3D Printers are starting to become quite cheap now and are entering the mainstream, so, would you buy one? Would you use it. Few thoughts:

Pros:
- Create own models
- download for free / buy existing model files for printing
- Customise existing models for your need
- Rescale them
- Use easy and free software to create your own models, both architectural and figures


Cons:
- Quality isn't yet fantastic
- Maintining plastic supplies
- Fumes are considered by some to be carcinogenic (so too is laser toner for laser printers though)
- one print can take a long time!
- models can fail whilst printing

I think the thought of being able to create something that you can really customise for your needs is great, but that may come with a learning curve!

This is kind of like the question of whether computers will change the way we live before the PC was introduced. Based on that history, I am going to say yes, but it will take many years, possibly a couple of decades, before it becomes widespread.

Yes, but not yet!

The critical mass in affordable high quality printers, (or affordable access to one) isn't there yet.

The other critical mass is familiarity with the software needed, & most of the high end vendors have free versions capable of producing the .STL files for free.

Once there are X 1,000,000's of kids thinking 3D, all we will have to do is wean them off 'warhammer' & on to the hard-plastic!

It already has! Where I used to avoid certain conversion projects because the details were a challenge to scratch correctly (especially with mirror-image parts that had to be EXACT to look ok), now I fire up the CAD and design them for printing at Shapeways!

Also, more and more of the cast-resin goodies we buy these days are from moulds poured around a 3D-printed master pattern...

Cheap printers have nothing like the quality we need as modellers and it is quite a steep learning curve with the software, quite apart from having to learn how to design for printing. It will be years before the necessary quality is available for domestic printers and even then, you'd need to be doing a lot to justify the capex.

Much more sensible to use a bureau service like Shapeways etc. unless you happen to have the facilities at work.

Other cons:
- May require high level of skill to create the 3D model source
- May require repeated prints to achieve proper fit
- Mechanical limits of the material

The first one is part of the learning curve, both in learning the techniques of the 3D modeling software to create the models for the parts you want, and learning the limitations of the 3D printing process -- things like overhang limits, undercuts, support structures, hollowing to reduce material use, etc.

The second one is interaction between the printing process and the model that a part will be used in. If you design a part based on the dimensions of the actual part, you may find that dimensional inaccuracies in the model compromise the fit, making you go back and tweak the mesh or the scaling to produce a part that fits your model.

The third one is going to be, for most parts produced with 3D printing, less of an issue; plastic model kits are not particularly heavy, and any load on a printed part shouldn't have a heavy load put on them, but depending on the design of the part and the material used for printing, the part may be more fragile than an equivalent injection-molded styrene part. Another learning curve.

I used to buy a lot from Shapeways. Not so much anymore. They don't have the top of the top of line printers. In their "Frosted Ultra Detail" and "Frosted Extreme Detail" prints, the "frosted" is actually a texture - sometimes fine, and sometimes not so fine . At the moment, no printed part will ever be as smooth as a resin cast or injection moulded styrene, and require gentle sanding or an air eraser. The best compromise is to have a master printed, cleaned up, and used for resin casting. The best quality so far are figures from Reedoak, but then, he uses a higher quality (and priced) printer than Shapeways.

Hi - for me the answer is a definite yes - and it's already happened.... I became partially blind a few years ago and by using the PC, CAD and 3D printers I was able to stay in the hobby. As mentioned, its not perfect yet but its getting close. If interested you can see a few of my 3D printer projects at the following links (over at Axis History Fourm). Happy Modeling!


http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=213588&sid=2c2d916a218ad07020fc7bb92df5197d


http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=222037


http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=221462

Frankly, unless you have a home printer that can print at the resolution needed for our hobby, the fumes and plastic supplies won't affect you. What will is the quality (not of too much consequence as long as you buy from a company with excellent printers like Shapeways or Reedoak), time and failure rate (which can be brought way down with higher end printers but the chance is still ever present.

There are some CAD programs that are actually relatively easy to latch on to. The biggest hurdle is actually learning the gist of CAD in general. If you want to learn how to use a 3D CAD program, I would suggest going to the Autodesk website and searching for their Fusion 360 program. When you find it don't download it. Instead there are tabs on the top of the page. Scroll through them until you find one that says Tutorials or Learning. Go through those. You can essentially learn the bare bones basics from them. A lot of learning is through trial and error, as we all know. And learning a CAD system is no different (even though there are books on specific systems which can help a great deal).

The FXD printers at Shapeways are capable of decent prints that look like injection-moulded plastic under a coat of primer (I've had a few myself) if the fine-ness settings are cranked up to the max, but there is a serious quality control issue at SW that means I've also had prints that are grainy and full of those dreaded print lines. I cannot help wondering if the root of this problem is the way SW wants to be everything to everyone at a knock-down price, rather than knuckling down and specialising.

The Reedoak printer is something SW is playing with (see their new HDA material), but again they are approaching it as generalists, so there have been some horrific prints shown in the forums.

Getting a surface that is as microscopically smooth as traditional plastic just isn't possible with additive printing. The HDA printers get smoothness because the object emerges "wet" with a film of liquid material that gets hardened afterwards, so it acts as a sort of self-levelling primer that helps hide any print texture. But it also fills up corners and crevices, potentially changing the detail of a model. I've had some incredibly smooth FUD-style parts from Click2Detail, but then they are a dedicated model-printing company (unlike SW) so I suspect they take more time and effort over their printing. The trick at the moment is to be firm with SW and complain whenever a print fails to meet the standard - but this is a burden they really shouldn't be putting on the customer. (There are tons of posts in the various SW user forums complaining about this whole QC issue...)