I Got To See A 3D Printer Last Night...

[shilala]

The kid had an open house at a school he wants to go to.
3D printing is kind of a cousin to what I do with my cnc machine in some respects, so I've read up on them a little but have never seen one, let alone watch it do it's thing.

Last night I got to watch this one run, and it was just plain cool. If you have a minute to read up, it's worthwhile.
It basically works the same as an inkjet printer, but has 3 axes. It builds a layer at a time via a printhead that squirts out melted plastic. It's crazy slow, but so are CNC machines. It can do complex models easier than a CNC because it builds the model from ground up rather than removing material. CNC has limitations this thing doesn't.

The plastic string for this machine comes spooled in cartridges. Some models use pellets or powder. This particular machine has all sorts of different colored cartridges, so it's extra cool. The resolution isn't fantastic, but it's down to about .25mm, I'd guess. Good enough to model just about anything bigger than small screws or watch parts.

Anyways, here's a pic. Maybe there's a video back at the website I linked.