Sunday, September 16, 2007
Desktop Factory's cheapo 3D printer is coming
Engadget: "Tinkerers, schemers, makers and DIY-buffs: grab your ball-peen hammer and heaviest piggy bank, because you're about to need a loan. A company called Desktop Factory is going to make your 3D-printing dreams a serious reality with the introduction of its 125ci 3D printer, a $4,995 hunk of concept-plastic magic which could possibly represent a paradigmatic shift for the state of three-dimensional printing for the masses."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
They are definately getting cheaper. Rapid prototype machines are fun. Over the summer I looked into
http://fabathome.org/
which is a diy RPM. To basically buy a parts kit is half the price of the posted one, but if you had access to a machine shop and went a little cheaper on the materials (not framing the whole thing in acrylic, which is expensive), I think you could do it in 5-600 dollars (with 3-500 hours in). I'm much more able to put in 300 hours than 5000 dollars (over the summer). Rapid prototyping machines are cool.
Even with the price of RPM machines getting cheaper, does that mean that servicing and maintaining the machine is getting cheaper as well? If not, I would think that a company that cannot afford to buy one will, in the long run, have the money to keep one up.
All I can think of when I read about these 3-d printers is MODEL WORK. As a freelance designer I doubt that, at least in the near future, there isn't really a justification for the expense. However, like anything else, the prices will drop and the quality will rise, and the painful hours with toothpicks, tweezers and bristol board making furniture may be no more.
Model making made easy? It will be interesting to see how this sort of technology makes its way into theatre. Not only in something like model making but even in the scene shop?
Post a Comment