Why don't we hear about 3D printing anymore?

zoomer's don't care about technology. they have no imagination or dreams, they just want to sit with their smartphone all the time

Fucking spot on

How are Zoomers relevant for the question asked though?
3D printing was always advertised as being for the industry and for Boomers wanting to fix their household appliances

A couple years ago there was a big marketing push by some people to make 3d printing the next big thing that everyone should own alongside 2d printers. It failed because most people don't need a 3d printer and aren't willing to put in the effort to learn how to use one. So 3d printing went back to being a process used only in the niche diy markets and rapid prototyping for industry. Visit /3dpg/ on for more info.

It's useful. But, the marketing and hype was a bubble like everything from tech.

Main news are chinks entered the market of hobbyist printers a couple years ago, now you can get nice FDM printers for $150 and SLA pritners for $300. Nothing else notable for consumers. It will never take off for normies, it will remain a niche in the maker community.

It's widely used in the industry though

It didn't advance, it needs to be faster and cheaper

So, basically Segway: Printer Edition. Makes sense.

Neffertitty was so beautiful

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>faster and cheaper
In a decade there are gonna be threads on Jow Forums asking if people really need the fifth generation of 3D printing because the fourth generation of 3D printers is fast enough.

The problem with 3D printed plastic parts is that their mechanical properties are dogshit compared to any other mass production techniques. Sure you can 3D print a replacement back panel for your laptop but it won't last 3 weeks.

t. materials engineer

We use extremely expensive ones for rapid prototyping at my engineering company but the hobby ones were always a meme. Make magazine was a big pusher of them and recently went bankrupt. That's the business behind Maker Faire. They were selling 3D printers like a lifestyle brand; buy this thing and now you're a cool hipster "maker".

A lot of my friends bought them, printed a couple models like the Yoda head, then it collected dust in their closet forever. The average person doesn't have the skill to make their own models and isn't an inventor, artist, or do anything else that a 3D printer would be useful for. It's just downloading models and printing them until you get bored with it.

I've only seen zoomer designers care about this shit desu

just like a standard printer

It was hyped up because it was new to normies. Now that its been out in the mainstream long enough their goldfish attention span's have shifted on to other things.
I'm just about to pull the trigger on one myself to make Glock frames.

3D printers are very successful in industry. You don't see them in the news anymore because they are no longer new.

>why don't we hear about the steam engine anymore?
>was it just a fad?

No multicolor 3D printers

I feel so validated to see this fad crash and burn. All the retards who told me 3D printing is the future can get fucked.

>Steam engine
Back to /v/

Actually.
xyzprinting.com/en-US/product/da-vinci-color

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it's clearly (part of) the future, and already in use for industrial/design purposes. just far from ready for home and consumers, because the cost is prohibitive for anything that isn't trash.
I don't know if it will be 10 or 20 years but eventually people will have some kind of "replicator" technology in their house, for making plastic/metal/nanotube/whatever objects without having to trek to the store for them.
once upon a time handheld computing was pointless, then ~10 years later every normie woman demanded an iPhone.

lol, $3k for that trash
I mean it's cool but I'd rather use polymer clay or just hand-paint something with much better resolution

Just wait for Musk to reignite the hype when he'll make a press conference to explain how the people he'll send to build his fabled Mars colony will use 3D printing to build things.
In fact, he'll likely start a new company just to grab some more fool's money and government gibs

the thing with 3D printing is the basic technology hasn't been invented yet. that's why it's such a scam. yes, if somebody figures out a way to cheaply manufacture high-strength objects in the home, it will be wildly popular. But modern materials science does not have any techniques that allow this. the computer control aspect of 3D printing is the most trivial part. It's like a flying car. It is completely possible that it will never be practical on a personal scale.

you're the materials science guy?
so what's wrong with Desktop Metal's approach?
desktopmetal.com/video/production-system/
I read somewhere the resulting prints are 96%+ density. Is that not enough for everyday uses?

n/m, I looked around online and their "production" system doesn't look like it's actually in use anywhere yet. I bet they are simply trying to build enough hype and get enough investment to make it work someday (the Theranos Approach(tm))
Whereas their conventional 3D printer thing exists and the output looks crappy as usual.

It's not good enough for the things they want people to use it for

Because you can already print guns and ammo out of plastic, with only propellent and bullet cores requiring extra materials. The quality -- or rather, the QUALITY -- is nowhere near enough for actual firefights, but more than enough for what they somewhat-misname insurraction. So everyone is ignoring it in order to slow the technology's inevitable spread.

>you're the materials science guy?
No, that's not me. I only made one comment in this thread so far. Non-plastic 3D printing is actually not bad. Maybe even concrete printing is viable for fast and cheap construction. The issue with plastic printing is that what you essentially get is billions of tiny plastic particles fused/welded together. For metals you can heat treat them and get a roughly homogeneous material, but plastics can't be heat treated and welding lines are always the critical dimensions of a part (even in injection molding for slightly complex parts). Now imagine your entire part is made of tiny plastic blobs that are welded together. It's not going to last. It's literally going to disintegrate. You can forget about printing parts that have any load on them or have to withstand pressure. They might work for temporary replacement parts but that's about it. And small sculpture and anime figurine printings is just not really something most people would want. Now if you're an engineer or designer and you have to make prototypes fast, it can work for that (and it does) but that's not household application.

