The grandiose ideal of home 3D printing

@Wesley Knapp

Preaching to the choir.

Until the likes of Epson, HP, Brother, etc. join the 3D printer market it will always be a niche technology only easily accessible to technically savvy people, or those willing to learn. The idea of #D printer as an appliance is so far removed from the current reality as to be laughable. The issue is also exacerbated by the constant use of Facebook as a support medium.

But that is why places like this, I mean forums in general, not Robo3D specifically, exist. A place where some who have taken the time to educate themselves on the technology skillset required can share that knowledge. There is still a future for home 3D printing, but until the giants of the industry take an active interest refining firmware (even proprietary ones), streamlining the user interface, requiring proprietary filament spools, this will take a very long time to happen.

 

for fun I googled "plug and play 3D Printer"

All these claim plug and play so must be right ?

Agree with everything both of you said. There isn't one and wont be for a long time (at least not in our conceivable price range)

https://www.google.com/search?q=plu...vhwOHgAhVozoMKHRibCdMQsxgIKw&biw=1920&bih=969

 

FTFY

Some of them are in the 3D Printer arena, but not for home printers.

 

Ummm, perhaps. Tech grows incestuously upon itself. The more you have in an area the faster you get more.

We have not quite reached the point for 3D printers to be that simple or that cheap (getting close on the cheap part). I tend to think it is still a ways out, but if money can be made there... someone will figure it out.

 

It goes beyond I have an STL and I must print

Modelling. You have to have that STL

It is a tech stack really and honestly beyond the average user. It is not and should not be as complicated as it IS ...

I suspect the end result is a 3D printer being like a regular printer where I can go somewhere and "buy" the product and print it, largely hands-off

Some of them like a DLP for example can print quite quickly since you are rendering a layer at a time (and each layer may take 10-20 seconds to expose, sometimes less)

 

There was an initiative, I think since abandoned, at Lowes Home Improvement that would take a large catalog of discontinued or older parts and have 3D printers in-store, you could order the part and the same or next day pick up that throttle handle for that 10 year old Honda mower. I see that as something much more viable than the current state of home printing.

3D printers have taken over the Hollywood prop industry, so there are places where it just makes sense.

 

I was reading about a newer DLP based 3D printer which uses the concept of polymerization threshold in a liquid media. It exposes the entire volume with low level light at 1 degree rotations (from the side using a DLP projection). When a 3d point gets sufficient illumination to exceed the threshold, then the liquid becomes solid. Otherwise it remains a liquid. This technique is similar to the gamma knife cancer treatment. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiosurgery#Gamma_Knife
Once sufficient rotations and illuminations have been done, the 3D model is completely solid and one drains the liquid to extract the solid model.

 

Now THAT is a sweet process

 

Read about the process here: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/...eedy-3d-printer-make-objects-suddenly-appear/