Apparently it's here. I'm sure you've all seen the stories on 3D printing. Pretty amazing stuff. I saw one story where some medical researchers had even somehow linked it into creating transplant organs. I have no idea how that would work, so don't even ask me.

But what I want to know is, when these printers become available, how many of you will be scanning and printing Playboy centerfolds? And don't deny it, because I know the thought has already occurred to you. You're just waiting for the street price on those printers to come down.

Cheers!

Rick...

When it can "print" to the same quality as in 5th Element then maybe

you would just print a 2d scan sauron sorry, you would need 3d skill to give shape to the 2d form. i would do backup parts for my old favorite toys that i still keep for...for...(the night adventures of gi joes) you know.memories...
Also i would print my 3d head into them.

I dunno man, sounds like some Weird Science to me!

You have to give it 3D information/3D file.
You cant give it a flat scanned image and have it output an accurate 3D model.

They make software that will turn 2D images into 3D renderings. Now that there's consumer-level 3D printing, sales will probably go up on that type of software and Playboy magazine.

Cheers!

Rick...

I've had a 3D printer since late last year, it's a great gadget and not all that expensive to buy and run.
It works by feeding a 1.75 mm filament of ABS plastic into a heated print head (needs 260deg to melt the plastic) and the melted plastic is forced through a small nozzle (about 0.25 mm diameter) and it simply squirts it out onto the table and builds up the object layer by layer, again about 0.2 mm thick at a time. So it's very slow and can take up to five or six hours to make a large-ish object. The limits for my machine are a cube about 130 mm to a side.
I bought it to prototype some golf tees that a friend of mine invented, they stop you hooking & slicing the ball. We figure there'd be about a hundred million golfers that'd want them.

Neat Enterprise print.


Wheels

Here is the other thread on this subject, in the R/C subforum:

http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/3497954/Consumer_Based_3d_Printing.html


@Billzilla: What's the name of the manufacturer and model of your printer? How much was it when you bought it?

It was about US$3,000 and I got it from [url=www.pp3dp.com]www.pp3dp.com[/url]