
I Hate 3D Printing - ricberw
http://richardberwick.com/i-hate-3d-printing/
======
ChuckMcM
That was funny, an advertisement for a 3D printing service where the call to
action is "this is going to suck so don't buy it." Well it wasn't really that
exactly, the argument is the same though, and the conclusion is inescapable.

Our author doesn't really "hate" 3D printing, he is setting up his pitch, by
"hating" on aspects of 3D printing that make it poorly suited to mass market
adoption, except he doesn't actually _know_ why these things are hard, he
writes as if someone gave him a laundry list of things that they didn't like
about 3D printing and he's ready to pitch a "solution" which doesn't have
those "bad things" associated with it.

Ok, so the problem with this pitch to a modestly sophisticated audience is
that pretty much everyone who knows anything about 3D printing knows that the
biggest problem facing 3D printing _is not_ that it doesn't have a vending
machine business model. Further, if someone walked up and proposed a vending
machine model, a reasonably astute person would say this:

It takes 3 - 6 hours to 'print' any reasonably complex shape. Lets say you had
a web api to Thingiverse[1] and you could say "print this on the vending
machine down stairs." you would then have to wait several hours before you
could get your part. If someone else got their first it may be all day, worse
it might be that your part is in the queue and won't get printed until a week
from Tuesday. Even worse, the chance of a good outcome is not good, I would
doubt if it were better than 66%. Probably a 1 in 3 chance something about the
print will go wrong and you'll come by in a week and your part is crap. And
even if you have a "this is crap do it again" button, does the machine stop
what its doing and spend the next 3 hrs printing you another? Even if this
shifts the completion of the other things in its queue?

Basically unattended 3D printing is _not possible_ at this stage. It will be
at some point but for now it isn't. That means you have a shop somewhere and
they have real people who start your print and make sure it comes out fine.
They cost money, real money. If your scheme doesn't cover their salary then
its not a scheme, its a dream.

3D printing is going to change the world, _in a decade_. That is how long it
takes to change even a fraction of the pipeline of goods. Sure in various
niche markets its changing them now, but printing kiosks? 10 maybe 20 years.

I understand the pain point though. If you look back you see all those people
who wanted to use a computer for something in the 70's and they couldn't
because they weren't engineers and didn't want to spend the time learning to
program. It got a bit better (but very expensive) in the 80's and it wasn't
until the 90's when people even considered owning two computers. These
migrations are part time, part adaptation. It takes folks time for adapt the
technology into their lifestyle. 3D printing is the same way. If you take the
time to learn how to run one of these machines you can do your own 3D printing
and it is hecka cool. You are donating your own time for 'free' into the cause
with a bunch of other people who are interested. Custom printing labs, sort of
like film labs of my youth, will no doubt spring up, do well during the pre-
automation growth cycle, and then die out. 3D designers will become a sought
after commodity, people who can use the tools to create excellent 3D shapes
quickly that can be reliably printed. Hardware manufacturers will grow and
evolve, standards will emerge, feature sets will be refined. New materials
will be developed that are more suited to this style of construction. All of
that is going to take time.

I wish our author luck but he's a bit early for this model.

[1] <http://www.thingiverse.com>

------
leoedin
Presenting the alternatives as much worse than they really are just so you can
promote your own service is pretty patronising of your reader. It reminds me
of infomercials and the over-acted non-problems they claim to solve.
(<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08xQLGWTSag> to see what I mean).

Saying that, this seems like quite an interesting concept. If you could get
the reliability and per-unit cost low enough then it could possibly gain
traction. My only concern is that actually 3D printing is a fairly niche
market - most of my friends and family have no desire to 3D print anything,
and can't even conceive of wanting to. Given that the technology's not going
to compete with mass production on cost any time in the next decade, the only
people who I could see being interested in 3D printing are technical or
artistic types - the kind of people who already like to make things. They're
actually quite rare.

~~~
ricberw
I fully believe in what I wrote - the current options really are quite bad.

I can't imagine spending $80+ on a candy bar sized print, nor do I want to buy
a machine and spend the time to learn to use it.

I don't believe that the vending machine is the end-all solution, but it does
seem to be one of them.

What would you propose as another solution?

~~~
dbecker
It's an emerging technology. It's got a long way to go, and fortunately people
(yourself included) are moving the technology forward.

