Ars Technica: Last month, I spent an afternoon with Printrbot, one of the companies currently manufacturing low-cost 3D printers. Hardware that had previously cost thousands of dollars is now being sold by a handful of companies around the world for just a few hundred bucks. Ars editor Lee Hutchinson received an assembled version of the Printrbot Simple (which retails for $299), and will have a hands-on in coming days. As a total 3D printing newbie, he had quite a time with it! In the meantime, head into Printrbot's lair with us.
7 comments:
My high school got one just before I graduated, and they printed a chair which seems kind of extreme. It was really loud in the industrial version, I wonder if this is silent or just proportionally smaller?
This is the first 3d printer I've seen that is made of wood! I suppose you get what you pay for.. Regardless, it's cool to see this kind of industrial level tech filter down to the consumer level. By helping make this technology more accessible to consumers, I feel that Printrbot is helping experiment and push the boundaries of how 3d printing can be employed both in manufacturing and in the home. As a relatively new fabrication technology, 3D printing has exciting and far reaching potential. Printrbot's promise to make it more accessible is definitely a great thing!
Watching 3D prinitng grow into a mass phenomenon is inspiring on many levels. I feel like Printrbot is the start of a mass industry as I have also seen 3D printers being constructed experimently in high school engineering and technology fairs. If 3D priniting is continued to be explored and refined in this manner, soon it will be a technological advantage amongst artists, schools, and other industries. Definitely looking forward to seeing this advance!
So a couple months ago I ran into this new invention of a sort of 3d pen?
It's called 3 Doodler and it allows you to sort-of draw things in 3d with a sort of plastic.
Here's a link to their website. They have a cool video showing the product there.
http://www.the3doodler.com/
I will be interested to see the benefits and challenges that emerge as the 3D printer becomes a common household appliance. I also wonder how quickly the technology of these advance. Even though the newer versions are likely approaching, the consumers that will be owning the Printbot will be challenged to understand new technology and even rudimentary building skills (as well as their imaginations). Although much of the masses seem to have been transformed into zombies because of technology, hopefully new inventions such as the 3D printer will provide us with some human challenges.
'Quality' 3d printers are still hit and miss, and well the definition of 'quality' is relative. It all depends on what you want to use it for, how much of a toll that will take on the machine among a number of other things. A printer that is laser cut out of wood and then assembled from a variety of other hardware is great for the simple DIYer/Maker at home, but terrible for a company or university to use for prototyping. I'm not saying that this product isn't good - just that I'm not sure how well it would stand up to a 60 hr print job, which isn't an astronomical number. However it's great that this is a cheap model, at the very least it's a nice jumping off point for a DIYer on a budget.
This article provides a bright future for us designers who love anything to do with 3D printing and laser cutting! The possibility to easily and inexpensively upload our designs to a machine to be printed is overwhelmingly exciting! I can't wait to be able to sketch, 3D model, and print all in one place! All design industries are moving in a direction that needs these new technologies. I only hope it happens more quickly and on a wider scale.
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