Rapid prototyping for the home

[unixronin]

The NY Times carries an article about Desktop Factory, which will begin selling a rapid-prototyping appliance — a 3D printer, effectively — for just under $5,000 this year.  IdeaLab, Desktop Factory's parent, expects the price to drop to $1000 by about four years from now.  Next time a plastic part for something breaks, you may be able to fabricate a replacement part yourself — and maybe even improve on the original design.

Comments

[luke-jaywalker.livejournal.com]

This has the potential for extreme awesomeness. I'm not an engineer, but this makes me want to learn, at least enough to use one of these.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'm thinking I may need to get a solid-modeling package ....

(I wish I could cheaply get my hands on a copy of Solidworks.)