I’d argue that 3D printers will indeed be a staple in kitchens someday; in fact, we’re getting closer to that reality. Imagine a scaled-down version of something like the X1C - a compact “X1 mini” built specifically for household use. This closed system could be designed with a household-only mode, giving access to MakerWorld for pre-approved, tested files. In this vision, anyone, even Grandma, could simply say, “Printer, make me some chip clips,” or “Printer, I need a new 4-inch flower pot,” and the printer would find the file, check material levels, and start printing with ease. This hypothetical “X1 Mini” would be fully enclosed, shielding prints from drafts that could affect print quality and ensuring safety by keeping curious hands out of the print area. Limited to a single material, like PLA, this design would be intuitive and easy to maintain, even automatically ordering filament as needed and guiding users with voice commands. Imagine saying, “Printer, I need a new phone stand,” and it does the rest - from sourcing the file to confirming material levels - making 3D printing as straightforward as toasting bread. These types of small household printers could also drive interest in the open printer market. For example, Grandpa might eventually find the limitations of a simple household printer lead him to explore open systems that offer broader material choices or larger build volumes. The same goes for kids who start with an accessible, user-friendly printer and later crave more freedom for creative projects. By introducing an accessible, entry-level printer, these closed systems can spark a journey into larger, more advanced setups for those seeking more customization and control. With a few key advancements, a 3D printer could easily become a household appliance that anyone can use, bridging the gap between complex technology and day-to-day convenience. It’s a vision that could change the way we think about creating and repairing items at home. PS: I’m available for consultations to any company that wants to bring this idea to life! 😎
I'm willing to bet that they'll more end up as the "Instant Pot" of household for on demand parts, wtih significant help from an Ai interface with a repository of vetted models and methods for part generation for households with a robust preview function prior to start. Can add them to the home appliance list for repairs and such too eventually.
You speak like a typical human. For the printer, the word "new" (like "new pot") has no meaning (it will always be new); unless the Grandma already printed a 4 inch pot before, but she did not like it.
@@michaels3003 To achieve mass adoption, systems must be designed to work seamlessly with “typical human” behavior. The system can enhance this by predicting user preferences-asking, for example, if they were satisfied with the previous print at the time of printing. Based on their response, the system could then either suggest alternative options or proceed with reprinting the previously chosen version, ensuring a more intuitive and user-centered experience.
I think think once CAD becomes more well known and/or easier to learn, 3d printing will become vastly more popular. Another step would be people sharing CAD files rather than just object files, this would make it easier to modify/improve designs. A printer in every house I don't think so, but a printer in every street as a cottage industry, I think is the way it will go. Filament goes 'stale' and people don't need a new plastic thing every day, so because the demand is not there it still will be a specialist field. Bed adhesion issue? bad Z calibration? blocked hot end? End users are not going to want to deal with those issues.
You know when you run your slicer, and it feed back's all sorts of metrics, including price of print? And you know how most cad software has a feedback in a corner somewhere for XYZ? Right underneath those numbers, I'd like my CAD to have a field that gives me a realtime price estimate from Slant 3d for what I'm working on :-)
I do think 3D printers have a place in every workshop, by the bandsaw. If someone has a garage is making stuff, a 3D printer is always useful, as additive manufacturing answers so many needs. It may not wind up in the kitchen, but if someone is buying tools and making stuff at home, it has a place by the spray can cabinet and other items.
These are things i wish we had in 3d printing: 1. People designing their parts so they can print without supports/lifting 2. Printers having automatic first layer height calibration 3. Camera on the print head to monitor layer height/squish and make adjustments to speed/flow rate if necessary 4. Auto supports in slicing software for print stability issues and overhangs printing in mid-air. This would simplify 3d peinting and make it easier to print at scale as well.
Simply 3D printing requires people to learn, and majority of people are not willing to learn new things. Therefore only the curious 3% will be the ones 3D printing
Mental laziness is the deciding factor of most products. If microwaves required tinkering the average person would still be using an oven daily. But once 3d printing is consumer dumbed down I'm afraid it will just become stale. The microwave hasn't changed much in almost 30 years. And the 20 before that were huge leaps each year making it easy and efficient for everyone. So barriers are incentive to people who enjoy them to make things easier but once overcome creativity stalls.