Not really sure how this was ever useful in any way. If you really needed to recreate a part casting it out of resin seems like a better approach overall. Simple to do and would look and feel better overall.

The construction isn't very strong so people lost interest in the possibilities. We need better tech to go into them.

it's a meme good for lil trinkets

>recreate
Nobody uses 3D printers to recreate, except maybe /tg/ fags trying to make cheap fakes of their Autism figurines.
You can construct something in CAD, print it, dublicate it and cast it in resin, so your point doesn't make 3D printers irrelevant.

Most of the hype died down and we're left with a pretty good technology for rapid prototyping and getting stuff in plastic fast.

It's not meant for final products or for stuff you want to look particularly nice (although resin printing usually looks quite nice but the technology is still pretty expensive and has some rough corners).

They're very relevant in some industries, you just don't hear too much about it.
Resin printers are still improving, they're getting incredibly fast with amazing quality and there is still some room for improvement, those printers are just insanely expensive.
I work with them professionally and they're the comfiest fucking thing that ever happened in my job, right next to CNC machining becoming a common thing, pic very related.

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Ex machinistfag here.

Plastic 3d printing is used in industry predominantly for prototyping and small runs. It's still cheaper to make a mould for production, and you need an expensive printer to come close finish/accuracy wise.

As far as laser sintering and electron beam 3d printers, they are similarly used for small runs and prototypes, but may supplement traditional casting where the part has difficult geometry. Most 3d printed metal parts will still need finish machining on any critical dimensions.

They are fucking everywhere in industry you retard.

Thats a oxymoron.
One day it will suddenly be fast, cheap and sturdy. And that day you will go to your local shitstore, and ask for some part of doodad, and it will be printed while you zip really cheap store coffee.

Before that day comes, its mostly just really fragile plastic objects.
Inferior to injection mold plastics, which has been used to make LEGO since 1947. The current LEGO material became standard in 1963, which is ABS plastic.
LEGO is a golden standard of plastic, because its not cheapened upon unlike a lot of standard plastic. Meanwhile 3D printed stuff will most likely be brittle or weak for the next few decades.

>You can't print ABS
Can you at least try to pretend to know anything before you post?

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Did you read his post?

>The current LEGO material became standard in 1963, which is ABS plastic.
>LEGO is a golden standard of plastic, because its not cheapened upon unlike a lot of standard plastic.
>Meanwhile 3D printed stuff will most likely be brittle or weak for the next few decades.
I dunno, did you?

because investors milked it out and now cashed out their money into the current hype: AI

I enjoy when websites don't insult me by calling me "maker."

Why does every service need to talk up to me or use weird humour to appeal to me. I have money you have product plz stop being cute or funny.

what you talking about?

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Read again the part you just quoted. Hint: standard of plastic refers to precision.

I don't know where you are getting this, he's clearly referring to ABS.

I use my 3D printer as a hobby. Mostly for solving simple problems around my house. Using fusion 360 to build simple models.

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get the fuck out of here retard

> Mostly for solving simple problems around my house.
This is the best thing you can use a 3D printer for, there is really no other point than using it for hobbies and this.
I don't know what OP and some other people here expect 3D printers to do.
Learn to read.

Porsche uses it as a more cost effective method of producing low-demand spare parts for older cars.

I think it will definitely end up in the consumers hand eventually, but the price of a decent size and quality printer needs to come down first.

based clueless retard

Plenty of uses everyday

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Prices for decent printers are already low as fuck, they start at around 150-200$.
The reason consumers don't buy them is because they can't use them, there is absolutely no point for them to buy one, unless someone creates a shitty phone app that does all the work for you and even then the average consumer wouldn't know what to do with it.

I'm using them at work in the library. Kids are coming to print fortnite keychains and pokemon figures and some nintendo boomers come to print weeb stuff. We also have a hp sprout pro 3D scanner.

He is clearly talking about ABS and not about precission.
Printed ABS is still a pain in the ass to get right so you'll need an extremely expensive printer to achieve good prints.
Printing ABS yourself with a consumer grade printer is a waste of time and money.

without decent scanning tech that is still way too high. as you say, it will be used to print useless shit (until accurate scanning allows you to clone things in plastic).

I have a high precission scanner at work and I really don't know what I should scan and dublicate.
There still wouldn't be much of a point if scanneres were cheap and easily accessible, printing clones of objects isn't really something that is very attractive for the mainstream market, you're giving the average consumer too much credit.

well, i'd buy one. You're probably right about the average consumer but I think there's enough nerdy DIY enthusiasts to support such a market.
I have a pair of vintage headphones I'd love to print a new piece for so I could mount standard earpads to them (as an example).
I think if it ever reaches the mainstream its going to be something you use once in a blue moon (at least at first).

