{"id":1222,"date":"2015-08-06T06:19:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T12:19:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fallows.ca\/wp\/uncategorized\/3d-printer-what-will-you-do-with-it\/"},"modified":"2016-12-13T20:01:43","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T20:01:43","slug":"3d-printer-what-will-you-do-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fallows.ca\/wp\/tools\/3d-printer\/3d-printer-what-will-you-do-with-it\/","title":{"rendered":"3D printer – What will you do with it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This question just might signal a paradigm shift. It certainly has in the past. We humans learn by thinking and doing, usually together. What will you do with your 3D printer?<\/p>\n

When I built my first computer forty years ago, the first question my friends asked was \u201cwhat will you do with it?\u201d When I got my first high-speed internet connection twenty years ago, the first question my friends asked was \u201cwhat will you do with it?\u201d When built my first 3D printer this year, the first question my friends asked was\u2026 you guessed it. (Sadly, the second question they ask now is \u201ccan you print a gun?\u201d)<\/p>\n

Another commonality is the time elapsed between the arrival of these\u00a0technologies and when they went mainstream. The foundations of modern computers \u2013 ENIAC, Von Neumann architecture – were invented 30 years before the home computer went mainstream. The Internet\u2019s foundations – packet switching, APRANET – were invented 30 years before the Internet went mainstream. The precursor of the 3D printer – Rapid Prototyping – came to the industrial market 30 years before\u00a0the\u00a03D printer went mainstream. Incidentally, that that was the same year the \u201creplicator\u201d appeared in Star Trek: The Next Generation.<\/p>\n

\"3D<\/a><\/p>\n

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Using a consumer 3D printer in 2015 is very much like the breakout years of personal computing and the World Wide Web. It\u2019s a combination of of some consumer products (like Apple II, Netscape Navigator, and MakerBot) and a ton of community experimentation (like S-100 bus, hypertext, and a Rep-Rap open source 3D printer). These technology products became platforms for change with a few early killer applications – VisiCalc, World Wide Web, and Thingiverse<\/a> \u2013 to demonstrate their usefulness. But equally important, they attracted enthusiastic hobbyists who wanted to learn, and in more than a few cases, to invent new\u00a0products.<\/p>\n

3D Printer Expectations<\/h2>\n

I took the \u201centhusiastic hobbyist\u201d approach. Having worked through a couple of previous paradigm shifts, I had reasonable expectations about what I would do with my first 3D printer. Mainly three things, two of which were about learning.<\/p>\n