3D printers coming of age…?

[Involute CurveParticipant @involutecurve]

Slightly OT but related I think.

I came across this the other day, does anyone have experience of this I've read up a little, and to he honest it seems too good to be true, @ a price of $200 and its apparently a very similar sensor unit used in the xbox Kinect which can be had for even less, as far as I can gather the accuracy is about 0.5mm although this info is not forthcoming hence this post, I think the gathering popularity of 3D printing technology is the driving force behind this, however I can see this being of great use to Mach users.

What do you guys think of this device and its uses

Cheers

Shaun

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other useful links

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[DuncParticipant @dunc]

Here is a kit (well, promised…) for ~$100 Canadian. http://www.peachyprinter.com/

Converts the 3-D drawing to a sound file that controls the resin placement & volume.

[John Stevenson 1Participant @johnstevenson1]

Posted by John McNamara on 10/11/2013 11:29:46:

John the open source software mob will improve their work in time, competition is a wonderful printer driver!

Regards
John

Very true but only if they accept that there is a need to do so.

Problem with open source projects is the people who have the skills to develop these features are not the users.

The users don't have the skills and so it hits a log jam.

Classic example is EM2 / LinuxCNC, very good bit of software but in 8 ? years no one responsible for the coding side has bothered to develop a GUI [ screen to the unwashed ] that looks even interesting or workable.

I have said for ages that if EMC had started out with a decent GUI making it attractive to users then Mach3 would not be in the prime position it is in today.

It can be done, I have seen a peek preview of the new Tormach lathe software which uses LinuxCNC and it blows you away with it's professionalism, makes a modern Fanuc look old fashioned.

Only problem is they have taken open source software, modified it and it's now theirs, no way this will be offered for sale unless you buy a lathe.

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Posted by John Stevenson on 10/11/2013 13:55:40:

Classic example is EM2 / LinuxCNC, very good bit of software but in 8 ? years no one responsible for the coding side has bothered to develop a GUI [ screen to the unwashed ] that looks even interesting or workable.

A new screen for LinuxCNC is under development and the developers are asking for comments/suggestions: **LINK**

Perhaps it would help if you could give them your thoughts? I'm sure they would value your experience.

Russell.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/pc-peripheral/3489616/microsoft-debuts-3d-printing-app-for-windows-81/?cmpid=HTML-N181113&olo=newsletter

might be of interest for starters.

Edited By V8Eng on 18/11/2013 10:53:39

[Russell EberhardtParticipant @russelleberhardt48058]

Quote from Microsoft's blog, "A few months ago, you may have heard that Windows 8.1 makes 3D printing possible". Apparently it wasn't possible before they got involved

Russell.

[V8EngParticipant @v8eng]

[mike mcdermidParticipant @mikemcdermid41977]

simple answer No not for anything you cold subjectively call useful 3D printing is not a close tolerance thing it does not produce a finished item when you get to precision engineering,in fact the gentleman who sells EOS DLMS machines in the UK will tell you this himself he stood in a room full of aerospace execs and pointed out at this level it wasnt ready yet

the Gun still had to have all the post machining operations you would traditionally apply to get the precision needed in a firearm the difference is that the metals etc were not forged or cast so no tooling etc was needed

there are also materials being produced now that would not lend themselves to being printed but outperform both metals and ceramics in many ways in this area and they are kind of pushing 3d printing aside based on their unique properties alone

there are however machines that laser powder mettalurgy and machine to tolerance size inside one convenient cabinet so it is advancing all the time rather than coming of age

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