But your article makes it sound like the shortcomings of 3d printing exist
because the people before you were idiots. That's clearly not the case.

If it's so bad, why don't you already have something better in production?

I assume the answer is that it's a hard problem, and you are still working on
it. Just like everyone else. The difference is that they aren't writing posts
about how terrible your current prototype (or whatever you have) is.

------
newishuser
Misleading title, post is an advertisement for 3d printing. Hates the state of
3d printing, building 3d printing vending machines a la red box.

That being said, it's a really cool idea. But post title is obnoxious IMHO.

~~~
ricberw
Obnoxious it is - thanks for the support for the idea, though!

~~~
newishuser
For sure, I genuinely think it's a great idea and I hope you succeed.

As far as the writing goes though, I never understand why people try to
generate interest through negativity and deceit. I think the post would be
more inspiring if it went something like:

"I love 3d printing. I love 3D printing so much that I'm coming up with
innovative ways to make it cheaper and more ubiquitous. Please join me on my
quest to bring 3D printing to everyone..."

It's more genuine, less condescending, and isn't a lie. After all, you don't
hate 3D printing in the least, not one bit. You're in love with it and are
dedicating a portion of your life to making it better.

~~~
ricberw
Great ideas!

I've posted with titles/descriptions such as these on other forums, and have
seen virtually no response, but it could be that I didn't write a decent
article.

My next post will have a few of the technical details about what we're up to,
and will definitely have a more positive/fitting title.

------
dillona
Clearly clickbait

Your service is interesting, but your method of advertising is disingenuous

------
hsmyers
While reading this I got to thinking about the nature of those whom 3D
Printing appeals too. <end-of-awkward-sentence/> I've a friend with a 3D
printer (sorry don't remember which) and he and I have talked about it quite a
bit. So putting those two input streams together with my own predilections, I
conclude that the primary successful target is a hacker. I've not know any
hacker who allowed the annoying bits between she or he and their goal to get
in the way. Indeed in my own case those bits are just problems to be solved
and I seem to be at least partially in it for the kick that comes from
creating solutions. That said, I get to have access to my friends machine for
free---in fact I don't even need to have hands on, he likes the idea of
building things as both prototype and actual (read it works) product such that
he just needs the specs or possibly a 3D file to input to the machine :) Long
story short, this is just something new to hack on!

------
mosselman
Great job on using a hipsteresque title to get people to look at your stuff.
It looked as valuable as most posts that start with 'n amount of things I wish
I knew before xyz', 'new startup that lets you bla bla bla' so I didn't read
it.

If you don't feel like adding value, please don't do anything at all and curl
up somewhere, disconnected from all things internet.

------
fudged71
Honestly, I read the article because of the title, and you had seemingly valid
points about why the current world of 3D printing sucks. So I see it as added
value that you provide a solution at the end. And it's great that you're
actually working on it.

It would be cool to see this "Vending Machine" be side-by-side with Bufferbox.
A one-stop-shop for one day delivery/printing would be incredible, as long as
it's easily accessible, and secure! Privacy might also be an issue; it might
be good marketing to show the parts being printed, but customers might want
their stuff printed privately.

------
mrperl
As somebody who is a member of Techshop and a student of 3D printing and metal
CNC, I feel the blog post title and content were dead-on accurate.

Like one of my friends says, "3D printing is great ... for bathtub toys,"
where you don't need structural strength or fit and finish.

The more I learn about 3D printing with plastics, the less wonderful it is to
me. I really don't understand what the above posts are griping about.

Mentally, I've made a note to only use 3D printing for molds at this point.

~~~
simcop2387
If you have the time, I've seen people finish objects using bondo or some
other materials and you can end up with a nice looking object with a good
finish. Strength on the other hand seems to be as much art as it is science,
printing objects in the right direction and picking the right settings to get
it to go the way you need it. I've not had a chance to make any real molds
myself, how well does it end up working for the finish aspect also?

------
MaxGabriel
So you know, your website redirects to the home page on mobile.

~~~
ricberw
Odd, doesn't do that for me - what mobile device are you on?

~~~
HeyImAlex
It's happening to me too on an iPhone 5.

~~~
ricberw
Got it! Old redirect, which has now been removed. Thanks!

------
p3nt3ll3r
change your pic

