I Hate 3D Printing
richardberwick.com
richardberwick.com
Our author doesn't really "hate" 3D printing, he is setting up his pitch, by "hating" on aspects of 3D printing that make it poorly suited to mass market adoption, except he doesn't actually know why these things are hard, he writes as if someone gave him a laundry list of things that they didn't like about 3D printing and he's ready to pitch a "solution" which doesn't have those "bad things" associated with it.
Ok, so the problem with this pitch to a modestly sophisticated audience is that pretty much everyone who knows anything about 3D printing knows that the biggest problem facing 3D printing is not that it doesn't have a vending machine business model. Further, if someone walked up and proposed a vending machine model, a reasonably astute person would say this:
It takes 3 - 6 hours to 'print' any reasonably complex shape. Lets say you had a web api to Thingiverse[1] and you could say "print this on the vending machine down stairs." you would then have to wait several hours before you could get your part. If someone else got their first it may be all day, worse it might be that your part is in the queue and won't get printed until a week from Tuesday. Even worse, the chance of a good outcome is not good, I would doubt if it were better than 66%. Probably a 1 in 3 chance something about the print will go wrong and you'll come by in a week and your part is crap. And even if you have a "this is crap do it again" button, does the machine stop what its doing and spend the next 3 hrs printing you another? Even if this shifts the completion of the other things in its queue?
Basically unattended 3D printing is not possible at this stage. It will be at some point but for now it isn't. That means you have a shop somewhere and they have real people who start your print and make sure it comes out fine. They cost money, real money. If your scheme doesn't cover their salary then its not a scheme, its a dream.
3D printing is going to change the world, in a decade. That is how long it takes to change even a fraction of the pipeline of goods. Sure in various niche markets its changing them now, but printing kiosks? 10 maybe 20 years.
I understand the pain point though. If you look back you see all those people who wanted to use a computer for something in the 70's and they couldn't because they weren't engineers and didn't want to spend the time learning to program. It got a bit better (but very expensive) in the 80's and it wasn't until the 90's when people even considered owning two computers. These migrations are part time, part adaptation. It takes folks time for adapt the technology into their lifestyle. 3D printing is the same way. If you take the time to learn how to run one of these machines you can do your own 3D printing and it is hecka cool. You are donating your own time for 'free' into the cause with a bunch of other people who are interested. Custom printing labs, sort of like film labs of my youth, will no doubt spring up, do well during the pre-automation growth cycle, and then die out. 3D designers will become a sought after commodity, people who can use the tools to create excellent 3D shapes quickly that can be reliably printed. Hardware manufacturers will grow and evolve, standards will emerge, feature sets will be refined. New materials will be developed that are more suited to this style of construction. All of that is going to take time.
I wish our author luck but he's a bit early for this model.
Saying that, this seems like quite an interesting concept. If you could get the reliability and per-unit cost low enough then it could possibly gain traction. My only concern is that actually 3D printing is a fairly niche market - most of my friends and family have no desire to 3D print anything, and can't even conceive of wanting to. Given that the technology's not going to compete with mass production on cost any time in the next decade, the only people who I could see being interested in 3D printing are technical or artistic types - the kind of people who already like to make things. They're actually quite rare.
What is true is that one probably need to reactivate the Homo Faber in us, and the collection of pink or green uglies I have seen so far is not going to.
I can't imagine spending $80+ on a candy bar sized print, nor do I want to buy a machine and spend the time to learn to use it.
I don't believe that the vending machine is the end-all solution, but it does seem to be one of them.
What would you propose as another solution?
But your article makes it sound like the shortcomings of 3d printing exist because the people before you were idiots. That's clearly not the case.
If it's so bad, why don't you already have something better in production?
I assume the answer is that it's a hard problem, and you are still working on it. Just like everyone else. The difference is that they aren't writing posts about how terrible your current prototype (or whatever you have) is.
That being said, it's a really cool idea. But post title is obnoxious IMHO.
As far as the writing goes though, I never understand why people try to generate interest through negativity and deceit. I think the post would be more inspiring if it went something like:
"I love 3d printing. I love 3D printing so much that I'm coming up with innovative ways to make it cheaper and more ubiquitous. Please join me on my quest to bring 3D printing to everyone..."
It's more genuine, less condescending, and isn't a lie. After all, you don't hate 3D printing in the least, not one bit. You're in love with it and are dedicating a portion of your life to making it better.
I've posted with titles/descriptions such as these on other forums, and have seen virtually no response, but it could be that I didn't write a decent article.
My next post will have a few of the technical details about what we're up to, and will definitely have a more positive/fitting title.
That being said, I wanted to read the about hating 3d printers because I bought one for my family - and less than an hour in, with a collection of pre-rendered freshly printed objects in front of us, my wife (an artist and science geek) says "I'm going to make so many things..." (She's excited by the possibilties)
Your service is interesting, but your method of advertising is disingenuous
If you don't feel like adding value, please don't do anything at all and curl up somewhere, disconnected from all things internet.
It would be cool to see this "Vending Machine" be side-by-side with Bufferbox. A one-stop-shop for one day delivery/printing would be incredible, as long as it's easily accessible, and secure! Privacy might also be an issue; it might be good marketing to show the parts being printed, but customers might want their stuff printed privately.
Like one of my friends says, "3D printing is great ... for bathtub toys," where you don't need structural strength or fit and finish.
The more I learn about 3D printing with plastics, the less wonderful it is to me. I really don't understand what the above posts are griping about.
Mentally, I've made a note to only use 3D printing for molds at this point.