@@jaeichinger I would argue that we have gotten there. A few years back I bought an Ender 3 and had a horrible experience with it. I spent weeks adjusting my settings, modifying firmware, buying and installing upgrades, but never got it to print at a quality I was happy with, and would never get it to work on the first print. Thinking that this was because I cheaped out, I bought the ender 3's big brother, and went through that whole song and dance again, without any better results. I'm pretty sure my issues were with environment temperature and moisture, but I had already spent so much money to try and get 3d printing to work (close to a grand at that point) that I gave up. But then I bought the Bamboo X1C + AMS. Literally zero setup outside of removing the AMS from the printer and hooking it up. After it calibrated itself, I was able to get an insanely clean benchy print for my first print. I have only had the printer a week, but have had 15+ perfect prints from their app, and that's without even using a slicer, just clicking the "print now" button on their app. I was one of the people willing to learn, and was ready for the printer itself to be a project. But since my problems were environmental, and because those are the least discussed problems on forums and things, I ended up spending a lot of time and money on tweaking and upgrading my cheap printer, and ultimately didn't get it to work. Now that I have zero-effort prints, I'm really excited about getting back into the hobby. I've got CAD experience and a ton of QoL parts and repair parts I want to design/print. I think what needs to happen now is for a machine as capable as the X1C just needs to be cheaper for 3D printing to go mainstream
When I saw "Bambu" and "AI", I was hoping to read that they would use AI to inspect a 3D print and then adjust slicer settings to address any issues by changing cooling, print speed, etc. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to when someone will do this?
It is way too early to make a meaningful guess. Five to ten year guesses are always popular (because there are five fingers on each hand), but they are meaningless (the same guess is repeated every year or two).
People discovered in 2017 that 3D printing is never going to become mainstream, people don't want to make stuff, they want to buy stuff. Most people can buy things cheap and easy from Amazon with 1 day/same day delivery. People in higher scale manufacturing have better processes for almost everything that are significantly better than print farms. Some materials like acetal are fantastic to machine and a nightmare to 3D print. We explored moving several of our parts and assemblies to 3D printing before we moved to casting (in china) and now we've moved back to machining/welding in house now that we have a CNC mill, lathe, laser and robot welder. 3D printing is good for low qty runs, specialty/prototype parts or legacy parts.
I have a bandsaw so for me the 3d printer is something nice to have additionally.. I suspect some of these sells come from companies also buying the cheap printers as they are pretty much on a good level already. Ohh what do you think will Ultimaker be able todo with there new FAB wahtever printer?
I'm always a little suspicion of year-over-year percentages. At one point the local government was losing its mind over a "400% increase in armed robberies" and trying to decide what to do about this heinous crime wave. But if you looked at the actual numbers, we'd gone from a record low of only 1 armed robbery the year before to a more typical 4 in the current year. 4/1 * 100 = 400%. Still, Bambu's 330% increase is on top of some substantial numbers of actual units shipped the year before and includes a serious gain in market share, so this is indeed a serious and remarkable increase. And I suspect, without real numbers behind my feeling, that a lot of Bambu's market was taken from Prusa. Four years ago Creality was the "it only mostly works but it's cheap" option, and Prusa was the "it costs more but it's reliable and you won't want to light it on fire after a month." Bambu has done an excellent job of claiming that second niche. I do wonder how long until they hit saturation, though. I *have* my Bambu printer. I don't need two machines. And as you say, it's a tool for hobby builders, not an appliance for day to day life. There will always be some churn from the people who bought a Creality because it was cheap and now realise they should have bought a better printer in the first place, and there will always be some new people entering the hobby, but I think right now Bambu is still mostly selling to folks like myself - people who got into 3d printing as a hobby back when there wasn't any choice but a printer that you had to fiddle with, and have happily upgraded. That can't last forever.
