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3D Printers and Rapid Prototyping?

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  1. #21

    Join Date
    Sep 2007
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    4,012
    Quote Originally Posted by jgl:
    I keep wanting to buy a 3D printer to mess with, but cannot come up with any plausible justifications. Anything that I'd want to 3D print would have to be made of metal and a replacement for CNC, which isn't practical for consumer use.

    Reading the 3D printing Wikipedia article is less than encouraging:

    "As of 2012, domestic 3D printing has mainly captivated hobbyists and enthusiasts and has not quite gained recognition for practical household applications. A working clock has been made[48] and gears have been printed for home woodworking machines[49] among other purposes.[50] 3D printing is also used for ornamental objects. Web sites associated with home 3D printing tend to include backscratchers, coathooks, doorknobs etc."

    Doorknobs and coathooks. Yay.
    JGL, Gadgets never have to be justified, you just need to lie about the price to the missus!
    jgl and East_coast like this.

  2. #22
    preludefan
    Quote Originally Posted by flameproof:
    Hard to believe. The Reprap by definition is highly modular. If one piece malfunctions you simply replace it and you are up again. It malfunctions again, you replace it with something better.
    Hard to believe yes. But that's what I was told...wish they would give it to me instead!

    Sent from my GT-I9300 using GeoClicks mobile app

  3. #23

    Join Date
    May 2009
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    6,181
    Quote Originally Posted by preludefan:
    Hard to believe yes. But that's what I was told...
    Not everything they tell you must be always true.

    Most of the 3D filament printers are more or less similar to the Reprap.

  4. #24
    preludefan

    Mmmm...

    Sent from my GT-I9300 using GeoClicks mobile app


  5. #25
    preludefan

    To update this thread, there is a guy at dumsum labs-hackjam hk that is selling a locally made 3d printer for $6k

    Sent from my GT-I9300 using GeoClicks mobile app


  6. #26

    Join Date
    Apr 2008
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    2,879

    I ordered a MakiBox, made by a gwailo run startup in Kwai Chung. It was less than HK$2000 from memory, should be here in a moth or two as they have a huge backlog and seem to assemble them slowly...

    http://makibox.com/


  7. #27
    preludefan

    Wow thats cheap!!!


  8. #28

    Join Date
    May 2009
    Posts
    6,181
    Quote Originally Posted by 100LL:
    I ordered a MakiBox.....should be here in a moth or two as they have a huge backlog and seem to assemble them slowly...

    http://makibox.com/
    I look at them since some time. Their schedule was shipping the first 100 in March ........ 2012 ...
    http://makibox.com/blogpost/items/hot-plastic-action

    ....now it's 2014 - and they started to ship only recently. Now they shipped about 400 and I estimate that their backlog is about 2000. That should keep them busy till maybe March/April (2014, I hope).

    When they run out of old orders then I will order one.

  9. #29

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Posts
    11,884

    I'm curious- what would you guys intend to make with these things? Recently the only thing I've wanted which would be 3D printed is a fairly specialised battery holder. Most retail ones for the battery sizes that I use (18650 lithiums) are really shoddy.

    I did find a good design on Thingverse and contacted a HK-based company that does prints for consumers, but they never got back to me. So I'm just going to fall back to duct tape, sugru and soldering!


  10. #30

    Join Date
    Aug 2006
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    11,884
    Original Post Deleted
    Uh, I'm not sure that I really understood that...

    As an aside, the best gadget in this class of thing that I have been looking for was handmade, not 3D printed and not mass produced. It was made by a single enthusiast who poured resin into silicone molds.

    They were slow to make (not injection molded) but scalable (i.e. he'd just make more molds) so faster than 3D printing, relatively inexpensive (cheaper than getting a 3D printing company to make) and incredibly good quality.

    I'm just not sold on the 3D printing idea still... the guy made this using cardboard, foam, an xacto knife and silicone and it's more effective and flexible than any design I've found on Thingverse.

    3D printing is an interesting concept, but I think it's got a loooong way to go before it becomes more than an interesting geek concept for most people.
    Last edited by jgl; 14-01-2014 at 12:32 PM.