Beam It Down From the Web, Scotty.

[Polaris573]

Have you ever broken a small plastic part off of something and wished you could just replace that one piece rather replacing the whole item? In three to five years you may be able to do just that and, better yet, from the comfort of your own home. Three dimensional printers, also called rapid prototypers, once cost around 100,000 USD and could only be seen in industrial design shops. Soon, however, they will begin making their way into consumer's homes. Desktop factory, a company started by IdeaLab, will start selling its first printer this year for around 5,000 USD. It will be compact enough for home offices, measuring 25 by 20 by 20 inches and weighing only 90 pounds. In theory, this would allow you to download plans from the internet for whatever part you might need and print it within a short period of time.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[wazzledoozle]

My school has one of these, its pretty damn cool.

 

[anticlutch]

Hm... this also brings up the possibility of people making illegal and/or dangerous stuff (namely terrorists). Still seems cool... although I wouldn't buy it until the price went down to around $500

 

[Easy Rhino]

i wonder how much in materials it would cost to make me a Ferrari????

 

[Sapientwolf]

My school has one of these, its pretty damn cool.

Same, My school also has one, as for terrorists printing things, the technology is far too limited to make anything dangerous beyond a sharp piece of plastic. Right now that's all you can do is print in plastic, or use this foundation stuff that is basically glued together. Anyway we have a lot of stuff at our school using this thing, working wire cutters and pliers that we printed, it's pretty neat.

 

[d44ve]

hell ya!!! I want one!

 

[WarEagleAU]

Wazzledoozle, can you take a video of that printer at your school?

 

[i_am_mustang_man]

i want one to make my own custom pc case

make a few pieces of plastic, exactly to my specifications

i see this being awesome

 

[wazzledoozle]

I might be able to get a video tomorrow, it costs somewhere around $10 for the materials to print things.

 

[p0lly]

printer

how much would it cost to print your own printer?

 

[a111087]

just google "Three dimensional printers"
here http://www.zcorp.com/, printer cost 20,000+ and scaner 40000+
of course that is very useful, but not something everyone would afford to buy

 

[Frogger]

After watching that vid I want one just think of the great Kinder egg toys you could create

 

[Sasqui]

Hell, the NY Times does no justice... imagine printing a working differential gear, and every gear/part is a different color (color is through the part itself). Amazing, I've seen it.

 

[Garb3]

this really sound like an amazing invention imagine building your own procy with one amd and intel would go out of buisness lol(down with intel lol )

 

[tkpenalty]

I would print out anti-noise ducts lol.

 

[Easy Rhino]

how much would it cost to print your own printer?

my head just exploded

 

[Completely Bonkers]

These devices are really scarey if they fall into the hands of the wrong people:

e.g. women and girlfriends.

Just imagine what they could do with two clicks: photoshop "enlarge" and then "print to 3D"

We'd all be terrorized!

Run to the hills!

 

[watts289]

maby after future enhancements we could print our own CPU's

 

[Polaris573]

Maybe in 100+ years of R&D. Right now they only print crude plastic parts, that's a far cry from the complexity in design and materials of even a large integrated circuit.

 

[FAXA]

maby after future enhancements we could print our own CPU's

Yeah...and you could in theory make your own graphics card...if you knew how.

Can you make food on it? That would be very cool - wouldn't have to cook then

Oh and this would be good:

See a really really expensive PC, top of the range. Click the print button and its yours.

 

[Garb3]

probly when the copy machine gets that advanced that it can make cpu's and graphics cards and stuff like that you probly wont be able to buy them from a shop you will probly have to buy a use-it-once schematic or something like that(just my ten cents like)

 

[Seany1212]

These devices are really scarey if they fall into the hands of the wrong people:

e.g. women and girlfriends.

Just imagine what they could do with two clicks: photoshop "enlarge" and then "print to 3D"

We'd all be terrorized!

Run to the hills!

, i was thinking the exact same thing, we'll be out of use