What is the 3D printing community/group looking for?

Thanks for all the ideas!  Can someone from E14 put their input on what direction they would like to go or see?

Nate

I think the lack of activity in the 3D printing area is down to two factors:

Relatively few people have a 3D printer (or access to one).

There are a few good dedicated 3D printing community web-spaces.

Perhaps one approach that may improve community engagement with this space would be an Element14 build along, much like the PIKEA3 gaming table. There are a few people on here (such as balearicdynamics) who have successfully built printers, and I'm sure they would be able to advise further.

Bemused that the Peachy Printer scam or unfortunate incident (it is unclear to me currently which it is) which attracted close to 1M USD from various sources is still making some backers want to pay more in some impractical attempt to rescue it by throwing more good money at it!

A $200-$300 USD well-documented design would be great to see (super clear photos and diagrams for us that have a hard time visualizing mechanical things!).

Shabaz,

It is one of the things I have in mind and preparing. What I have in mind is to keep just every most important / interesting aspects of the 3D printing process, also related to many repetitive users issues and write an article on it. These articles will be focused on the aspect (that it is a personal opinion but almost supported by my personal experience and demonstrable facts) that most of the issues does not originates just from the apparent point (e.g. the 3D printer bad quality, a wrong device setting etc.) but may depend on factors not so easy to understand.

It is what I call the origami effect. You are an origamist? I am, and in the past yearsI developed very complex origami. One of the curious things that happens with this apparently easy but poetic approach to the squares of paper is that a non perfect folding at a certain point seems non relevant instead may change or make impossible to complete the entire subject also after 100 or more other foldings.

Enrico

Hi Enrico,

Very interesting observation about Origami. I've noticed that with some particular electronics too, although I didn't have a name for it. For example a radio has the Origami effect that you mention. Mess up just one part of the design, and the rest of the design and performance can be severely crippled no matter how good the rest is. Golf too frustratingly has the Origami effect : )

And especially with mechanics, where many people ignore subtle things that should be observed, such as scaling. Some for example may think that if a small $200 3D printer works, then they can take the design and just enlarge it, forgetting that the design was engineered and parts were selected and optimised for a certain volume and a certain combination of hardware.

Shabaz you correctly pointed on the central aspect. And you have no idea on how many issues this class or mistakes can generate.

Enrico.

Another vote for a low cost build along!

It's time I will start writing some articles... One is already in my draft area

Shabaz-

Did you watch the video posted on their website?  peachy-printer.  I still think its odd the way they went about the whole thing.  It almost seemed like a joke at first.  But I hope they can rebound from it as their product has tremendous potential.  Ryaln took a very interesting approach when he came up with the printer.

Nate

Hi Nate,

I agree, it did look like an interesting experiment, i.e. galvo's, immiscible liquids etc. I personally I don't believe for a minute that the video that stated his partner had stolen the funds represented the genuine situation. Also a BBC report mentioned they contacted his partner (who Rylan accused of all the troubles) and he claimed it was an untrue statement under duress. So one of them at least is lying to some degree, and possibly both. Maybe his partner paid it all back with interest, we only have Rylan's word that he didn't.

It is possible to do so much with $1M, or even a fraction of that. A lot of startups work with $30k or less in exchange for just 2% of their business, and only when they have shown sufficient progress would investors touch it beyond that. It seems that Kickstarters provide their backers with the worst of everything, massive risk and very little they can actually do when problems like this occur

Anything new?  All the discussion on 3D printers with Father's Day events made me think of this thread!  :-)  Since I doubt I will get one for Father's Day the low cost build along is very much an interesting topic!

By my side, as soon as possible I will continue with the tips and tricks, everyone based on a different production with different difficulties. These days are compulsive and I am living in a bottleneck!

Enrico

By my side, as soon as possible I will continue with the tips and tricks, everyone based on a different production with different difficulties. These days are compulsive and I am living in a bottleneck!

Enrico