"A different sort of 3D printing" Topic

This is quite interesting technology.
link

Yes, it's very cool, but very expensive. You can lease a machine for $45 USDk per year, plus you have to buy all the materials.

That's pretty amazing, IF it proves durable, millions of applications can be made.

Back in '87 we sold the first 3D printing machines for $250,000.00 USD each, so leasing one for $45,000 USD per year doesn't seem expensive at all.

Love this sort of stuff. I'm definitely going to include maker pools in my sci-fi terrain when I get around to making interiors of industrial buildings.

I've recently been expanding into 3d stuff for my business (not related to wargaming) and I am definitely looking forward to something like this which prints fast enough to be suitable for production rather than just prototyping.

Turns out a local membership based fabrication lab has one of these (well, a different make/model but same tech with lasers hardening the resin rising out of a pool). 24/7 access for a month would be a couple hundred dollars + resin at cost, but it might be worth it once I have a bunch of design work iterated on cheaper printers.

FDM 3D printers -- the ones that extrude melted thermoplastic filament -- have dropped hugely in price and expanded in availability with the expiration of the original patents on the core technology. We're just seeing the first entries in the 'consumer' SLA resin printers; if you look at Kickstarter, you can find several projects -- the Morpheus Delta, the D2k Illuminate, the SafFire, the SLASH -- that are bringing the cost of SLA resin printers down to the $1,000 USD range, and over the next few years we should see more designs available in this range.