On Wed, 25 May 2016 17:34:31 -0700, Don Y
wrote:

On 5/25/2016 4:49 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Somewhere in this NG there was a discussion on the maturity of 3-D
printing - but I can't find it.

To cut to the chase: The Economist mag had an article on it fairly
recently:
http://www.economist.com/news/scienc...-printed-smile

The problem with most is the cost of the "ink". I thought of "printing"
some replacement casters for our refrigerator but it would have been way
too costly (for something so "generic") and hard to get the smoothness
that an injection molded part could afford.

OTOH, if you're going to be someplace where raw materials are hard to
come by and/or stock (e.g., ISS), then being able to use one feed stock
for a wide variety of products can be a HUGE win!

Sometimes you need to consider the 3d printed part more as a casting
than a finished part - some minor finish machining necessary.