Towards the *fully* 3D-printed electric cars.

If you define "real engineering companies" as those who could afford mainframes, sure. Everyone else was using rubylith. Even the IC guys.

In exactly that same setting, sure. *NOT* in everyone's home.

But that's the point of this thread.

But let me put it another way.... If 3D printers are the "next thing", are you saying that there can't be any "next, next thing"? The world ends after "next"?

in business

Feel free to show us a valid reason why domestic 3d printers will never get there.

Absolutely. But when you can wipe out *most* of the cost of an item by skipping the wholesale & retail networks, it will be more than tempting, it will take over.

NT

No one said they weren't useful, just that they aren't going to be ubiquitous. Not everyone is going to have one and the "new industrial revolution" isn't moving back to the individual. They're in the same class as lathes and CNC machines (which jewelers also have).

Because there is no use case. As has been pointed out (many times), people buy biscuits. They rarely make them.

But you can't do both.

Chimp, when everyone sees you saying something you insist you haven't said, the problem is not everyone else...

--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar 
 territory." 
                                      --G. Behn

Thank you, Assertions R Us.

--
"Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar 
 territory." 
                                      --G. Behn

you've offered nothing to support that

that has already been debunked in this thread

that has already been debunked in this thread too

I don't know what that means

NT

Ever heard of the PDP-8 or the HP CAD workstations that were common well before the PC?

3D printers go for less than $200; I see no rush by consumers to buy them.

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Jim Pennino

That was one of my points.

The post that started all this was claiming people would be printing everything at home including cars; utter nonsense.

3D printers are over 30 years old.

"The world ends" is babble.

--
Jim Pennino

This is quite simply bullshit. Aluminum used to be so damn expensive that the tip of the Washington Monument is made of the stuff. Now it's do damn cheap that beer cans and soda cans are made of it. Why? Because the technology used to make it literally changed. But don't take my word for it:

I'm not an expert on plastic prices, but it sure seems like kids these days have a lot more, and bigger, damn cheap plastic toys than when I grew up. Hell, even some storage sheds are made of the stuff today. I sure don't remember any plastic storage sheds when I was a kid.

The speed of any casting, injection, machining, and etc. method is too so I don't see your point. Besides, these things are computer controlled, so you can start printing and come back when the thing is done. It's not like you have to babysit the thing 24/7.

Baking bread or making biscuits from scratch is a time consuming, labor intensive, p.i.t.a. I don't think downloading a file from the Internet and hitting "print" on the 3D printer is as difficult, but I guess that's my opinion.

As with product you can buy, the $200 models aren't that great. But the technology is improving every year so that better machines are becoming more affordable. That's the trend. Just like every other technology which goes from its infancy to maturity. Looking at the trends in the industry (e.g. aerospace, which is what I follow) 3D printing still has not reached its full potential, IMHO.

Jeff

--
All opinions posted by me on Usenet News are mine, and mine alone.   
These posts do not reflect the opinions of my family, friends,  
employer, or any organization that I am a member of.

It's easy to melt aluminum (700C) in factory. I don't think too many people want to do it at home. Think of all the heating and then cooling cost.

Just ordered one to build plastic prototype. Not going to use 3D printing for aluminum, steel or titanium.

Yes, it changed about a hundred years ago and has not change significantly since then.

The name for this phenomena is "mature technology".

Again, mature technology.

The point is 3D printing is slow and basic physics says there is not much that can be done to speed it up significantly.

Yep, if it is a hobby, it doesn't really matter if the whole print job turns to shit in the middle of the process.

Yep, hobby printing some plastic trinket is about the same level of difficulty and it is obvious you have never done any baking.

3D printing is over 30 years old and getting close to being a mature technology for anything that would ever be used at home.

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Jim Pennino

So no one really used Rubylith? IOW, nonsense.

Exactly my point.

You seem to think I'm disagreeing with you.

Let me make this simple for the simple. If 3D printers are "the next thing". Why is there not another "thing" beyond "the next thing"? End of the world?

Not what I said.

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Jim Pennino

That the post that started all this was claiming people would be printing everything at home including cars?

I don't see you saying anything about the post that started all this.

3D printers are an old thing.

Are you saying we will have Star Trek replicators?

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Jim Pennino

That's not true. Some printing methods are already significantly faster than others. It's possible to scale up 3D printing merely by running multiple print heads in parallel.

No one does this yet, AFAIK, because it's expensive; but the whole poin t of technology is that it gets better, faster, and cheaper with time.

If you're still going to claim that "basic physics" will never allow a reasonable speed, you're going to have to be a lot more specific, if you want to remain credible.

Which will happen less and less. You can also compare it to current home printing technology - yes, paper jams and other problems do occur; but that doesn't stop millions of people having printers.

I have, and it's a lot more than pressing a button, unless you use a breadmaker; which I do, kind of proving my point.

Aren't you agreeing with us now?

3D-printing is, IMO, about where ordinary printing was a couple of decades ago, black-and-white, expensive, not that fast.

Compare it to printing now, full-colour, a lot faster and cheaper.

Lots of things are around for a long time before they take hold and mature.

Were you frightened by tribbles when you were very young?

--
"Ignorance is preferable to error, and he is less remote from the 
 truth who believes nothing than he who believes what is wrong." 
                               -- Thomas Jefferson

There was a fad for affordable automatic breadmakers in the nineties. I'm happy enough with cheap factory bread, but I offered that my wife might want one. She didn't.

I haven't heard much about them lately. Perhaps shrunken kitchens don't have the counter space for single-use devices.

--
We are geeks.  Resistance is voltage over current.