So the other day I came across something that will definitely rustle your jimmies if you haven’t heard about it before. I’ve always been fascinated by printers (an odd obsession of mine), printing stuff is the shit. But I’ve always thought it would be cool if you could print proper objects, not just pretty stuff onto a piece of paper. It’s already been done though….
Now supposedly 3D printing in mainstream use, has been around since around 2003. That’s 9 years that I’ve been fascinated by printers, but never knew about printers that could print 3 dimensional objects. But first, let me explain what 3D printing is and how it works, then we can watch some videos of it in action (how cool).
What is 3D printing?
3D printing is the process of making an object through artificial modelling on the computer. It typically involves firing some form of matter (usually heated plastic filament) onto a resistant board much like a conventional printer, but in layers just like a prism. Because of the way it prints, it’s often referred to as additive manufacturing. With 3D printers, you can essentially scan in objects in the real world using laser based surveyors, and print them creating effectively a plastic clone of the object, which you can paint however you like. Personally, this is fucking awesome and I want one.
You’re probably thinking they’re expensive, well they are. But not so much that you can’t afford one to have in your home if you’re enthusiastic about it. I’ve found a nice video of a project from formlabs, which has received 13 times the funding they required to get the project going, and I think the video is pretty extraordinary. Sit back and enjoy the video!
I think it’s just magnificent, but what about you? If you could print one thing with a 3D printer, what would it be? Leave a comment in the comments section, and thank you for reading yet another one of my blog posts!
A Very Disturbed Child 