The Triumph of 3D Printing
By: Robert L. Read
Tags: 3D Printing, Makers, Open Source

Are you short? Or tall? Or fat, or thin? Do you want to see your alma mater’s logo on everything? Now your chairs can be just right for you, because there is no reason they should not be tailored specifically to and for you. Today a wealthy man can have a bespoke suit. Tomorrow we can all have a bespoke furniture set, because it will cost nothing more to to customize it.

Eventually, there will be a machine that creates for you, cheaply and quickly, any beautiful object you may desire. Today, this can almost be done — in plastic. Tomorrow it will be done in bronze, or cut from marble, and whatever electronics you desire will be embedded within it at nominal cost.

Tomorrow when you read your child’s favorite book to them at bedtime, you will be able to hand them a sculpture of each of their favorite scenes. The princess and her dragon will be there, glittering in glory, perhaps even ready to take wing — because, why not? Printing a flying toy dragon with integrated motors will be commonplace.

When an earthquake or a fire destroys your home, how long do you think it will take for us to rebuild it? Thirty days? Thirty hours? Thirty minutes?

H.P. Lovecraft wrote in At The Mountains of Madness of a space-faring race that used sculpture and bas-relief in place of writing. We may eventually do the same. Trigonometry will now be explained with a manipulable object. You will see and feel the surface of the function. You will understand the four chambers of the heart better when we hand you one.

Our smartphones produce maps — why not models?

Another Thingiverse design you could print yourself: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:47622 — work of ibudmen.

3D Printing vs. Other Technologies

Tim O’Reilly once said that he thought computer controlled manufacturing is the real story, of which 3D printing is just a subset. He is right, of course. At TechShop Austin, the 2D laser cutters are more heavily used than the 3D printers. Laser cutters can be similarly humanizing and artful.

But of the CNC milling, laser cutting, and other related making technologies, none of them quite come as close to producing items of stand-alone value. None of them quite changed my way of thinking as much as my experience with 3D printing.

Getting Involved

If you have any interest in this sort of thing do yourself a favor and find a way to borrow or rent the use of a 3D printer and print out a few objects.

This is a great time to become interested in 3D printing. Maker spaces commonly allow professional 3D printers to be shared as part of membership and offer support and community. I have enjoyed TechShop Austin because of the excellent advice and support given by their staff. Alternatively, you can just buy one for your home if you are willing to do some assembly and learning on your own. Here is a small basic model:

A basic model cost less than $500.

If you buy your own, expect to spend a little time tweaking it before your are happy with your prints, and don’t expect to create museum-quality pieces without a lot of extra work.

Every child should be given a chance to hold in their hands things that they designed and made themselves. 3D printing does not replace, but rather augments sculpting, drawing or painting.

We need: artists to design new objects, craftspersons to tailor objects to the human form and to paint and finish objects, engineers to design parts that make machines better, stronger and cheaper.

But we also need a new sort of skill, called simply 3D Printing: we need people willing to just think of how to use this new capability and to invest the modest effort needed to get new things designed, printed, and enjoyed.