@@michaels3003 That's pretty rude, to assume I wouldn't believe you. I don't pretend to have all the knowledge everywhere, and "percentage increase" is one of those things I had to go back to my textbook to remember how to calculate. Normally I'd thank you for the clarification, but since you've already decided I'm an asshole, I guess I won't.
@davydatwood3158 , sorry about that. It is the ratio minus 100. E.g., double means 100% increase. A lot of people do not believe information that can be easily obtained from Google. Maybe you are different.
ive 3d printed for years ive never found a useful print i didnt throw away or was ugly looking only recently with filament getting nicer for a lwo price and good printers and software ive been able t omake money of a niche i found but im not even geting consistent sales anymore
The main problem with model dev. that I can see, is that tech such as AI scares the bejezuss out of anyone who is currently working in model dev. They don't care about people who want to model in the future. They want to protect their current expertise. You see this in discussion boards all over the place. And that can be a barrier to folks making the tools that allow people to make these models. If they dump in AI too quickly, the trad market decides that they might drop that tool. Read a funny comment on a Blender vid, where it was disclosed that Blender already uses AI to denoise images (blender has a pretty militant and noisy anti-ai group). This comment announced that they were so pissed off that they were going to switch to Maya. I had to point out that Autodesk is pretty much neck deep in AI. I like the idea of 'guided cad' but I think it will need someone to disrupt the CAD software market. An not Autodesk, cause those buggers will just screw people.
I'm still working out my Etsy store, but recently I uploaded a model to your prototyping app to get a costing on the production. I wanted to get the product under $20 to produce, so I scaled it down in the slicer, and re-uploaded it. Gee it would have been nice to do an edit and get feedback like this within the cad software :-)
curious but since trump wants to apply a ton of tariffs that will limit plastics from coming into the states.... i suspect if that happens print farms would have a totally new validity because getting products in the states will become alot more expensive.
This would reduce the demand, not limit the supply. With less competition on price, U.S. made filament could become more expensive. Tariffs are a bad idea.
@@michaels3003 the world's supply of pla is made in the USA and the us has a lot of oil reserves for other plastic productions.. the factories just need to be built.
I agree that 3d printers won’t be in kitchens. Too much space involved. But I sure see them in craft rooms right alongside Cricuts and scrapbooking and sewing stuff. And especially in home shops or man-caves to make stuff for the home, “instead of getting it online” For that, I think the enclosed machines will be better as less dust concern that way in a wood shop. For me though, my Bambu printer will stay down stairs where it is easy to iterate from my PC to it. Love that Bambu has made the paradigm shift like Apple did w phones!
I love how espressomachines are mainstream to have embedded in your cupboard, but not 3D-printer 👀 Ppl would rather build a garage with a hydroulic jack, or a pub in their backyard rather than invest time in a 3D-printer 😆
I've been trying to 'prod' open source software to build into their packages, open source slicer software, to speed dev of parts (such a pain to have to swap between programs when building something) But what I'd really like to see is software that looks at what I'm building and feeds back how that object will react during the print process... I design an object and the cad software that I'm using tells me that I can't put in that feature cause it is overhanging. I mod the feature and the program feeds back 'ok, now it will print, but it is a such an angle that the printer will run slowly and spin it's fan at full speed'. So I do a bit more modifying, and the program announces that 'yep that will print, and it will print at speed'. Great thinks I, so I move to somewhere else on the model and after an hour of work, the program tells me that it will print, but you've broken the model somewhere that you have built previously, and most importantly, it shows me where it is broken. I don't want to 'paint' seams in the slicer, I want to place seams exactly where I want them while modelling. I want granular control over layer height. I want to 'push' the limits of object contact with the build plate and have the program announce when I 've exceeded those limits. It's not like you guys even need to build such a thing. Sponsor some Uni students to create a 3d printing AI, and pour all of you're expertise into this AI, and then bolt it into some open source software where you don't need to worry about building the entire app.
I really appreciate and like your show. I tried to go to your website and wanted to contact you about what all post processing you offer with your print services but the email address didn't match the website and so I didn't feel comfortable emailing you until I could make sure that's how it actually is. Thank you have a great day...
