimes weighted to
annoy friends).

------
amalag
>I've made dishes, vases, pieces of art for shelves, and geometric shapes for
gifts this Christmas.

So they are not crap, they are now gifts for others.

