What will be (for amateurs) the real 1st killer application for home and/or professional

3D Printing
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What will be (for amateurs) the real 1st killer application for home and/or professional 3D printing services?

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That’s the million dollar question at this point to me. Unfortunately I don’t have an answer yet.

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IKEA replacement parts :wink:

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Is there already a major manufacturer which has a spare parts catalogue for 3D printing?

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I have a 36" wide Color Plotter that still works great, except the Print Head needs help. It is a High Resolution Printer/Plotter.
I don’t use the Plotter any more but I’m wondering if the Guts and Gears and/or Mother Board would be useable for creating a 3D Printer ?
It seems to me the only real difference is that this is Huge compared to most 3D Printers AND it uses “other materials” in place of Ink.

Has anyone converted a plotter into a 3D Printer ?
Anyone interested in purchasing mine ?
It’s a Calcomp TechJet Color 7550.

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@Jan_Wildeboer been there, done it :slight_smile:

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@Bjorn_Marl Doin it all the time. :wink:

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Indeed IKEA has a Shapeways shop :

Any other killer applications?

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I have a feeling that when the mainstream discovers some simple home craft uses that appeal to them such as Cricuts for scrapbookers, then people not typically inclined to tackle technology will give it a try. 3D printers cost more than a cricut or silhouette (in most cases) so either the activity needs to be more exciting or a printing service will solve the scale issue to bring the per-print cost down to get people really excited about this. :wink:

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I wonder when proteins will be added to usable mediums so food can be printed. I could totally go for some poutine…

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coming soon Kelly, but will this be a killer app?
http://inhabitat.com/paypal-co-founder-peter-thiel-invests-big-money-in-3d-printed-steaks/

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Thanks @Sculptor_Emiel just the Ikea parts I needed :slight_smile:

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@Sculptor_Emiel if you could make sure it is tasty, it would be in every kitchen.

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  • Kelly Enns : taste, look, effort and price will be key.
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The killer application (as in not software) for 3D printing will be complete home printing. Not just the house, also the furniture, art, tools, even clothes. Food would be interesting, but to me food needs to be natural to bring health into our body. Sure, use natural ingredients to make food, that will work. But not print steaks from God knows what chemicals. Kind of like Star Trek Replicator.

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Ok, but I’m wondereing what the killer app will be.
IKEA catalogue is nice and useful, but most of the home printers print plastic and it’s unlikely that all original steel parts can be replaced by plastic ones.

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Which amateurs? For a lot of us, nearly instant prototyping of mechanical components is already the killer app.

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I think toys are a great starting place; an example of simple designs at exorbitant prices.

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@Chris_Mowat_SnowTige It would certainly be an interesting challenge; You got me thinking about the old plotter my dad used to have (which has since been dumped) :frowning:

There’s far more to think about/consider than I can write here. Perhaps we could collaborate on it?

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@Sculptor_Emiel I looked at that Shapeways link and apparently they’re “NOT connected in any way to Inter IKEA systems B.V.” - would be amazing if there was an official IKEA shop though.