..i think this is relevant ?
http://singularityhub.com/2013/02/07/us ... -to-blame/

Bringing this thread back to post this: Staples to sell 3D printers.

Yep, this is the beginning. I wouldn't go with this one personally as the cost is high and the utility is limited. I do hope that other people buy it though so that they prove that it's commercially viable.

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Yup. This one is more a "Oh wow, that's really an option?!" thing at this point, rather than a "buy me" thing. But there will be people buy this one, who would not buy one online that might require additional tweaking or assembly. Those early adopters will (hopefully) give the company enough money to expand and improve, until you find printers in the $400-$500 range that blow these out of the water, just like what happened with standard laser printers.
Just the fact these will be in stores where people can see them is a huge thing, though. There are people who see stuff such as the episode of Big Bang Theory where they got a 3D printer and they think it's just made up for the show. Once those people start seeing these things in Staples when they go to buy more ink for their little Lexmark, they'll start thinking about it.

Just got back from a meeting with some of the other people here on base. Here at Tinker, there is a maintenance and supply building that is over a mile long where quite of bit of parts maintenance takes place for pretty much every plane the Air Force and Navy fly.

One reason the building is so large is because they have to keep so many parts on site for potential repairs down the road as many of the planes we are currently flying are going to have to continue to do so for another few decades.

3-D printing is going to change that. They just got in a few machines capable of producing parts in various materials, ranging from soft plastics to titanium. This renders those large inventories obsolete.

It will be interesting to see how this will impact R&D for new platforms in the future, and if it will be able to significantly streamline maintenance of existing ones.

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i didnt know you were at tinker. my grandfather was there forever. so they can print titanium, i was hoping the print medium would get better im not sure what i think of the plastic they use yet.

i just want to start learning the 3d modeling programs for when the printers are cheasper and more common in a few years. im worried i wont be able to figure out how to work the damn things if i do buy one later.

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Would it stand to reason that as 3-d printers come down in price that 3-d scanners might come down as well?

It would be nice to get a machine that could do both.

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that would be awsome. then i just have to talk people i think look cool into coming over and letting put their head in a box

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as DJ pointed out viewtopic.php?f=10&t=37801 two libraries have them now.........http://news.yahoo.com/sunnyvale-mountai ... 00839.html

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Now imagine being able to just think about something and print it out. You soon will be able to...

Something else that could lead to some interesting things. Print out in clay until you're happy with the result, or maybe print out a rough model then do final sculpting on the print-out, then cast a mold. Prototyping with clay could lead to virtually no-cost modelling. I'll definitely be following this thing.

Yep, it'll be 2015 when I get one - but I am getting one.

Imagine printing single use deformable heads for gunshots in dios...

- R

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Hopefully you will be able to print in styrofoam... I'd LOVE to see a FOAM ARMY!

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I am.. looking into it. Stay tuned.

- R

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I thought you might be interested in that. If I ever outgrow my printer, I'll probably look at the Hyrel or something similar. It looks really well built, and the modular nature of the extruders, plus the ability to have up to 4 at once, really makes me like the thought of them. I'm wondering about being able to use clay for the support material when printing with plastic to make support removal a breeze.