Printing *Products* on the Desktop: How Close is It?

Back in June of 2005, I wrote my first 3D printing post featuring ZCorp, and I’ve been keeping half an eye peeled for desktop extrusion or 3D printing technology, or even big humongous machines that a service bureau could buy (like a Heidelberg printing press), one that would enable the uploading of designs over the internet and have them ‘printed’ like a newsletter or other printed materials.

It was curious how there were two posts today on O’Reilly Radar blog (The Desktop 3D Printer and 3D Printers Now As Cheap as Laser Printers Were In 1985) that talked about desktop 3D printing and how it was now cheaper than the first laser printers were in 1985 at the beginning of the Desktop Publishing revolution.

Though I still want a Replicator like on Star Trek, this desktop 3D printing will have to do for now.

Inspiration came from the Ponoko blog and this post about how these devices have fallen in price. A comment on one of the O’Reilly blogs led me to another blog dedicated to fabrication and 3D printing on the desktop called Fabbaloo. Lastly, I felt compelled to do a quick Google search for videos of 3D printing and found this one by the aforementioned ZCorp, and thought you’d like to see it since it gets the concept across pretty quickly.