3D Printing Business?

Hey guys, seems like there are several trends for this coming year which really could take off. One is 3D Printing and the other is Bitcoin.

3D Printing is growing rapidly, especially these last 12-18 months. I was reading this Future 3D Printing timeline list the other day: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.php?664-3D-Printing-Future-Timeline and thought WOW! If this is at all accurate I think 3D Printing could be a huge industry in the next few years. Are there any ways you guys are trying to take advantage of the market in the early days? Seems like now is the perfect time to get involved.

Opinions?

 

It certainly would be getting in on the ground floor if you started a business around 3D printing right now. I have heard, however, that the first generation consumer printers have issues that require a lot of effort to resolve.

I have considered buying a 3D Printer to play around with, but my thoughts revolved around producing some product ideas that I have had over the years but would have cost thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to test out some samples. You can hire the plastics factory and they will make the mold for you, but I recall one quote being $30,000 just for the mold. Makes the purchase of a 3D printer a no brainer for early samples.

I have also heard complaints about how long it takes the computer/printer to process the internal calculations to begin printing. The whole process is pretty slow, in fact. One last minor point: the material that is used by the printer is labeled as not to be used to create objects to be used in conjunction with food or drink or anything to be consumed by people or pets. So if you have the world's best cooking ware idea, you can't use 3D printing right now.

Would love to hear if anyone on DP is using a 3D printer and what for, etc.

 

I'd like to get my hands on some of those 3d printing machines, what fun I would have.

 

3D printing is defiantly going to be going places.

I would like to get into 3D printing metals but it is very expensive to get set up. All the small machinery parts, old autos, old guns, custom parts so many parts that people cannot buy they need custom produced. I really think 3d printing will make custom parts much faster and easier to produce. A metal worker could spend weeks measuring, milling, cutting, drilling,,, a 3D printer could just scan and print overnight.

One thing about it is it is so new and growing so fast, you could invest a a lot of money into a set up and in 2 years it will probably be outdated.

 

Mee too. I'd love to make models of items I want to demonstrate. It's quite the innovative concept that will eventually catch on with the general population more than it has now.