3D printer info

[Mike O'Dell]

at the day job we've been tracking 3D printing pretty closely.
and a very good friend of mine was VP of Sales at Makerbot.
Without getting into "House of Cards" details about how
people were treated, let's just say there will be snow skiing
on the surface of the sun before I spend a farthing with Makerbot.

Anyway, the 3D printer world is the poster child for the admonition
	There's a HUGE difference between 'inexpensive' and 'cheap'.

The question you have to ask yourself is whether you wish to use
a 3D printer to actually make things, or whether you want a 3D printer
so you can screw around with having a 3D printer.

I'd liken it to the people who bought a RaspberryPi thinking they
were getting a computer they could simply use as a cheap PC replacement.
If you read the mailing lists, those people, most of whom were not
computer hackers, were frustrated to madness by what it took to get
the cute thing out of the box and getting it doing something recognizable
as "computing" so they could then start learning all the things they
would need to know to use it to do something that wasn't just about
making it work at a fundamental level (boot Linux and install missing
software).

A couple of the real 3D printer companies are now selling inexpensive
printers using extruded melted plastic fiber that work about as well
as can be expected using that fabrication process.

NOTE THAT YOU CAN BUY ONE OF THESE AT STAPLES!

at least you can until they give up.

There is something of a quality threshold at about 2 grand.
the further the price is from 2 grand (going down), the less
likely it's a tool and the more likely it's problems in a box.

This isn't hard and fast, but it seems to correlate with 
experiences reported on the net.

As was mentioned elsewhere, do not underestimate the challenge
of learning to use the 3D CAD tools - even SketchUp. The comments
about knowing how to really make something are understated - 
if you don't know how things are really made, you will use a lot
of filament learning the hard way. Just visualizing how a part
has to be supported so it can be fabricated is not trivial.

this is not to discourage people, but to hear some of the 
3D printing evangelists talk, you'd think they were describing
the Star Trek replicator which can provide "Tea, Earl Gray"
in a steaming cup. Their irrational exuberance does the cause
a material disservice by woefully messing with people's expecations.

  -mo