Scott Adams said it best:

"The Evolution of Idiots - I blame sex and paper for most of our current problems. Here's my logic: Only one person in a million is smart enough to invent a printing press. So, when society consisted of only a few hundred apelike people living in caves, the odds of one of them being a genius was fairly low. But people kept having sex, wand with the every moron added to the population, the odds of a deviant smarty-pants slipping through the genetic net got higher and higher. When you've got several million people running around having sex all willy-nilly the odds are fairly good that some pregnant ape-mom is going to squat in a field someday and pinch out a printing-press making deviant. Once we had printing presses, we were pretty much doomed. Because then, every time a new smart deviant came up with a good idea, it would get written down and shared. Every good idea could be built upon. Civilization exploded. Technology was born. The complexity of life increased geometrically. Everything got bigger and better. Except our brains. All the technology that surrounds us, all the management theories, the economic models that predict and guide our behavior, the science that helps us live to 80 - it's all created by a tiny percentage of deviant smart people. The rest of us are treading water as fast as we can. The world is too complex for us. Evolution didn't keep up. Thanks to the printing press, the deviant smart people managed to capture their genius and communicate it without having to pass it on genetically. Evolution was short-circuited. We got knowledge and technology before we got intelligence. We're a planet of nearly 6 billion ninnies living in a civilization that was designed by a few thousand amazingly smart deviants. "

DDD.  Up over 200% in a year, (and splits tomorrow).

Bubble, or train you're not on?

Because there aren't enough sound studios in Burbank?

I really don't have room for a Saturn V on my desk.

Cause everybody would be able to print assault weapons

Give me the budget NASA spent on Apollo and I probably could put a 3D printer in every home.  What's your point?

Vodka Zombie: Because I have absolutely no use for one?

In every room? Because god knows what the cat or your elderly mother will print off.

DigitalCoffee: GAT_00: We can't put a man on the moon.  The Orion project can't make it to the Moon, and nothing else currently existing comes close.

Not only can't we put a man on the moon (and haven't been able to for quite some time), we can't even get someone into LEO and onto the ISS anymore. We have to bum rides from Russia or China or where ever. We traded in those abilities for the ability for an 80 year old man to regrow his hair and have an erection.

And Bob Dole and Joe Biden are extremely happy about that.

Maybe because everyone has all the worthless plastic disposable crap that they need want can use have room for.

traylor: I'd rather have a CNC milling machine before a 3D printer.

3D printing is not practical for anything yet, and will remain so for long decades.

My business has a 3-axis CNC mill...a 3D printer is on the short list. And for $400, how can I go wrong?

Iplaybass: Vodka Zombie: Because I have absolutely no use for one?

This. It's a cool idea but the vast majority of people have no need for one. Even if they did, they wouldn't know how to use it.

People get all excited until the learn they have to fairly well master a CAD program and then a CAM program to make anything with it.

/uses SW and BobCAD/M
//fairly high on the learning curve

traylor: I'd rather have a CNC milling machine before a 3D printer.

3D printing is not practical for anything yet, and will remain so for long decades

Additive manufacturing solves a different class of problem than subtractive manufacturing. As for "not practical", it's exceedingly practical for one-off production, especially when you look at the laser sintering machines. I have an FDM machine, and you're right- it's not really practical for anything. I'd get better build quality if I loaded it up with PLA instead of ABS, but I'd still be printing cheap plastic parts.

Iplaybass: Even if they did, they wouldn't know how to use it.

They wouldn't, but the mass market companies that want to sell them shiat would. Imagine if Apple and Disney formed an unholy merger. They could build a supply-chain directly into your house. Your brat watches the latest episode of Hanna Montana on Apple's iBox, and decides they absolutely have to have some branded HM merchandise. They check out in the Apple store, the iBox downloads a set of 3D models, and fifteen minutes later, they've got cheap plastic crap. This is so much better for Disney than shipping it from China- they've gotten  you to pay for the raw material, the electricity, and the time.

If you don't think there's a business model there, you're a sucker. Now, 3D printing  isn't technologically at that level... yet. But I built my 3D printer two years ago. The printers out there today blow it away on both price and build quality. A desktop stereolithographic machine was a fantasy back then. Now it's about $1K.

And that's before we look at the serious shiat, like laser sintering. That's not going to happen in the home (the home  workshop maybe, but high energy lasers are dangerous tools). NASA is already producing certain classes of single-use items this way, because it provides finer control and higher build quality than conventional manufacturing.

The real issue is this: people who don't understand manufacturing think 3D printers are magic boxes where 3D models go in, and anything you like comes out. They don't work that way. They're just another manufacturing tool.

I wanna pirate a bunch of old toys with a 3D printer.

In particular, Kenner's old Real Ghostbusters line. Pain to get ahold of now.

albuquerquehalsey: fjnorton: Cause everybody would be able to print assault weapons

You could do that with a CNC milling machine. Hell, you don't even need that, just a large enough workshop; and yet we aren't drowning in a sea of homemade guns. So thanks, fjnorton; for showing everyone that you have no idea what goes into making a firearm.

I know what goes into it:  My dad makes them.  He's made several from scratch.  It's not that hard, especially if you want a functional but crude gun.  I could make one, and all I have is hand tools and hands that are all thumbs.

WhackingDay: They're pretty cool, but for now, what would you need one for at home?


Printing out copies of Angelina Jolie's ass.


... it wouldn't last that long given the materials it uses.


Neither would I.

SomethingToDo: Mythbusters demonstrates the basic concepts of a rifle almost every episode. I imagine anyone who's managed to make anything on a lathe could have a pretty good go at making a reliable safe musket.

All you really need is a tube with one end closed, a projectile, a propellant, and some way to ignite the propellant.

You can buy steel tubing pretty cheaply, and you can even get end caps threaded for them.

Guns are a 600 year old technology.

Harry_Seldon: In reality, the average Paleolithic human was a lot smarter than the average human today.

Guess I'm not average:





Some of my handiwork.

/I'm smarter than you.

Harry_Seldon: In reality, the average Paleolithic human was a lot smarter than the average human today.

There's really no evidence to support that. Based on physiology, since we have no written records to go on, Paleolithic humans and modern humans probably have about the same intelligence. This is what you'd expect, since evolution is a very slow process.