3-D Printing

[Fox_DL]

I would just like to let everyone know that my goal is to make figures as cheap as possible.

Every year, an MMO publisher here holds an event and fans can set up their booths. The publisher allows the sale of fan-made merchandise without any additional license fees. I think setting up booth is also free and only come with a first come first served basis. Most of the merchandise sold are pins and t-shirts soI would like to open an avenue for my friends (who happen to be artists as well) to create 3D plastic models they can sell.

The next step would be advertising to others that I have that kind of machine and charge them for services.

So here goes, I've come across an article about 3D printing and saw its potential. My knowledge so far is that 3D printers are used for prototyping and once you're satisfied, you send the plans to a toy customizer and they'll do the finished product.

Can "off the shelf" 3D printers already do that? All the pictures I can find show that the item printed only comes in a single color. It would be nice if a 3D printer can already print objects with multiple colors.

[Luch]

Color 3D printers exist but no idea how many of those are affordable by a normal consumer. Like this one, not yet released, costs $3000+.

Also the quality of the print may not be very good (layers are visible) and normally each part of a pvc figure is painted separately as colored plastic looks different than painted plastic. (How pvc figures are made)

[Fox_DL]

I read about the factory tour in China and it was a great read! And that's right, most of the YT videos show the layers to be very visible.. Right after I posted the topic, I somehow thought that if I was to make a 3D object, I would make the parts separately and hope that the joints fit.. have everything in white and just paint over them..

I just wonder if the plastic can be made as smooth as commercially made products. Anyways, it looks like the technology needs to be developed further..

[CaptainBigButt]

There's actually a lot of other stuff being done thanks to similar technology from 3d printing. I couldn't think of anything unique to do my science project on, so I went with 3d printing. Turns out scientists have been taking advantage of the technology for custom made prosthetic limbs and such as well. Not only that but they've been using it to make artificial custom grown organs as well since organ donors are so limited. It's pretty different but it's awesome to see what they've been able to do with it as well.