Does anyone own a 3D Printer?

[MarathonMike]

I'm thinking of buying a 3D printer. Does anyone have one or otherwise have experience with 3D printers? Any shared experiences positive or negative appreciated.

 

[Pumpkin Row]

I know someone that has one. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but when she visits, she gives me hand-made model kits. From that alone, I'd say they're pretty neat.

I also know she uses them to make board game pieces.

 

[OldLady]

I know someone that has one. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but when she visits, she gives me hand-made model kits. From that alone, I'd say they're pretty neat.

I also know she uses them to make board game pieces.

Is everything made out of paper?

 

[Pumpkin Row]

I know someone that has one. I'm not exactly sure how it works, but when she visits, she gives me hand-made model kits. From that alone, I'd say they're pretty neat.

I also know she uses them to make board game pieces.

Is everything made out of paper?

No, they were plastic. Not sure how a 3D Printer works, I suspect it's just part of the molding process, rather than a one-step thing. I'm just guessing, though.

EDIT: So, I read the Wikipedia page, it doesn't look like a 3D printer uses paper at all. It just makes plastic pieces outright(Though, I suspect it's possible to use other materials, not sure.)

 

[Auld Phart]

Wouldn't mind getting one, but the wife would kill me as soon as I brought one into the house, and return it

 

[MarathonMike]

Yes as I understand it, you start with a chunk of plastic and it carves out the piece under computer program control. Some models are called "replicators" which I assume means it copies a source piece but I haven't researched that. My dentist office has one set up in the lobby that makes tooth crowns. I assume that's a 3D printer.

 

[Pumpkin Row]

Yes as I understand it, you start with a chunk of plastic and it carves out the piece under computer program control. Some models are called "replicators" which I assume means it copies a source piece but I haven't researched that. My dentist office has one set up in the lobby that makes tooth crowns. I assume that's a 3D printer.

Well, I know it can use a 3D model as a source.

 

[HaShev]

I saw a demo online and was not impressed with the strand plastic supplied 3d printers.
The statue model was all wragged with excess plastic that needed a lot of work sanding down and such. So anything intricate as a figure statue is not gonna work well, but simple parts and blocks with little to no curves will, although I see the same issue of not well aligning in it's passovers.
I make 3d models and art through programs, and learned it for sake of the need for such when they perfect and make readily available these printers.

 

[MarathonMike]

That's one of the questions I had, what sort of flexibility if any do you have with the material.

 

[SixFoot]

There are all types of 3D printers out there. The technology is actually nothing new, as it's been around since the 1980's. They were large machines that created industrial parts. These days, 3D printers are a novelty, comparable in their "age" to 1980's Personal Computers.

Most 3D printers use plastic twine, which is fed through a hot point, and "drawn" layer by layer as the plastic cools on the tray. Some are very precise, down to 50 microns and below; others are less great.

Some 3D printers can use various metals. There is some pretty amazing stuff out there made by 3D printers, and there are sites where you can buy things that are 3D printed by other people, like shapeways .com (they even have items that are 3D printed solid gold).

Only in the last year or so did the first 3D printer hit the open market that could print more than one material at a time. Just a couple of years ago, the first 3D printer prototype capable of printing glass was invented.

The technology is still a virgin, but in 20 - 30 years, we will be recycling our household trash into useful things, and downloading computer hardware.

But for now, we wait...

 

[HaShev]

Yeah the guy in the video had a cheap model or didn't calibrate it right. You know like ink jets if you don't calibrate them they print outside their precision lines and become blurred messes.
Perhaps these machines need precise calibrations.
MY invention builds through atoms instead of material strands on spindles, so as a
laser atom writer you can replicate more interesting things including food (Jetson like food replicator) and eventually with advanced nano computing -beings can be the next step(for purpose of teleportation, high speed space travel solution & resurrection).

 

[Iceweasel]

Some people have printed working guns. One guy at least invented his own. That created a little alarm, probably got a visit from the ATF.