Feedback Needed - 3D Printers - Any Interest?

[PeterBJ]

It seems it is actually possible to print a working clock, see this:

 

[ThrillaMozilla]

I missed this thread, but what's stopping you, Nifty? Why not just open for business and see if anything lands there. I don't know anything about them and have no plans to get them, but I'll bet toolman can be tempted to get one and entertain us. And then I can send him that broken plastic gear from my Elmo projector.

 

[Madam TimeWarp]

I have no interest in 3D printers.
But what I DO think would fly off the shelves at lightning speed is a new line of affordable-but-quality printers, including all-in-one printers, as they are among the most popular;
A line of simple printers that would at last put Canon, Epson, HP and all the other junk corporations that churn out wasteful and deliberately-faulty JUNK, to SHAME!
YES!! A Line of YOUR Printers that would put those lowdown bast**ds to SHAME and then put them ALL OUT OF BUSINESS...Once and for all.

That's what we need.

GOOD LUCK!!

 

[fotofreek]

But what I DO think would fly off the shelves at lightning speed is a new line of affordable-but-quality printers, including all-in-one printers, as they are among the most popular;
A line of simple printers that would at last put Canon, Epson, HP and all the other junk corporations that churn out wasteful and deliberately-faulty JUNK, to SHAME!

Unfortunately, "affordable-but-quality" may be an oxymoron. At the lower end comsumer grade all-in-one units there has to be a lot of manufacturing cost management to put together anything near a high quality printer,scanner,copier, fax unit. Consider that each one of these separate high quality units costs more than the "affordable" AIO units.
Another factor is --- what is affordable? For a business that generates high use volume affordable may be in the moderately high hundreds to thousands of dollars. To someone running a moderate level used home office, affordable may range from a few hundred to less that $500.

My home office has enough desk and counter space to accommodate all separate units - fax machine (for the few people who still use them), copier, scanner, mono-laser printer, and two inkjet photo printers. The all get lots of use, but not at the level of a bricks-and-mortar business or corporate office. If one of these goes down the rest continue to function. AIO's are great for limited space home or small business offices, but at fairly low-end costs there are compromises, one of which is that when one function fails the unit may just become a large paperweight! Important pros and cons.

 

[Madam TimeWarp]

Affordable in my eyes would be a lasting machine in the $350-600.00 to start; I'm sure I'm not alone.

Take all the best parts and features of the best machines available, build them well to last and specify the routine maintenance; Offer repairs on site, like Polk Audio does, and do not gauge your customers. I've been a Polk Audio customer for a long time and one of the reasons is that they did not even charge me a DIME to repair my speaker. PLUS they paid shipping.

Learn fro their business model and many others. Research this topic thoroughly and keep moving ahead with gaining your knowledge and expertise. You can build something that we ALL need here in this country: A [printer] company based on quality and integrity in both it's goods and it's services.

CHEERS!!

 

[The Hat]

You are miles away from reality, where in heavens sake would you expect get an American company that could build affordable inkjet printer let alone an AIO, that’s pure folly.

The days of US companies manufacturing at home are long gone or going, sure why would they when they can get their products made overseas and shipped back to the US for 1/10 of the price, and the product is put in a new box and it says made or assembled in the USA.

The inkjet printer manufactures are making and selling tens of millions of these units every year and multiply that by at least 1000 times for the amount of cartridges they sell, but all of this is only possible because they can assemble them dirt cheap elsewhere.

No one is forcing anyone to buy one of these printer, which are in my opinion very affordable and sometimes almost free if you live in the US, but if you don’t buy one then you won’t have the freedom to print whenever you like at a very reasonable price.

I was a Master Printer in my former years and back then nobody had the ability or could afford to print anything themselves full stop, it couldn’t be done, WHY because it was far to expensive, out of reach of all but the very wealthy.

Now things have turned full circle and the printing industry has all but vanished and the man in the street doesn’t need the printing industry anymore because he can now print everything himself.

The very fact that we all want things cheaper is pushing things further away and out of our own control, we are expected to buy it, use it, dump it, then buy another one, isn’t that the nature of things these days.

I am not knocking anyone or any country or manufacturer but lets face it, things and products have gone very much to hell and we are all running to catch them up, now where did I put my pair of Nike…Rant over..

 

[Cary]

The technology is interesting but like aquaponics, I find it more of a novelty than anything else. I also don't like the look of 3d printed objects

 

[mikling]

These 3D printers can be ideal in certain situations. Like a resetter body for a low volume printer. Low volume would not justify a die for moulding. However, a 3D printed resetter alignment body is workable. If the electronics is possible, then the cost for a mould is not needed. ......things wished for might become reality,,,,,like a Pro-1 resetter.

 

[jtoolman]

I am familiar with a few 3D printers, and specially like the Ultimaker line. There are several styles or types. Each has advantages and disadvantages. The aforementioned is of the extrusion type using a filament which is melted and extruded to creat the object layer by layer. Others is a layer of powder which is maleted by a laser and the object is built layer by layer. The bes is the type the uses a container filled with a special resin which uses either a laser or UV ( I am not sure ) to cure each layer. This type produces the smoothest prints requiring practically zero post treatment.

The extrusion printers are very afordable and can be used to basically creat what ever you might need. I've have a friend print a custom SSD holder for my PC. Depending on the material you choose it will either be somewhat flexible or quite stiff.
Whe they reach a point where the layer resuolution is so high that there are no "Steps" in curved areas, I will get one. Remember the days of 720x480 PPI digital files and how they looked when printed to anything but a wallet size print? That is the point where most consumer 3D printers are now.

Like Mike says. You could print reseter cases for any internal electronics!
Still waiting for that PRO-1 reseter..... Getting grayer, blader and older odler by the minute.
But OH CRAP, Canon just announced the PRO-1000!!!!

Joe

 

[PeterBJ]

... Canon just announced the PRO-1000!!!!

Here is one link, there are more.