Nice information and such.
3D candy and food as well as metal in 3D.....

This is the one I have:

http://www.3dsystems.com/3d-printers...ineers-desktop

Martin

On 4/21/2015 9:19 AM, F. George McDuffee wrote:
On Mon, 20 Apr 2015 23:31:53 -0400, Ed Huntress
wrote:

if you study it carefully, you'll see that
it's creeping up on us from several directions.
=======================
Indeed! Making considerable inroads in the medical/dental
fields, and the traditional industrial casting industries.

Medical is more direct such as prothesis [artificial limbs],
Dental is indirect, i.e. wax molds for false teeth.

Considerable inroads in jewelry such as class rings through
computerization of the lost-wax model for casting.

Big application in the tradition casting industries is the
generation of the patterns. In the past manufacture of the
forms required considerable lead time and highly skilled
pattern makers.

Also increasingly used to make model/prototype, possibly in
several pieces. This is then used to make silicone rubber
mold for urethane castings. Very cost effective for short
runs.

If you are interested in industrial 3d see
http://tinyurl.com/lwu2kar
http://tinyurl.com/ly8s6dy
among many MOOC offerings

for home hobby see youtube for large number of how to
videos.

I am in the final stages of getting a small 3d printer
running. Looks like http://tinyurl.com/kk96hrb

FWIW: These are stand alone programs. and you don't need 3d
printer to try out.

Several FOSS programs for 3d cad available
http://tinyurl.com/avm82jf
http://tinyurl.com/olns8d5
There are many others


Also AutoDesk has free only-line app to generate 3d .stl
files. http://tinyurl.com/l8rwonj

One common control program for home/hobby 3d printers
(and the one I use)
http://tinyurl.com/k4jo8zp

Enjoy