3D printing is exciting, but it's easy to get carried away. Paper printers exist, yet people still purchase books and magazines. By the same token, even if everyone had a 3D printer, they wouldn't necessarily print every object they own instead of purchasing it.
In addition, our culture has slowly eroded the usefulness of printing parts. Parts are great if you fix things, but consumers don't fix things. They break them and buy a new one!
IMO 3D printing will provide a huge boon to 1-2 person commando hardware startups more than consumers, in the same way that access to free development tools and cloud services have been a huge boon to 1-2 person commando software startups. In that way, consumers lives will certainly be changed by 3D printing because of being provided more products, but not necessarily by actually owning them and printing things with the printers.
If printer cartridges were cheaper and if home printers bound books, people might not buy as many books.
To me, the key is going to be the cost of the feed stock. Get it low enough and people will 3D print everything.
A side note, this weekend my 74 year old stepdad was asking me about the state of 3D printing. He has a mechanical engineering degree, so a bit atypical of his age group I guess, but he was really excited about the possibilities.
I also told him about HN so he's probably reading this now. Hi!
It'll be interesting to see the large scale disruption that happens once 3d printing becomes ubiquitous. My guess is they'll have about as much luck shutting down 3d models as the MafiAA types did to various types of piracy.
I can't tell if you are being sarcastic, but I'll bite. My guess is never. CNC plastic printing has been around for 30+ years, and is only practical for making one of a kind parts. As soon as you are making something that 1000 people need, there is a better manufacturing method.
Maybe I lack imagination, but I cannot imagine a plastic piece of junk that need to be tailor-made poorly.
When the cost of a PC went from $30k to $2k, most people couldn't see the revolution happening. Maybe I am the same fool.
As 3D printing becomes truly mass-market, people who want to print copies of objects will start attacking physical product patents as strongly as they attack software patents and digital media copyright today (strong, coordinated opposition to these grew only with distribution channels).
> I can see lots of companies doing this, especially for legacy parts.
I wish I could agree with your conclusion, but I have had a lot of trouble looking for "out of print" arcade game roms [0]. I want build and use an arcade machine for my house (legally). However, it's amazing how protective old companies seem to be of people playing their games which they no longer distribute.
I get the feeling it will probably turn out the same with 3D printing out of production components.
I love it. Those that have the printers can print their parts, and pay for the raw materials and the printer and the time. For those that do not, well, they can STFU about the cost of parts. I actually see this as more of an STFU move in reality/practicality, but it's a very cool way to say it. I wish I could do this with my products, but its not applicable.
Am I not seeing them, or are there no links to TeenageEngineering.com in the piece, or links to the actual announcement, or to where the CAD files can be downloaded? Very poor journalism, IMO. The linked Shapeways blog post has all of those links in the first sentence.
Anyways, I think this is a great development. If TE wasn't making much money on spare parts, might as well not sell them, and with companies like Shapeways around, it doesn't force every consumer to have a 3D printer, either.
Isn't the main point here that it's not the parts themselves that are expensive, but that the shipping for those parts is disproportionally expensive? So the company does in fact not loose anything by providing the designs, since they never made any significant money on the spares anyway. Still, it's a cool idea.
I have a huge business crush on Teenage Engineering, I think they have handled this situation extremely well. I don't know of any other company that has done this with their products.
[+] [-] jmitcheson|13 years ago|reply
In addition, our culture has slowly eroded the usefulness of printing parts. Parts are great if you fix things, but consumers don't fix things. They break them and buy a new one!
IMO 3D printing will provide a huge boon to 1-2 person commando hardware startups more than consumers, in the same way that access to free development tools and cloud services have been a huge boon to 1-2 person commando software startups. In that way, consumers lives will certainly be changed by 3D printing because of being provided more products, but not necessarily by actually owning them and printing things with the printers.
[+] [-] waterlesscloud|13 years ago|reply
To me, the key is going to be the cost of the feed stock. Get it low enough and people will 3D print everything.
A side note, this weekend my 74 year old stepdad was asking me about the state of 3D printing. He has a mechanical engineering degree, so a bit atypical of his age group I guess, but he was really excited about the possibilities.
I also told him about HN so he's probably reading this now. Hi!
[+] [-] jrockway|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] manaskarekar|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vibrunazo|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Karunamon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jcampbell1|13 years ago|reply
Maybe I lack imagination, but I cannot imagine a plastic piece of junk that need to be tailor-made poorly.
When the cost of a PC went from $30k to $2k, most people couldn't see the revolution happening. Maybe I am the same fool.
[+] [-] qq66|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] s_henry_paulson|13 years ago|reply
There's a huge difference between me building something for my own personal use, as opposed to building a product and trying to sell it.
[+] [-] thechut|13 years ago|reply
As the quality of 3D printing improves I can see lots of companies doing this, especially for legacy parts.
[+] [-] pserwylo|13 years ago|reply
I wish I could agree with your conclusion, but I have had a lot of trouble looking for "out of print" arcade game roms [0]. I want build and use an arcade machine for my house (legally). However, it's amazing how protective old companies seem to be of people playing their games which they no longer distribute.
I get the feeling it will probably turn out the same with 3D printing out of production components.
[0] (for example) http://mamedev.org/devwiki/index.php/FAQ:ROMs#How_do_I_legal...
[+] [-] mikiem|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] natep|13 years ago|reply
Anyways, I think this is a great development. If TE wasn't making much money on spare parts, might as well not sell them, and with companies like Shapeways around, it doesn't force every consumer to have a 3D printer, either.
[+] [-] voltagex_|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dcaldwell|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Xylakant|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] QuantumDoja|13 years ago|reply