# 3D Printer? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 6, 2011, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042 "2011-07-06T15:37:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2011, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/21 "2011-07-07T23:05:06Z")
I was impressed with the scanner. I knew they existed but never saw one in use. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/22 "2011-07-08T00:40:50Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > So far the ‘printing’ materials lack the strength and hardness for most useful applications. These types of devices in various forms have been used in industry for years to create prototypes, often used to produce molds for production. There is work going on for sintered metal depositing that can later be baked to reasonable hardness. In time, practical versions of these things will appear. I guess what I am asking is how strong is this “powder turns into bonded fiber” compound? Is it brittle? Fragile? For modeling purposes only? Curious. I am sure this technology can only be improved. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/23 "2011-07-08T00:45:29Z")
I’m quite confident that it can be made worse too. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Jagwasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@Jagwasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jagwasher)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/24 "2011-07-08T00:54:02Z")
After thinking about it for nearly a whole minute, I’m pretty sure this is the coolest thing I have EVER seen. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/25 "2011-07-08T01:50:26Z")
My brother-in-law used to work in R&D at one of the big consumer products manufacturers. A couple of years back they got in a 3D printer for making different bottles (think laundry detergent bottles and the like) to test different designs. When they first set up the machine, the workstation came with a set of demo objects that could be printed. One of them was … a working Crescent wrench. In this case, they did scan in the host’s wrench, but it clearly was cleaned up quite a bit in software before printing. The worm looks like it has fewer turns, and the end hoop became sort of a keyring looking thing. The coolness factor is not reduced one bit by them cutting out their extra steps. ---
**Author:** ![CoffinMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@CoffinMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoffinMan)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/26 "2011-07-08T02:05:47Z")
Way too cool! ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/27 "2011-07-08T02:29:29Z")
Strangely, I discovered this quite by accident two or three days ago. It’s real. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/28 "2011-07-08T06:28:54Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > They must be skipping some fairly complex steps in that demo. Somehow they have to add data about the separate components of the object so it doesn’t make the thing item as a one-piece object. Couldn’t it in theory notice that they are separate objects, seeing as there will be a greater than 40 micron gap between the components? ---
**Author:** ![Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e480ec/32.png) [@Least\_Original\_User\_Name\_Ever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Least_Original_User_Name_Ever)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/29 "2011-07-08T14:17:21Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > I guess what I am asking is how strong is this “powder turns into bonded fiber” compound? Is it brittle? Fragile? For modeling purposes only? > > Curious. I am sure this technology can only be improved. That was addressed by the video. They can add something to make it hardened. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/30 "2011-07-08T15:51:41Z")
Viagara? ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/31 "2011-07-08T16:36:07Z")
My friend got one of these from his girlfriend for Christmas one year… well maybe friend isn’t the right word… he is my neighbor… well maybe not a neighbor but I drive by his house on the way home from work each day. Probably not your typical Christmas gift though. He holds the patents that made voice mail possible and now runs Cha Cha. His house has been featured on MTV’s Cribs. He was on some show and was going on about how cool the printer was. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/32 "2011-07-08T16:38:11Z")
I wish he had given the wrench some strength tests. I would have liked to see him smash it like a hammer against some wood or a table. I don’t expect it to be as hard as steel, but I wonder how strong it is. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/33 "2011-07-08T17:30:25Z")
OK, I know 3D printing is real, but there’s clearly something fishy about the linked video demo. The resulting printed wrench is NOT the same design as the wrench they scanned. 1. The rings at the end of the handle are different. 2. The mechanism designs are different. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/34 "2011-07-08T17:45:01Z")
The technologies they showed.here are all real, but the video isn’t truly depicting an end to end process. The 3d scanner can’t have divined the shape of internal, hidden structures such as the spindle on which the worm screw turns. The 3D printing was real, but it’s making an object.that has need designed in a CAD application. It’s not deception- they’ve just shown a rather simplified, joined-up process ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/35 "2011-07-08T17:51:17Z")
Right. But would it have been so hard to simply clarify that, instead of portraying it as “Oh, you have a wrench? Cool. Let’s pop in here and scan it, and we’ll make you one just like it!”? I dunno. I know it’s a sensationalist show. But dammit, I like facts! ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/36 "2011-07-08T18:03:47Z")
Yup, pretty cool technology. It’s been around for awhile. Another exciting application of the tech medical scientists are looking at is using human tissue cells as the ink, and 3D printing living tissues and organs. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/37 "2011-07-08T18:14:05Z")
That was cool. I tend to think things like 3-d printing, stereolithography and fab labs will be the biggest thing since the internet in the next few years or decades to affect our lives. The guy at MIT who invented the fab lab (a small workshop that can manufacture a wide range of things) says one of his goals is to create a fab lab that can create the machinery to build another fab lab using its own machinery within a few decades. That’d be awesome, and dramatically increase standards of living across the world. [http://www.ted.com/talks/neil\_gershenfeld\_on\_fab\_labs.html](http://www.ted.com/talks/neil_gershenfeld_on_fab_labs.html) People are also doing 3-D printing of organs [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9RMx31GnNXY/hqdefault.jpg "Printing a human kidney | Anthony Atala") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RMx31GnNXY) Of course when people learn how to print machine guns, cannons, in their homes you may have some problems. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/38 "2011-07-08T18:56:26Z")
We had a nearly identical thread yesterday. Maybe twickster can join them? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/39 "2011-07-08T21:00:26Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > We had a nearly identical thread yesterday. Maybe twickster can join them? Shoot…we did? Once again I am a fail at using the Dope’s search feature. ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042/40 "2011-07-08T21:44:15Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > We had a nearly identical thread yesterday. Maybe twickster can join them? So you’re saying this thread’s a copy? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/3d-printer/588042.md?page=3)