Red Echo

January 30, 2013

Engadget has a list of all (or nearly all?) of the commercially-available 3D printers, with prices and notes on unique features.

I have a hard time mustering as much enthusiasm for 3D printers as the technology seems to deserve; I just don’t use plastic parts in my projects unless there’s no other material that will do the job. Maybe it’s a function of growing up in the early ’80s, but “plastic” suggests “cheap, disposable, trivial, wasteful”, and when I am trying to make something I care about I always prefer to use wood or metal or glass. People are excited about 3D printers, though, and that excitement seems to be drawing a broader world of hobbyist-level CNC tools along in its wake, so I’m glad to see the field developing even if I will likely never buy a 3D printer myself.

1 Comment

  1. Yeah, I have trouble mustering enthusiasm for these myself, though there does seem to be a trend of some libraries providing these for the public. I’m not sold yet, but it certainly is a possibility for the future I suppose.

    Comment by Dawn — January 30, 2013 @ 10:17 am