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Comment by AlexMuir | Hacker News Reader

I've been calling overbuzz on 3D printing from the outset, and this story does nothing to dispel that. These mostly aren't practical things - they're just tat. And guess what? You can make tat a lot more cheaply, quickly and creatively than with some complex device, custom raw ingredients and a load of faffing around.

A 3D printed clock? Fuck off. It's just a clock mechanism attached to a disc of 3D printed plastic - you can attach a clock mechanism to anything and make a clock. Can the mechanism be printed? No, can it bollocks.

I think there are amazing industrial uses for these things, but there are very, very few items which are made from a single colour of a single plastic. I can't remember the last time I needed a replacement part for something and it was just a monoblock plastic piece.

Edit: The submission's title has just been changed from "Ten Practical things to make with a 3D printer"

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I can't remember the last time I needed a replacement part for something and it was just a monoblock plastic piece.

As the father of two young boys, I could make a full-time job of printing replacement plastic pieces for broken toys.

...full-time job...

In a way that's my point - it's probably a 5 hour job to print a replacement plastic peg for some toy. 5 hours is $100 for anyone who can afford a 3D printer. Plus the printer's cost. Financially it makes no sense. As a hobby... brilliant and probably hugely rewarding, but the 3D printing lobby would have you believe we'll all have one and nothing will be landfilled any more.

It might take 5 hrs to print it, but do you stand there and watch it the whole time? Plus there are several items I've printed that I could have obtained in no other way.

So 3D printers are great for me, and now I'm on the verge of it being viable to buy rather than outsourcing the printing.

It doesn't make sense to fold in the owner's time when the machine is printing on its own. The real cross over point is when it takes less time to find the part online (not trivial) and get the printer started than it does to drive to the store and find it (if it exists). Then, the cost of the owner's time cancels out.

If you live outside a major urban zone, this driving and finding time can be substantial.

So do you think you'll feel this way in a year? 2 years? 5 years?

Your comment has a couple constructive points. Why the vitriol? It doesn't help the discussion, and it's really not appropriate on HN.

There actually are 3d printed clock mechanism. Search 3D printed clock mechanism MIT media lab. I saw one there a couple of years ago while visiting a friend there.

just yesterday I wanted to repair my phone but I needed a prying tool to pry some parts off of the chip. I could've just printed something like http://daydealx-com.s3.amazonaws.com/files/images6/prytool.j...

A week ago, something broke in the toilet (the refill valve I think it's called... a long plastic tube that refills the tank after a flush). I could've just printed a new one.

I also needed a screwdriver recently, and since domestic 3D printers will eventually be able to print metal just as easily as they can print plastics, I will be able to just print one.

And these are just recent examples off the top of my head...

If you want to shape metal, you need a real cnc machine. "Printed" metal simply cannot have the right internal crystalline structure for a lot of tasks.

Do you have a citation on that? That you cannot print metal? What about all the mentions of being able to print metals using various techniques on Wikipedia [1]?

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing#Additive_processes

You can indeed print metal using SLS methods, but it uses a powder. The weakness is in the binding agent...

Careful there...GE recently bought a company that is "printing" metal jet engine parts:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2012/11/additive-m...

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