Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ChuckMcM | Hacker News Reader

Nice article, the bit about casting is pretty spot on. If you want to make a number of things currently casting is a lot more efficient. Which is not to say you can't 3D print an exemplar, use that to make a mold, and then cast copies, very doable, But just that then you're making parts with casting resin not 3D printing.

I really like my Replicator but have yet to do anything significant with it (which makes me sad, so many projects so little time).

I can say this though as more of this stuff gets going (see the article I submitted on printing in metal (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5220032)) the difference between the RepRap and the Cupcake printer, the Cupcake and the Replicator, things are progressing along nicely. People joked about my my 2K of RAM in my Digital Group z80 system but 10 years after that point in time enterprise business was using PC's in their day to day operations.

Guess I'm mostly saying "Patience, its coming along nicely."

That's true to some extent, although it's useful to keep two things in mind:

1) The improvements in the output of FDM printers is in good part due to switching to lower-strength materials (e.g., ABS -> PLA). It's great news if you want to make casting molds - but not so great if you want to directly fabricate durable parts.

2) There is no gradual progression from the familiar FDM extruders to SLS, SLA, and similar technologies that produce high-accuracy parts or can work in metals. These technologies are inherently messy and have other surprising trade-offs, and are suited chiefly for very dedicated hobbyists and for quasi-industrial applications.

1) Not true. The resolution and printed parts in ABS and PLA are essentially identical. The only reason you see a switch from ABS is that PLA doesn't require a heated build bed and companies like Makerbot are trying to simplify things to make them cheaper and more plug and play for mom and pop.

2) Why does there need to be a progression from FDM to SLS and SLA? The progression is there on the software side with things like slicing, 3d modeling, etc. There isn't a progression from inkjet to laser printers, but that didn't stop anything.

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