3D printing

@bonsai you mean like what you can do with your hands?

It would be faster and easier with a 3D printer, a lot less complex, and not require so much specialized knowledge.

edited 29th Apr '14 1:19:57 PM by BonsaiForest

Except you'd need skills on 3D modeling. While good for those who might have physical issues with using their hands, it won't change much. It'll be a new WAY to do things, but the kind people can buy won't do anything revolutionary. Not to mention a set of wood working tools would be cheaper and easier to maintain

It's a different type of skills, yeah. But I expect programs that use 3D printers to come out and simplify things. Like a program to design a shirt simply by making the design on PC, or customizable templates for making certain kinds of objects.

I think "what you can do with your hands" will be used for creating the models in the first place, only to have it printed in a different material.

E.g. model something in play-dough, 3D scan it, get a plastic/metal one. Roll your model into a ball and make another, repeat the cycle.

There will be templates though, to help out people with limited or nonexistent modeling skills, much like how we have templates for doing other things, like video game engines and so on.

I'm not sure if that's a fair comparison. How long does it take to train to become a competent carpenter? And how long does it take to train to use 3D modelling software? (Eg: how long will you take to leann how to carve wood into a perfect sphere compared with making it in a 3D modelling software?) How consistent would a product made by hand compared with using 3D printing? (Again, the sphere example) How long are you going to keep your skills as a carpenter compared with your skill to use 3D modelling software? (You are going to get old and your hands won't be as agile and dexterous as when you are young)

It's not entirely revolutionary per se, true. But making it as if it is only a new way of doing things is taking it to another extreme IMO.

edited 30th Apr '14 6:33:57 PM by IraTheSquire

thats the thing, i really only see it as a new way of doing things. it had advantages, but what has it really dont that there wasn't some way to do before? It's easier to make new unique models of things, but thats the main thing it has going for it, it seems.

By that logic, e-mail that reaches the recipient almost instantaneously is "just a new way" as normal mail that takes days if not weeks to do so since that both does the same thing.

Or that anti-biotics are just a newer treatment to gangrene as amputation because both kept the patient alive.

edited 30th Apr '14 6:56:17 PM by IraTheSquire

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2014/04/lix-the-worlds-smallest-3d-printing-pen-lets-you-draw-in-the-air/

This seems relevant to the thread at hand. As an artist, this particular innovation is very interesting to me.

ira; Apples and oranges arguments are poor arguments never mind your questionable choice of comparisons. Email can't deliver physical objects to your door the post office can that includes physical copies of records with hand written signatures and packages. Amputation in cases of gangrene are still practiced and for a good reason. Anti-biotics can only do so much they are not wunder tech.

You guys are again putting way too much stock into 3d printing. You are also confusing carpentry with wood carving. Related but ultimately different skills.

It is also pretty obvious some of you have no clue what you are talking about in regards to even basic carpentry or wood carving.

Consistency can and has been achieved with hand made items made only with hand tools. How many ancient wonders of the world were made with a high degree of consistency and accuracy? Quite a few.

Templates for wood working exist as well. Ever heard of patterning? Same thing only with hand crafting and it was used to consistently produce things like receivers and stocks for fire arms like the Brown Bess musket in quantity. Oh and the mechanical components were largely hand made as well with a high degree of consistency. That is old old tech. Modern tech which is used in both carpentry and wood carving are very efficient.

Tell me how fast can a 3d printer turn a log into a stack of 2x4's? Saw mills are very efficient at it. Also much of the by product gets re-used in other wood products.

Extrusion or 3d printer style wood products are going to be limited in what can be done compared to more traditional forms of carpentry. Namely because of the medium involved. A lot of carpentry relies on the properties of wood as it exists when it is cut into lumber not turned into a powder and mixed with bonding agent.

In fact that is already done its called particle board which is cheap ass wood. There are also a number of wood products that 3d printing can't replicate no matter how hard you try. Carpentry can produce complex wood parts and structures like planks, veneer sheets, laminated composite wood beams, joists, and other parts with far more solid and sound components then anything you can squirt out of a 3d printer.

Most carpentry is done on site with the tools and materials being shaped and put together on the spot and has been done by hand with a lot of consistency for many centuries now.

Carpentry can do perfect spheres. Its called a CNC wood lathe. Best part is it can doo it far more quickly and efficiently then any 3d printer ever could.

Wood carving can use a lot of the same tools as carpentry and neither have existed in a vacuum.

The tech is cool and has potential but you folks need to be less myopic about it and stop touting it as future super wonder tech.

this is pretty much what i've been trying to say.

3-d printers are useful, but not magic tools that are going to change everything. They're not like computers. More like C Ds vs floppy disks. Good development, gonna be useful, but not completely change the world.

Give me an example of any technique making human organs (besides skin), or even having the potential of making human organs that can be used in transplants.

And before you all go aggro on me I'd like to point out I said this:

edited 30th Apr '14 10:14:39 PM by IraTheSquire

They have built lattice without a 3d printer and grown tissue on it. Chew on that. Oh and we have built artificial organs that work better then the organic in some regards like the bellows heart and did not use a 3d printer and required hands on manufacturing to assemble.

Ira; If you don't like the flaws in your bad arguments being pointed out make better arguments. One line doesn't excuse the rest of the bad argument.

edited 30th Apr '14 10:19:37 PM by TuefelHundenIV

I'm not saying that I don't like it (I admit that I was wrong). I just thought that doesn't warrant you getting so angry/angry enough that you didn't even notice the typos and that fact that you've confused semi-colon and colon (which, btw, you're still doing).

Not to mention I was referring to this:

That's one end of the extreme that I've explicitly said is not my position.

edited 30th Apr '14 10:40:29 PM by IraTheSquire

grammar nazing is changing the subject.

Yes, very hilarious.

Now let's all just now calm down and stop the snarking so that we can get back to topic.

edited 30th Apr '14 10:41:39 PM by IraTheSquire

Agreed.

Any new medical experiments? Those are honestly the most interesting to me. Especially the prosthetics. Namely because it enables very specific custom parts designs for unique situations.

An Illinois High School Is 3D Printing A New Hand For A Girl Born Without Fingers — And It Will Only Cost $5

Very cool. I am hoping that with bio printing we can in the not so distant future we can print living flesh replacements of things like fingers and hands which are frequently lost to accidents or health issues.

Only $5, and customizable for the person. I definitely see 3D printing as something that will change the future.

It makes upgrading the prosthetic as she ages a lot easier to boot. The cost is nice because prosthetic tend to be very expensive medical items. You can print her out replacements and spares cheaply and hopefully easily. If we are all lucky by the time she is an adult she can be given an advanced prosthetic or even benefit from regenerative medicine.

I'm sad that no one commented on the 3d printer pen thing I posted about. It's not an organ manufactury, but it's still pretty cool.

Also I'm still sketchy on the whole printing organic material thing. how does that even work?

IIRC one way is it lays down a lattice or network in a specific pattern that is used to grow tissue onto.

Check out this BBC Article I had a list of articles somewhere or so I thought I did.

Sorry we got hard headed and missed your article.

Having taken a look at it. That is kind of neat. I can think of practical uses for doing some simple repairs with that. Quick fix type things. The obvious art applications are also very cool.

edited 2nd May '14 12:04:29 AM by TuefelHundenIV

@ace- 3-d printing pen is kind of old news. They've had those for a few years.