[dano414]

I believe every middle class home in the world will eventually have three printers; paper, plastic, and extruded metal. The things they will produce:

1. Toys 2. Parts 3. jewelry molds, then jewelry. 4. medical devices(print out a catheter in the middle of the night.) 5. Eventually, electronics. 6. Once metal printers become better, and lower priced the race will be on. We will read about the first mechanical watch printed on this site--then it will be the first radio? 7. Physibles will be a go to site?

[powera]

Who are these middle-class families that have such a need to manufacture their own jewelry and catheters? If you need a catheter, wouldn't you want to talk to a doctor first?

[dragonwriter]

> Who are these middle-class families that have such a need to manufacture their own jewelry and catheters? If you need a catheter, wouldn't you want to talk to a doctor first?

Doctors prescribe catheters, but, as I understand it, you typically get them, once prescribed, from a medical supply house. Print-at-home could be useful in certain situations.

And, of course, people don't need to go to a doctor for anything connected to jewelry.

> A printer good enough to print glass lenses would be useful for some areas of the developing world.

People in the developed world still wear glasses, too, and being able to replace damaged lenses at home would be convenient.

[anigbrowl]

Having once had a catheter installed, it's about the very last thing that I would want to have printed out - I really can't conceive of a worse example. In that situation I'd rather 3d print a bucket and wait for the higher-quality manufactured part to arrive.

[DanBC]

People who use catheters correctly under medical supervision can sometimes run out. Being able to print one seems like a useful function of a 3d printer.

Will printers ever be good enough to print contact lenses?

A printer good enough to print glass lenses would be useful for some areas of the developing world.

[slacka]

People here need to lay off the 3D printing kool aid. The examples of useful things that the Joneses are going to print at home is a joke. I've been working with 3D printers for over a decade now. They are good for 1 thing only.

PROTOTYPING

Even the $500K printers we have at work, can't compete with the quality of mass produced injection molded parts. And some of the ideas people are talking about like home printing medical devices, radios, and other electronics have been watching too much Star Trek.

Over the past 10 years, the printers have gotten better, but they are not following anything close to Moores Law in terms of speed, quality, and cost improvements. In 2 years, we are not going to have Star Trek replicators. In 40-100, maybe. Until that time comes, home 3D printers will only be making cheap plastic junk like figurines.

[bayesianhorse]

Not going to happen. Catheters are probably the worst thing to try and 3d-print.