3d printing is very slow compared to conventional industrial processes. Its I feel on a similar level to EDM wire/sinkers, meaning they can do a very specific work you can not make otherwise, but its not great for general work.
For 3d to be more (mostly consumer but also helpful for business) mainstream: take the user as a part of the process as far out of the equation as possible. They of course have to input the model and feed it material to make the model, but after that, they human should be largely taken out of the equation. That means build plates that confidently hold prints during printing and releases them afterwards without having to apply sticky stuff or having to pry the print from the plate regardless of material. Ideally, the printer and/or software will minimize any support removal needs (will never be eliminated entirely). The material needs to be affordable, available, easy to use (e.g. external dry boxes/dehydrators need to not be a thing, even for nylons), and non-toxic to the environment the printer is in (no one like having to run venting nor worry about nasty chemicals; occasional changing of filters should be the limit). Speed, of course, without sacrificing quality is always a given. And the printer needs to be affordable (current Bambu level seems to be the limit for consumers at present). And, as you say, better and easier modeling and scanning tools. People are busy and often not inclined to have to learn how to design. I'm not saying that if you do this then everyone will want one, but without these, there are reasons for people to justify not wanting one. It needs to be an appliance, not a hobbyist time-sink.
The problem is that 3D printing is much more complex than, say, using a drill to make a hole in a wall or a microwave to heat food. And even then, people make mistakes. To eliminate as many variables as possible, you would have to lock everything down. That means DRM and no more freedom. The user selects the object to be printed, everything is pre-sliced, the user loads the manufacturer certified filament and clicks print. The filament is in a sealed cartridge with an RFID tag or something, and you cannot use any other filament than what the manufacturer allows. You are no longer a maker, you are just a consumer.
@@andreas.grundler I disagree. The automobile is a perfect example. In the early years of its evolution through the Model-T, it was a difficult and cantankerous machine that required the user to understand how it worked and how to at least be able to fix things enough to get it to an expert if things went really bad. Nowadays, you hop in, start it, and off you go. You can delve deeper into its machinations, and many still do, but it's not a requirement for basic use by those who simply want to get from here to there. (Not a perfect analogy, I know, since training and certification is required before you can legally drive, but even that is still fairly bare-bones relative to the risks.)
@@terpcj It's actually a very bad example and actually speaks in favour of some of my points. Internal combustion cars burn fuel that is somewhat standardised. So it hardly makes a difference whether you buy from brand A or B. Filament, on the other hand, is not standardised. You are generally within a certain temperature range, but ultimately you have to dial in the settings for each filament if you want good printing results. This is also the reason why the industry almost exclusively prints with filaments from the manufacturer, even though they are more expensive. And many of these filaments are supplied in cartridges with an RFID chip and some form of DRM. If you want to use a resin from another manufacturer with Formlabs resin printers, for example, you need an Open Material licence. The second point is about when something no longer works. If a mechanic wants to diagnose a modern car, this must be authorised by the manufacturer. Ask a mechanic how much effort is made by the manufacturer to ‘encourage’ the customer to drive to an authorised workshop instead of an independent workshop. You will be surprised how much DRM is in a modern cars.
They are already trying and failing. I'm hoping some raise their prices slightly and make machines that don't break or fall apart every other print like my Creality KE.
I agree. 3d printers won't be a "home appliance". Services like yours will be the solution. Some technologies will always have a barrier to entry. Not everyone can design and build an airplane. At the end of the day 3d printing will bring items and services to the consumer that they never have had before.
Only making one thing isn't manufacturing, though. There's no company out there that survives by ordering just one part. If my company sells widgets, I don't need just one part from the manufacturer, I need at least 100. So on any practical level, doubling the number of printers really does double the speed. This basic idea - increase speed by increasing the amount of work being done simultaneously has been true since ancient Summeria, at least.
