our very own home prehistoric figure factory

[sauroid]

someday we will all be making our own home made plastic figures according to our own specifications. hello future state of the art home 3D printers...
i want to hear all your opinions about this possibility...

[triceratops83]

Well I have no talent so I hope you all make copies of your dinosaurs to sell. Every newly discovered dinosaur would get more figures than Nasutoceratops.

[DinoToyForum]

I have a normal ink printer but it doesn't make me a publisher. Similarly, a 3D printer wouldn't make my home a factory.

It is still a fantastic tool though!

[deanm]

I have a 3D printer at work. We use it for prototyping.  Still too expensive for home - both the hardware and consumables but there will be a day (rather shortly - 2-5 years probably) when those thresholds/consumer price points are broken.

The main issue I think will be talent - like a few other self-described "still can't draw a straight line even with a computer" types on the board - I lack any real artistic talent.

I do however see a growing market for purchase a download and print market landscape.

Maybe that will be the next Apple disruptive product. They already have the iTunes & apps ecosystem so the distribution end is handled now for hardware and software.

[sauroid]

i didnt mean to use the word factory literally.

[tanystropheus]

I would make an army of life-size Protoceratops, and then I would eventually run out of ink plastic 

[Blade-of-the-Moon]

I have a 3D printer at work. We use it for prototyping.  Still too expensive for home - both the hardware and consumables but there will be a day (rather shortly - 2-5 years probably) when those thresholds/consumer price points are broken.

The main issue I think will be talent - like a few other self-described "still can't draw a straight line even with a computer" types on the board - I lack any real artistic talent.

I do however see a growing market for purchase a download and print market landscape.

Maybe that will be the next Apple disruptive product. They already have the iTunes & apps ecosystem so the distribution end is handled now for hardware and software.

That's where I've seen this going myself. Makes sense too. Just purchase it online and print in your home.

On the down side, it again eliminates another reason for us to venture outside our homes..which is where all technology seems to go..but most of us only buy online now so why not? lol

[SBell]

If you know the right people, though, it's an easy reality:



This Payara, and several other fish, were printed on a 3D printer for me by a student at the university I work at. And there are others coming.

If I had my own printer, I could have just done it myself (I found the files online).

It's currently white because it has been primed for painting, but the lines from the printing are still visible.

[deanm]

cool fish!

The current crop of home use (or even light industrial use) 3d printers vary in their print quality but your fish looks great. 

The one I have access to has a 0.3mm print layer/step so based on some of the other work prototypes we printed if I tried the same fish it would not look as nice.

[DinoLord]

If you know the right people, though, it's an easy reality:

This Payara, and several other fish, were printed on a 3D printer for me by a student at the university I work at. And there are others coming.

Interesting; I guess I will have to take advantage of university 3d printers when the time comes.

[stargatedalek]

A relative of mine has a home 3D printer on order from some time ago, hopefully they will be available sometime this year, however I have no idea what quality it will be.

[Paleogene Pals]

I had a friend who ran a booth that exhibited a 3-D printer about a year ago. Cool technology, but I prefer the traditional resin or vinyl cast from a clay sculpture. Still, I could see myself utilizing this technology for various aspects of my hobby, such as creating teeth or landscape materials.

[SBell]

cool fish!

The current crop of home use (or even light industrial use) 3d printers vary in their print quality but your fish looks great. 

The one I have access to has a 0.3mm print layer/step so based on some of the other work prototypes we printed if I tried the same fish it would not look as nice.

That's probably the biggest thing right now--the resolution of the printings. Even these ones, which are sort of mid-size, have a lot more printing markings than, say, Shapeways models, which can be nearly smooth.

And like current paper printers, the real expense is going to come from materials cartridges--whether it's toner, ink or extruded plastic, that will always be the ongoing expense.

[Paleogene Pals]

To be honest, 3-D printing doesn't excite me as much. I'm waiting for them to come out with replicators!

[stargatedalek]

To be honest, 3-D printing doesn't excite me as much. I'm waiting for them to come out with replicators!

you have good taste in robots



jokes aside, did you mean these? http://store.makerbot.com/replicator

[SBell]

To be honest, 3-D printing doesn't excite me as much. I'm waiting for them to come out with replicators!

you have good taste in robots



jokes aside, did you mean these? http://store.makerbot.com/replicator

I think they mean Star-Trek style replicators.

[deanm]

And like current paper printers, the real expense is going to come from materials cartridges--whether it's toner, ink or extruded plastic, that will always be the ongoing expense.

Yup that is exactly what we have found at work already.   

[ProSauropod]

Once everyone - or many - are scanning, digitizing, and printing, that'll make the recast argument moot.    Anyone seen a business model of buying Shapeways figures in bulk, mass painting them, then selling on a separate website?  The original creator gets their $$$ (if not necessarily the credit); and the seller adds value through finishing and shipping.  How would some of the Shapeways creators here feel about that ?

[SBell]

Once everyone - or many - are scanning, digitizing, and printing, that'll make the recast argument moot.    Anyone seen a business model of buying Shapeways figures in bulk, mass painting them, then selling on a separate website?  The original creator gets their $$$ (if not necessarily the credit); and the seller adds value through finishing and shipping.  How would some of the Shapeways creators here feel about that ?

I think the best situation is for some of them--Like David Krentz, as one example whose name I can remember in full!--that have already embraced the tech, and start building on the paint-and-produce opportunity.

On the other hand, we have some painters on here, like Martin Garrat, whose commissioned paint work is an industry in and of itself.

Maybe a creator would want to develop a colour scheme and production model with a painter--or maybe they see themselves as model makers, and it's up to buyers to add paint however they see fit; if someone buys the models, repaints them, and sells the painted ones, maybe that's not an issue to them? It's always been done anyway, whether as resin kits, custom painted toys or current 3D models.