Amazing 3D Printer in Action-makes a wrench: (truly the future will change fast)

3D printers are wonderful contraptions. Would be fantastic to own one. I have a friend who is making a 3D printer... with a 3D printer. Paradox!

reply to post by anon72


This is really cool technology. I posted a similar vid back in January on this thread.

ATS Link 1

ATS Link 2

reply to post by anon72


we actually have one of these at work, they made a cool little teacup with it. it's actually one of the cheaper ones, too. pretty cool tech.

So how do you stop the Chinese from stealing this technology?

a few years ago i seen them (i was working with Green Technology IT stuff at the time) at a show odly enough for Schools, the piece next to ours was a very elborate 3D mouse and very nice printer it was being used by Art students to create amongst other things jewelery the applications for this product are endless..

Replicators.. imagine being able to get a new case for your laptop or a new component for your car radio/engine when somthing breaks untill you can get the hard metal replacement needed, breakdown guys could have these housed in there vans with a huge cataloge of parts, or connected to a warehouse where one of every car part is kept and scanned when needed.. amazing


infact damn... i think i just invented a great business idea

10 - 20 years from now they may even be printing human parts like an assembly line. Imagine, you need a heart, your doctor prints one out and the surgeon puts it in. This has so many possibilities, it's hard to imagine all the things it could be used for.

For my 3d printer friends

Buy DDD stock

Coming out with the first consumer friendly printer in weeks

Market cap is still small and market potential is bigger than apple if they create the itune or app store of CAD

As much as I would love us to be rapidly exposed to this technology I fear we'll only get it as quickly as profit would allow, so while there's still industry and money to be made in our old way's I've got a feeling we won't be seeing this on a mass scale any time soon

Originally posted by Dustytoad
I wonder if this material is an insulator, and heat resistant? Then it could stop on cross sections, and pour in liquid copper, that would fill in trenches(wires)... Would make it really easy for do it yourself circuit boards for special projects.

or something... I don't know.

I was thinking about a mother cube (like a motherboard, but one more dimension) but I think there would be massive heat issues...

edit on 3/20/2012 by Dustytoad because: (no reason given)

Originally posted by Saidin
The only issue I have with that video, is the wrench they scanned didn't have a belt-loop on the bottom of the handle. Yet the one they pulled out of the machine did. I know the printers do what they say, but I think the scanning aspect maybe be further behind developmentally. My guess is they used their own model of a wrench, and the scanning part was just for show.

yes I noticed something like that too. Didn't he say it was accurate to hair width? How come the wrench didn't have the little grooves on the gear piece. Like on a lighter how it's rough? The wrench that came out had smooth parts only..

edit on 3/20/2012 by Dustytoad because: (no reason given)

Combine 3d printing with graphene printing... yeah this is getting interesting!

One Day Soon You'll Just Print Out Your Own Circuit Board at Home

reply to post by TheLieWeLive

I think the parts were probably tweaked by engineers and it wasn't fully automated.

All of this reminds me of the replicators Arthur C. Clarke mentions here:
He had amazing foresight.

reply to post by Violater1


Actually now. At least not yet.

It's a single powder with materials bound by glue.



I use them quite a lot, and they are quite annoying when your print something too small and the thing essentially turns to dust in your hands.


Damn fun though. Just not the future quite yet.

They are not the only ones using the 'special powder', I've seen these machines in person, they have been around for about 10+ years I believe, I have a few things made by the 'printer', very solid plastic, hard to break. The problem for the consumer is that wrench would cost them 200+ dollars, until the price drops it will be used to make replica wow characters for players willing to pay the extreme price.

Old news but still pretty cool

Speaking of piracy, the pirate bay has had "Physibles" torrents available for a few months now. Most of the stuff on there is hobbyist stuff - role playing 3d models, model of the pirate bay ship etc but you can imagine how drastically different life is going to be once 3d printers become cheap enough for "normal" people.

I can't wait to see this technology take off, there's so many uses for this kind of stuff. If they ever get to a stage where the material is as strong/durable/heat resistant as metal alloys and the printers are capable of printing circuits it's not that far fetched to imagine printing out new pistons, drive pullets, gearbox gears, oven parts, lamps, phones, computer parts, another printer in case your main one breaks etc

Originally posted by ThisIsMyName
Piratebay has stated that this will be the future of online piracy. Imagine downloading specs for a computer or something else ridiculous and printing it at home. Wicked!!!!

Exactly.
Instead of "patents" and "patent #'s" etc,
there will just be "source code" for everything. lol
The printers will be as common as computers and telephones are today,
and people will simply buy the code/pay$ to have the code sent to the printer' and allow their printer to produce it at home.
Whole new world of "hacking" opens up then. lol Damn
Gonna be awesome.

Fancy doo hicky. Hell we had em as kids in the 60's...
By Mattel:

Thing Maker

Hot diggidy damn!!!!

SO THAT IS HOW SKYNET WILL MANUFACTURE ITS TERMINATORS!!!!!!

Run for the hills fella's... this future is ugly. hahahahaha

/end sarcasm

Originally posted by Samsquanch
Meh, until I can go up to one and order tea, Earl Grey, hot, I won't be impressed.

And that's exactly why you look the way you do.

I just finished building a 3D printer in my garage. It doesn't use the powder and binder approach that OP's video shows, mine takes a spool of plastic "wire", melts it at the tip and uses a gantry like system to position the extruder head in 3D space. Here is a youtube clip of a similar one in action...



It's a neat project, the kit will run you less than a laptop. Makerbot now has a 2 extruder head model so you can print multiple colored stuff. Have your soldering iron ready, and in a few hours/days you'll be printing stuff from Thingiverse.

If you know someone with a 3D printer, have them print you out a RepRap which is an open source 3D printer, it won't cost you a dime aside from the labor and raw materials.

Regarding the bit at the end about the hamburger, research is being done in the field of printing proteins... How would you like your steak tonight, printed or grown?

And if we're thinking space, why would we launch our precious resources into space? Go mine an asteroid if you want a space wrench pal.

Originally posted by Dustytoad
Originally posted by Saidin
The only issue I have with that video, is the wrench they scanned didn't have a belt-loop on the bottom of the handle. Yet the one they pulled out of the machine did. I know the printers do what they say, but I think the scanning aspect maybe be further behind developmentally. My guess is they used their own model of a wrench, and the scanning part was just for show.


yes I noticed something like that too. Didn't he say it was accurate to hair width? How come the wrench didn't have the little grooves on the gear piece. Like on a lighter how it's rough? The wrench that came out had smooth parts only..
edit on 3/20/2012 by Dustytoad because: (no reason given)

maybe something to do with patents