@@davydatwood3158 Well this is the idea of Printing Service Companies you will not get a order of 10 parts you might get 1 and another day another one. As you really don't want to store products but produce on demand
People want convenience, and I think one of the last obstacles to convenience is having to slice a model prior to printing... I would not be surprised if the next step to mass adoption is the availability of pre-sliced models, download, press play.
I don't think slicers are that complex. But, it would be helpful if: 1) 3D models were saved in an orientation conducive to printing. The number of times I have had to reorient the model on the bed or wonder if there is a reason why it was in that orientation. 2) recommended slicer settings could be saved in a file (open source format) and downloaded with the files. 3) slicer software used the same terms to describe the same settings rather than propriety terms, but there also has to be a way to recognize/reward these innovations.
@@karlsnowsill208 I don't think slicers are that complex either, but have you ever tried to explain to someone at the opposite end of the spectrum how 3D printing works? It blows their mind. So I think that BL's approach with their almost automatic model generators for lithophanes for examples, is a really good idea.
On the metal processing, that is why SpaceX is printing their own machines, and Tesla used a print service for prototypes of parts that come out of Giga presses to keep down the costs of the molds for the Giga presses.
Disagree. It was locked down and industrial only for decades. As printers are now just becoming almost appliance easy, more people who are interested but not techy are getting in on them.
@tazanteflight8670 EVs have existed for almost as long as ICE cars. They sucked for a long time. Then a company like tesla shows up and after a few years they are extremely popular. Bambu is kinda like the tesla of 3d printers. There are still some rough edges, but 3d printing is becoming easier and more useful constantly. The industry has much room to grow into. Or maybe not. I'm not a prophet. Just don't write it off yet.
@@dordan9987 This is kinda like the Sienfeld episode where george said toilet paper hasnt changed in 100 years, and jerry was like um quilting, colors, scents!! But the incremental tweaks dont increase how "mainstream" it is.
@tazanteflight8670 The difference is that everyone already uses toilet paper? What is your point? You are just being skeptical and contrarian. We won't know who's right for a while, but I'll leave you with some food for thought. The first computer (arguably) was a room sized machine called the ENIAC. It was built in the 1940s. At that time, people would have never believed that computers would be so ubiquitous just 80 years later. People (like you) would laugh at those who were excited about the future of computing. Nobody is laughing now. Let people be excited. That way, they can be the people who actually change the world.
I’d argue that 3D printers will indeed be a staple in kitchens someday; in fact, we’re getting closer to that reality. Imagine a scaled-down version of something like the X1C - a compact “X1 mini” built specifically for household use. This closed system could be designed with a household-only mode, giving access to MakerWorld for pre-approved, tested files. In this vision, anyone, even Grandma, could simply say, “Printer, make me some chip clips,” or “Printer, I need a new 4-inch flower pot,” and the printer would find the file, check material levels, and start printing with ease.
This hypothetical “X1 Mini” would be fully enclosed, shielding prints from drafts that could affect print quality and ensuring safety by keeping curious hands out of the print area. Limited to a single material, like PLA, this design would be intuitive and easy to maintain, even automatically ordering filament as needed and guiding users with voice commands. Imagine saying, “Printer, I need a new phone stand,” and it does the rest - from sourcing the file to confirming material levels - making 3D printing as straightforward as toasting bread.
These types of small household printers could also drive interest in the open printer market. For example, Grandpa might eventually find the limitations of a simple household printer lead him to explore open systems that offer broader material choices or larger build volumes. The same goes for kids who start with an accessible, user-friendly printer and later crave more freedom for creative projects. By introducing an accessible, entry-level printer, these closed systems can spark a journey into larger, more advanced setups for those seeking more customization and control.
With a few key advancements, a 3D printer could easily become a household appliance that anyone can use, bridging the gap between complex technology and day-to-day convenience. It’s a vision that could change the way we think about creating and repairing items at home.
PS: I’m available for consultations to any company that wants to bring this idea to life! 😎
I'm willing to bet that they'll more end up as the "Instant Pot" of household for on demand parts, wtih significant help from an Ai interface with a repository of vetted models and methods for part generation for households with a robust preview function prior to start. Can add them to the home appliance list for repairs and such too eventually.
