I know this comes up once or twice a month, and whenever I see the post people tend to talk about how the 3-D Printer machine are a nice idea, but way too expensive to make it worth the purchase price.
Here’s a website that makes smaller versions that can print objects up to 4"x4"x6" (or close to that), and their basic machine runs for $750. I don’t know if they’re in stock at the moment, something about production costs. But if you were one of the people who thought you’d like a 3D printer and didn’t want to spend $10,000 to get the one Jay Leno has, here’s a much cheaper option.
From what I can tell, it prints from the computer you already have and the company believes in freeware, so a lot of designs are available for free to download and print at home. I think the company who’s making these are more into the art side of what these can do, and what they stand for, rather than the hobby side.
If this machine has already been talked about, nevermind then. To be honest, I stopped looking at the 3D-Printer posts because I assumed they were all talking about the same expensive machines. But anyway, much much cheaper than any others I’ve seen.
If my life weren’t already overful 10 times over, I’d get one of these to play with. I think. It looks like it works by putting a little dot of plastic wherever the computer says. After awhile, you get a “thing”. Resolution is about 300 DPI. Or 3/1000 inch. That might still be a little coarse for finished detail parts, but maybe not–I’m thinking of the potential rough texture, in particular. I’ll say, though, that this critter is AWFULLY close, if not there.
Consider that back when I was doing sheet-metal work in an ISO 9001 facility, we had to hold to a 2/1000 of an inch tolerance, to stay with in specification…
I would say that for the price of the unit, that .003 is an extreamly good tolerance.