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

3D printers cost about as much as a high end computer, so more people could afford them than actually purchase, because why?

They are not as useful as a computer?

They are too complicated to use - nobody who can afford one learned how in school?

They don't produce things people want at a price they want to pay?

They don''t produce items with high enough quality?

I don't know - but now that I have one, I think it is a pretty high priority to have one.

Your initiative could address some of these barriers or issues.

For example, video instruction on how to design with a low cost CADD package would allow more people to to feel the design side is something they can handle.

Maybe an explanation of how to use free models from the internet to print and where to get them.

Maybe just some stories of how useful they can be would get people more interested.

Hi Doug,

I think you hit the nail on the head, they are not perceived to have high quality, and to be honest most people have not seen the output from a 3D printer in real life.

Until I did, I was extremely sceptical that it could be useful. Now that I have physically seen some output, I can see uses for it because it does reduce the barrier to make complex shaped objects. I still think they are overpriced though. It still feels primitive that many need spools of plastic and what still looks like a crude assembly of stepper motors or expensive fluids. When I was at school no-one had a paper printer (maybe a dot-matrix one!) and people used local stores or the library for their paper printing/copying needs, or a photo store for their photographs. It would be nice to see affordable 3D print or build services in local locations so people could pay to 'print' locally. I know there are online services but it defeats the 'green-ness' of 3D printing that you'd need to transport and ship items across the country or world, rather than produce locally.

I don't see that a 3D print solution has to use the same technology to handle all materials, it could process materials separately and combine them with adhesives for instance), even if some parts are done manually. Intelligent software could auto-select a sheet material (e.g. wood) if large parts of the design needed a flat surface for instance. Or offer lower prices on certain material if that was in stock.

In all likelihood basically some sort of automated 3D print solution that maybe too large and expensive for individuals but affordable enough for local firms to run.

Today if I want a flat object (e.g. a front panel) there are firms that will offer that, and have their own requirements for how they want the design file. If I want a laser cut piece then I have to go somewhere else. And if I want metalwork folded etc then I have to go to another firm. It would be nice to be able to farm out parts of your design automatically to the nearest firms/individuals with the capabilities to build it.

Dough, I am sorry but I see things in a bit different way. At the actual date I have already built a couple of 3D printers, both used h24 for some periods and both giving me very good results. I tried many different models than reached my own conclusions. One of these is that the technology can me more and more accessible than expected: My average 3D printer cost is about 230,00$

The problem is the knowledge. And this opens a very big discussion I have investigated in depth for about one year and reached my own conclusions. Happy to share here, obviously, and it's a while I am thinking to a series of articles about but it's not a theme that can be described in a single post or a comment.

Enrico

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.

That's a really good idea. A genuinely low-cost, build-along sounds intriguing. Not least because I find it difficult understanding instructables and other sites. I know here people would describe in detail, and there is always the comments section to query them further and to hold them to account! : )

Paul, I agree with you. What has blocked me until now was just what was the case to write, or what was just useless approach.

I read and follow a lot of different 3D printing communities and what is my perception is just the lack of knowledge in some context generating a lot of misunderstanding on what to do to make the 3D printer working. You have no idea on how many instructables but other tons of examples can be cited, where the "solution" to an issue is just something of alchemic. There is not a solid base explaining why something happens and how to remove it. The fact that 3D printers are "easy to use" is not so true, IMHO. The truth is that 3D printers are "easy to power-on". That is slight different. Let me show you just some examples:

These are just examples and some of them are far to be perfect, as are images from some prototype versions of the project. To make pieces working well and reliable to be 3D printed there are several phases involved that - unfortunately - involves different kind of knowledge: the design where you should respect some rules that may negatively impact on the final production involving mechanics, technical design, printing orientation and more. Then there is the problem of the size, the adhesion to the base surface, the speed of printing, and so on.

This is just to say that all these steps may become almost automatic settings, until you are able to think a piece and organise it so it is really possible to be converted in a plastic object with the needed robustness, the mechanical reliability etc. But this needs to know the entire production path. 3D printing is easy as it is easy to use a mill machine or a laser cutter/engraver. It is not easy like using an automatic washing machine. But this is what the market is trying to convince the users. That buy 3D printers and become more sad every day.

Enrico

Hi Enrico,

This looks incredible - impressive, this was with your own-made printer?

You are right of course, any tool can be used badly, one still needs to know about structures, adhesion etc as you say, and get a feel for diagnosing and also predicting the effect of design choices before printing.

Yes.

The main problem that I see - also compared with the astonishing things and "magic receipts" I read on the sites, the free downloadable designs and so on, that - sorry for this but impossible to avoid - the 3D printing is the end of the path: before you need to know at least some bare how-to in mechanics, design optimisation, cad, what is a thermal response, what is the filament, how do the printer works and more and more. Lot of different knowledges that participate to the entire project starting from the idea up to the final creation.

I will demonstrate in one of the next articles here, so for now just trust what I say, that it is not question of the printer; I say, the 3D physical printing engine is just the last step.

Just like when printing a good shooting you can have it on a 50$ photographic ink-jet printer while from a bad shooting (and also the resolution count) you'll never get a good photo. You can complain against the printer, the photo service or the camera, but the bad shooting remain a bad shooting

Enrico

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