[elmuchoprez]

When it comes to consumer-grade 3D printing, it seems like all the focus on developing a cheap machine and none of the focus is on figuring out something that people actually want to print.

So you can print a spoon and a bowl... great. But I actually already have one of those. If I ever have a need to print an endless supply of 1-inch square cubes, I guess 3D printing is just the ticket.

I'm not saying they need to be able to print out a Ferrari before I'm interested, but they need to be able to print something that is at least mildly useful or interesting.

[hugs]

My solution to the "what to print" problem is construction toys. (The current crop of consumer-grade printers are already good enough for this.) I'm creating an entire toy system ala Lego Technic that's meant to be printable. I call it "bitbeam". I'm spending this Summer doing customer development to figure out which kits to design.

[jfoutz]

FWIW, don't eat from 3d printed stuff. The extrusion process creates this wonderful internal maze for bacteria to thrive in.

A single use shot glass is probably ok. And, the ceramic prints you can get now are food grade. But any home made abs or pla will inevitably get you sick, because it can't be cleaned.

[venomsnake]

Throw it in a microwave. That is the way i sanitize my bamboo cutting boards when there are tiny traces of meat inside after tenderizing. If that bacteria have water molecules in them they will be dead. And if they don't - you may be sick but you will get nobel prize in biology anyway.

[jfoutz]

you can also dip stuff in acetone to smooth it and perhaps enamel it to really seal it up. I imagine there's a bunch of stuff you could do to improve the odds.

However, treating a 3d printed spoon like any old metal spoon adds risk.

[if_by_whisky]

Acetone baths don't really work with PLA. Though I've seen it get beautiful results with ABS.

[mikeash]

Is the heating really even enough for that to work? Just from my experience heating viscous soups and the like, I'd expect there to be some spots that never get all that hot, leaving lots of surviving bacteria.

[nwh]

Shapeways.com is probably the exception, their glazed 3D models are specifically designed to be eaten out of.

[kawsper]

What about the jewelry and accessories from http://www.shapeways.com/ ?

A necklace or ring that you have close to your body?

And are the metal ones also affected?

[jfoutz]

Shapeways stuff is much tighter, i think they're all actually watertight, you could likely make silverware out of the metal stuff.

Put it this way: quarters are filthy, but you don't eat off of them, so who cares?

[busyant]

why can't you wash the items with soap?

[Tloewald]

Eating soap that doesn't get rinsed off is pretty bad for you top.

[busyant]

This doesn't really make any sense.

If the soap can go in, it can get out. If the soap can go in, it's going to kill the overwhelming majority of the microbes ensconced in whatever matrix the 3d printer material is built from.

This is a non-issue.

Now, if you want to talk about 3d printer material being toxic and leaching out of the material into your digestive system, well...I don't know enough to have an informed opinion.

FWIW, I know a fair amount about microbial adhesion to abiotic surfaces and I've worked with several people who are experts on microbial sensitivity to detergents.

[jfoutz]

I would agree that it's possible 3d plastic stuff could be cleaned, but people are really bad at cleaning out simple plastic water bottles. The space inside a 3d printed object is far more complicated.

Seriously, just use a metal fork. It's cheaper, durable, trivial to clean.

How many hours of effort is it worth to reuse a plastic fork? Should I spend hundreds on an autoclave to keep the 30 cents worth of plastic clean? I hope you would agree that's a stupid waste of time and money.

Yeah, leached toxins from the plastic are bad as well. if i were forced to bet, i'd say bacteria will get you before plastic toxins, because proper cleaning would be hard.

[dspillett]

Once cheap 3D printer are capable of producing reasonable quality at decent resolution, I see table-top gamers being a key demographic (and despite the competition from online gaming there is still a lot of that going on). Not only will it eventually be cheaper than the over-priced models from some outlets, they'll be able to create truly customised armies. It'll annoy the hell out of Games Workshop and their ilk.