>extremely expensive printer
Most non-shit printers can print ABS just fine. It's a matter of having the right components: heated bed, decent hotend, enclosure, etc. Don't try to make it sound like 3D is extremely exotic or something. The hardest part is finding the right settings and not cheaping out. Most of the time spent is on designing objects to print if you're not a faggot who downloads everything from thingiverse.

It has been hushed up because there is real money in it and those who got in early don't want the party spoiled.

You would need to know how to paint them and that isn't as easy as it looks when your hands are sausages and your body shakes every time you breath.

IDK what you'd do with one. If I was still into 40k I'd print miniatures but that's far outside the normie world.

The engineers at my college have access to them and I guess they have real reasons for it even though the 3D printing lab seems like it's mainly to show off to the prospective students and their parents touring the place while papering over the decaying infrastructure. Also the pharmacists print out molecules because Reddit.

>I have a pair of vintage headphones I'd love to print a new piece for so I could mount standard earpads
I can already tell you that constructing them would be far less time consuming, you just need to get all your measures right, something like that is fairly easy.
Check out Tinkercad if you have zero experience with CAD software, that should be already sufficient for what you're trying to do.
I found pic related here thingiverse.com/thing:1995271
You could just change the model to fit your headphones.

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This.

>anime website

Spending hours to print and paint anime figures rather than work and pay for this labor intensive process done by Chinese slaves.

3D printers will be great once they become ubiquitous. I'm sure every home will have one. You'll be printing:

-tools (like, security torx screwdrives that nobody seems to own)
-replacement parts (hinges and shit)
-every little plastic thing you'd normally buy (funnels, kitty litter scoopers, disposable cups/utensils, etc)

It'll really streamline your life. You'll have basic stuff like this at your fingertips

You can already print all those things besides the tools like screwdrivers, which obviously need to be printed (metal printers exist but are far from consumer-friendly)
Maybe just buy one, you sound like you're already in the market.
>It'll really streamline your life. You'll have basic stuff like this at your fingertips
It really does exactly that for me, I love it.

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Because the ones that the general public can afford cant make anything cool like companies can

>You don't see them in the news anymore because they are no longer new.
this

/tg/ here, can we print warhams that look the same as the ones we get from Games workshop? Last I checked they looked like dogshit but that was a few years ago.

>implying

With a resin printer you can, filament printers aren't really good for that.
You can get really cheap ones for like 300$ now, the resin is just fairly expensive, but still a lot cheaper than what GW is asking.
Check out the Anycubic Photon, saw someone on the 3DPD thread on /diy/ use that one for tabletop minis, looks extremely good considering the low price.

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>HBR
>goose
>single SRM6

kys

I don't know anything about your Mecha shit, I just used a random picture you fucking Aspie.

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sweet reply fellow cool user

I hear about it quite often. Perhaps you should stop watching Marvel and start reading books and research papers.

I bought a shitty Chinese machine and it hasn’t been able to complete a full print yet

Different user here. I am not a weeb but I do know that some people really enjoy arts and crafts/creative projects/DIY stuff, so in many cases it is a labor of love and not all about money or time efficiency.

My dad uses it for neurosurgery
For aneurisms, it makes it easier to operate if you have seen it on 3D

I use them to make sand moulds which I then pour molten metal into.
Also if I need specific plastic parts for botanic purposes.
It just makes very specific tasks so much easier.

a good one costs $220

You can buy knock off figurines off AliExpress that would look better than what you could print and pain.

So Jow Forums is all about brand wars and consuming technology rather than using it to create or innovate, you won't see much about 3D printing here because it's full of zoomers who just play games all day.

Yes, Any engineer could have told you it was hyped to shit and cheap machines that can only print plastic parts aren't going to revolutionize shit. Some places like NASA came up with ones that print metal parts and new ideas, but the costs of that are astronomical and not that useful to the average company/person. Think about how a 3d printer could print out an insulated coil of wire needed for speakers, electric motors, etc. Even if it could make it, it would produce a jagged wire way worse than what's on the market.

Call me when they're capable of x-ray scanning and replicating the innards of something

go to /diy/
nobody here cares if you 3d print a trump shaped buttplug, to be honest.

>Any engineer could have told you it was hyped to shit
You obviously don't know a single engineer, I don't believe there is a single engineer who doesn't own a 3D printer in /currentyear/
>Some places like NASA came up with ones that print metal parts and new ideas, but the costs of that are astronomical and not that useful to the average company/person.
Bullshit, NASA didn't invent metal printers and I have been working with them professionally for years, printing steel is cheap as fuck compared to CNC machining.
>Think about how a 3d printer could print out an insulated coil of wire needed for speakers, electric motors, etc. Even if it could make it, it would produce a jagged wire way worse than what's on the market.
Why the fuck would you want to print coils when we have CNC bending machines?

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>media overhyped product therefore product is bad
3D printers revolutionized many industries.
You're just too dumb to configure it properly, that's hardly the printers fault.

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A buddy has one, we do all sorts of shit with it.
It's become somewhat normal for us so it's not as big a deal.