3-D printers! This is so cool

[LaurenG]

The future is here. :wow:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw This shows the making of a wrench, that works.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-JOJ91p9Wc&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah1067HXNdM&feature=related

[LaurenG]

1. This guy sells them for $1299.00 I'm amazed.

http://www.makerbot.com/ :bounce:

[Flubadubya]

8. Did they mention how much the "expendable materials" cost?

I bet that resin isn't cheap!

[blogslut]

9. Here you go

http://store.makerbot.com/plastic.html

[Flubadubya]

12. OK, so a kilo (2.2 lbs) of the stuff costs about $50.

Odd though that it appeared as a powder in the OP's video, but this stuff "comes beautifully coiled on a heavy duty spool" as a filament.

Somewhere in the process I guess it gets transformed into powder?? Hmm... wonder what percentage a kilo is in something like the wrench.

[Posteritatis]

18. There's different types of materials

A lot of plastics come spooled like that, some others are powders, I think metals for the printers which can work with them are also available in a few different types depending on the machine, etc.

[Shagbark Hickory]

29. That's going to be the end of the sex toy industry. When people can design and print their own

dildos.

[LaurenG]

31. Oh yes custom made. Scan a real one and presto a great substitute

for when that someone special is away.

[woo me with science]

2. Those are amazing.

You can print a bicycle!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmxjLpu2BvY

[valerief]

3. Those things are way cool. nt

[blogslut]

4. They're getting almost affordable for individual households

Until then, there are services online where you can submit a project and pay to have it made via 3D printer and sent to you or sold to others.

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. there's more than one method

The high end technology uses a powder or polymer bath. On the lower end is makerbot and RepRap which use extruded monofilament plastic.

[chalky]

20. Shapeways is the site I stumbled across a couple of years ago.

http://www.shapeways.com/
The members there create and sell some spectacular items.
I'm drawn to this pocket watch. If only it didn't cost so much.

[Pharaoh]

5. Holy Fuck!!!!

:wow:

[duhneece]

6. Hard to believe

Too Cool!

[PCIntern]

7. Un-bee-lee-va-ble!!!!!!

But...but...but HOW does it know how to create the internal workings like the 'stop' on the wrench??

OMFG...

[Fumesucker]

11. You design the items to be built in a CAD program..

It's really just the flip side of subtractive CAM (computer aided manufacturing) processes like machining..

[Tesha]

37. The component parts are still made individually. (NT)

[lonestarnot]

10. Whoa! Far fucking out!

:wow:

[NYC_SKP]

13. We have one at work, check THIS out: 3-D printing working body parts, ears, kidneys...

Knee joints!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqhZnDyeEfo

Human kidney (TED Talk): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMx31GnNXY&feature=related


:bounce:

[IDemo]

15. One pancreas please, in a medium large..

[LaurenG]

24. Good grief! Hips, knees, corneas this just boggles my mind.

damn...

[kentuck]

14. I worked on huge press in the '60's..

That we would put a compressed preform (similar to the powder) into the top of the press and make gears and distributor caps for automobiles. This seems to be an advanced version of that ancient technology.

That is simply amazing!

[Tesha]

39. Those sorts of machines required a mold.

The new technology is more like three-dimensional inkjet printing;
no mold is required, just a computer model of what the part should
look like.

Tesha

[Buns_of_Fire]

16. Pair it with Cornell's Food Printer and we're all set!

(I'm not sure exactly what we're all set for, but we're all set!)

This 3D printer makes edible food

[LaurenG]

35. I just read where they are building things out of chocolate rather than resin.

Party favors could be fun to prepare.

[Buns_of_Fire]

36. That's good to hear -- the resin hurts my teeth.

On the other hand, I'd hate to literally be eaten out of house and home by Chocozilla.

[Posteritatis]

17. I'm gonna pounce on one when the price drops another couple of hundred bucks

Couple friends run gaming stores, a few of us are good with various 3D/CAD programs, there's a logical conclusion there.

(Of course, in practice that's the excuse rather than the reason, which is "I can't not want to play around with something like this.")

[Poll_Blind]

21. How could the scanner portion have known about the internal screw threads?

The printer part is awesome, I've seen these before. But I call fishyness on somebody putting those internal screw threads in there, which are responsible for the mouth of the wrench opening and closing.

Can anyone explain that?

PB

[LaurenG]

23. I can't but thats the part that really excited me. Think of the things that

we could do with this.

[Trajan]

28. What, I believe, we dont see ....

After they scan the wrench .... The scanned information is imported into a CAD program, like Solidworks, and once it is imported, the operator can modify the details within CAD to connect surfaces in any way they wish .... They can connect all the 'invisible' details in the CAD program ....

Then again .... Maybe it is sophisticated enough to 'see' interior details ? .... Hmmmm ....

[Poll_Blind]

30. Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well. I'm a Max user and I'm somewhat familiar with...

...the programs which are used, for instance, in C&C machines, to decompose the object down to something which the machine can process. Even a really good program, something like a very high end, intelligent version of MeshLab couldn't "figure out" what's actually "going on" in the wrench, if that makes any sense. I figure an operator/modeler would have to intervene.

Also, LOL, what's up with the hand-held scanner? I was kind of surprised by that!

PB

[graywarrior]

22. That just messed up my head.....wow.

[fujiyama]

25. Kick for later view

Cool stuff thanks for the links.

[AsahinaKimi]

26. Not quite a

Replicator, but pretty darn close!

"Tea, Earl Grey, Hot".

[Stinky The Clown]

27. Very, very Cool!!

[LaurenG]

32. The future is 3-D website. It includes clothing,

http://thefutureis3d.com/

[Odin2005]

33. This is awesome. it will be the end of Corporate Mass Production Capitalism.

[libodem]

34. Is this where they print the wrench

With the red thingie. Loved it.

[sudopod]

38. SCIENCE! nt

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

40. My girlfriends company has been experimenting with these for prototyping

Since it takes weeks or even months to get usable prototype chassis components from their "outsourcing partners" in Texas. Although the first thing they printed was a bright green reproduction of a breast, which she gave me as a paper weight.