Questions about 3D printing Survey

User Rosalei on Thingiverse asked me to fill out a survey and per my usual I wanted to post it and my answers here. After some initial questions about my demographic and a strange one about what I do for a living (hint, asking about profession in a survey about 3D printing will give you almost no useful information) the real questions started:

Questions about 3D Printing: But can it print a 3D printer?

Whenever anyone says "3D printers can make anything" there is an immediate response from the uninitiated: Oh, so can it print a 3D printer?

It's difficult not to go straight into eye-roll mode whenever this is asked. Mostly because if someone is asking it it shows that they know nothing about 3D printing. But then I remember that there are likely 10,000 people learning about 3D printing for the first time today and I realize I need check myself and answer the question.

The short answer is RepRap. The long answer is, yes and no. No you can not press a "3D printer" button on your 3D printer and get a second, slightly smaller 3D printer. However 3D printers can print their own parts, my own makerbot has printed several upgrades for itself, and parts that can be used to, yes, make another 3D printer. But not all of the parts of a 3D printer are 3D printable. Specifically the electronics and stepper motors. There have been projects to make a 3D printer that prints circuit boards in solder, but so far none of them have been really successful, and even then there's the electrical components that would need to be added to the board diagram that could not be printed. Is it possible that these things could be printed one day? Sure, it's possible. But for now the best we have is RepRaps claim that a RepRap can make about 50% of it's own parts.

Now to be fair the initial assertion that a 3D printer can make anything is silly and wrong. There is no end of things a 3D printer can make, but there are limits to what it can make. Those limits are being pushed every day, but there's no way for a fully functional 3D printer to pop from the build surface of another 3D printer yet.

So there's your dose of reality. Now that your expectations have been properly trimmed go explore what 3D printers can do and be amazed.

Questions about 3D printing 3

Todays questions are from Jarkko from the University of Tampere in Finland who says:

Our aim is to find out how new technologies in 3D printing, CAD software and design processes are changing and how the new "open design generation" differs with traditional desing practices.

1. What is your education level? For how long have you been involved in 3D printing area (as user or developer)? For how long have you been involved in product design in private or open community?

Nearly finished with a Master's Degree. I've been involved in 3D printing for a year as a designer, and 8 months as a user.

2. Could you please describe in detail your design process (with pictures or words)?

It depends on what I'm designing, but for the creative stuff my design process starts with a sketch, working out the rough details. Then I begin modeling in 3D where the details are filled out. Then I print and redesign, then print again. The wonderful thing about 3D printing is you never have to stop designing as long as you're willing to print.

3. What components, tools and applications does your design process include?

Blender. Blender and paper. I use a design process that my grandfather used to use called "Eyeball Engineering" updated for the digital age.

4. What is your starting point for the product design (do you start from the scratch or do you continue the work of somebody else)?

Depends on where the inspiration came from. I have a lot of things that are derived from other people's ideas. I have some things that came straight from me. It's clear to me that the more successful ideas are the more original ones, but sometimes that's not where the ideas come from.

5. What other parties or interfaces (colleagues, local communities, services provided by companies) are involved in the design process? 

6. What are the sources for your inspirations?

That is an interesting question. I suppose in some ways every one in my life around me is involved in the design process and provides inspiration. Designwise, others around me are pretty much only involved peripherally. For the most part I work on my own.

7. What are the benefits and drawbacks of derived (open source driven design) design process?

Being able to take something apart, even digitally, and see how it works, benefits everyone I think.

8. In a typical case, do you design a product for yourself or do you have a specific customer or need in your mind?

Typically I design for myself and I hope that there are others like me out there somewhere.

9. What motivates you to work in open design community?

I don't really know except to say that doing so feels "right". But it's a challenge. It's tough to, for instance, think of making a business when you're being open since being open invites being stolen from. Not a big deal unless there's money involved, in which case it becomes a huge deal. Can openness work in the "real" world? I don't know, but I hope so.

More questions about 3D printing

Questions about 3D printing 2 - FAQs

These questions are more frequently asked, so they're a good place to start. They come from Taylor on Reddit. Most of them can be pretty easy to answer with minimal research, but so I have a place to point people to in the future here we go:

Questions about 3D printing 1

I've gotten a number of inquiries about 3D printing from all over, as I suspect many people in the 3D printing community have. So in the interest of helping others who may have similar questions when I get permission I'm going to re-post the questions and answers here as they come.

Today's questions come from Sina who writes:

My name is Sina and I am a Master student at the University of Paderborn in Germany. At the moment I am working on a project in the field of innovation management targeting 3D home printing.