OT: 3-D Printed Castle

[Bullwinkle58]

http://www.startribune.com/local/east/273410261.html

Another story about the rapid advance of the technology that will define the 21st C. A MN engineer built a 3-D printer large enough to print a castle in his yard (story has a pic.) He is now planning to print a complete house.

I keep telling my stepdaughter to invest in some companies in this area. It will be the PC boom/Internet of her generation in investing terms.

[geofflambert]

I plan to patent the digits zero and one. The entire tech sector will be my slaves.

[Yaab]

Can this thing print Zeros, Franks, Nicks?

[rustysi]

Cool.

[dr.hal]

My very own castle is now within reach!

[geofflambert]

I need a 3-D printer that does useful things with poop.

[LeeChard]

No garden?

[crsutton]

Many companies are way ahead of this point by now. The Chinese are already building functional 3D homes and some of the buildings in the design phase are really very sophisticated. Pretty amazing stuff.

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: crsutton

Many companies are way ahead of this point by now. The Chinese are already building functional 3D homes and some of the buildings in the design phase are really very sophisticated. Pretty amazing stuff.

This photo is different than what the guy in the OP is talking about. He's not talking about making sections and assembling. He's talking about making a house layer by layer, in one piece, with multiple passes of the printer. That's how he made the castle. It wasn't assembled.

[Lokasenna]

And some guy printed out a car...

[Bullwinkle58]

ORIGINAL: Lokasenna

And some guy printed out a car...

A statute no doubt, but bodies and body parts are being researched. I think some smaller body parts are being mass-produced to order already.

[Schanilec]

Saw that this morning. Engineering and construction are moving closer together.

[Schanilec]

Saw that this morning. Engineering and construction are moving closer together.

[Bullwinkle58]

I probably should have posted the photo. I think some people are picturing something on a tabletop.

[Bullwinkle58]

Here it is. Don't know if the Strib lets people in who don't register.

[Lokasenna]

That plastic is pretty durable, too. Impossible to fix parts if you screw them up while printing.

The car that I mentioned was obviously not street legal. Something about the body construction, or something. Also, the guy built the printer specifically for the car. Huge undertaking, but obviously he had a lot of time/money on his hands. And very cool.

[Bullwinkle58]

The castle is concrete. I've only ever heard of 3-D printing with plastic. I understand some experiments have been done too with organic material. Someday they'll print new hearts and kidneys.

And steak.

[wdolson]

When I was at Boeing during the 777 project they were using a 3D printer then to print up test parts in plastic. This was the early 90s. It probably required a mainframe to run and the printer cost a fortune.

3D printers are on an arc similar to video tape. video recorders were used in the TV industry from the 1960s on, but they became affordable to consumers in the late 1970s and took off. 3D printers are in a similar arc. They will become ubiquitous at some point.

I'm not sure they will replace all traditional industry though. They might streamline some labor intensive processes, but traditional industry will probably still be cheaper for a lot of things. They do hold promise for creating new organs and such. There have been some experiments that show a lot of promise. I suppose we will probably have food printed from some kind of generic food paste at some point, but I doubt it will do more than penetrate the bottom of the market.

As a plastic model builder, I see a lot of potential for make your own after market parts. Photo etch technologies developed for the integrated circuit industry made their way into the plastic model market and now there are some quite large companies offering a wide range of metal photo etch add on parts. There are a lot of resin aftermarket parts available too, but 3D printing will likely push out resin in the long run.

Bill

[btd64]

I could print out an M1 Abrams. for self defense of course.[;)]....GP

[wdolson]

Good luck getting your hands on the uranium powder to make the armor. If Homeland Security comes to visit, I don't know you...

Bill