You speak like a typical human. For the printer, the word "new" (like "new pot") has no meaning (it will always be new); unless the Grandma already printed a 4 inch pot before, but she did not like it.
@@michaels3003 To achieve mass adoption, systems must be designed to work seamlessly with “typical human” behavior. The system can enhance this by predicting user preferences-asking, for example, if they were satisfied with the previous print at the time of printing. Based on their response, the system could then either suggest alternative options or proceed with reprinting the previously chosen version, ensuring a more intuitive and user-centered experience.
@@michaels3003 Or more like someone who gets to see how tech is evolving intimately and directly ;)
I think think once CAD becomes more well known and/or easier to learn, 3d printing will become vastly more popular. Another step would be people sharing CAD files rather than just object files, this would make it easier to modify/improve designs. A printer in every house I don't think so, but a printer in every street as a cottage industry, I think is the way it will go. Filament goes 'stale' and people don't need a new plastic thing every day, so because the demand is not there it still will be a specialist field. Bed adhesion issue? bad Z calibration? blocked hot end? End users are not going to want to deal with those issues.
You know when you run your slicer, and it feed back's all sorts of metrics, including price of print?
And you know how most cad software has a feedback in a corner somewhere for XYZ?
Right underneath those numbers, I'd like my CAD to have a field that gives me a realtime price estimate from Slant 3d for what I'm working on :-)
I do think 3D printers have a place in every workshop, by the bandsaw. If someone has a garage is making stuff, a 3D printer is always useful, as additive manufacturing answers so many needs. It may not wind up in the kitchen, but if someone is buying tools and making stuff at home, it has a place by the spray can cabinet and other items.
CAD is the stumbling block. If AI can quickly and easily generate a 3D image... breakthrough.
These are things i wish we had in 3d printing:
1. People designing their parts so they can print without supports/lifting
2. Printers having automatic first layer height calibration
3. Camera on the print head to monitor layer height/squish and make adjustments to speed/flow rate if necessary
4. Auto supports in slicing software for print stability issues and overhangs printing in mid-air.
This would simplify 3d peinting and make it easier to print at scale as well.
All done
Simply 3D printing requires people to learn, and majority of people are not willing to learn new things. Therefore only the curious 3% will be the ones 3D printing
Mental laziness is the deciding factor of most products.
If microwaves required tinkering the average person would still be using an oven daily.
But once 3d printing is consumer dumbed down I'm afraid it will just become stale. The microwave hasn't changed much in almost 30 years. And the 20 before that were huge leaps each year making it easy and efficient for everyone.
So barriers are incentive to people who enjoy them to make things easier but once overcome creativity stalls.
@@jaeichinger I would argue that we have gotten there. A few years back I bought an Ender 3 and had a horrible experience with it. I spent weeks adjusting my settings, modifying firmware, buying and installing upgrades, but never got it to print at a quality I was happy with, and would never get it to work on the first print. Thinking that this was because I cheaped out, I bought the ender 3's big brother, and went through that whole song and dance again, without any better results. I'm pretty sure my issues were with environment temperature and moisture, but I had already spent so much money to try and get 3d printing to work (close to a grand at that point) that I gave up.
But then I bought the Bamboo X1C + AMS. Literally zero setup outside of removing the AMS from the printer and hooking it up. After it calibrated itself, I was able to get an insanely clean benchy print for my first print. I have only had the printer a week, but have had 15+ perfect prints from their app, and that's without even using a slicer, just clicking the "print now" button on their app.
I was one of the people willing to learn, and was ready for the printer itself to be a project. But since my problems were environmental, and because those are the least discussed problems on forums and things, I ended up spending a lot of time and money on tweaking and upgrading my cheap printer, and ultimately didn't get it to work.
Now that I have zero-effort prints, I'm really excited about getting back into the hobby. I've got CAD experience and a ton of QoL parts and repair parts I want to design/print. I think what needs to happen now is for a machine as capable as the X1C just needs to be cheaper for 3D printing to go mainstream
That is why a lot of companies offer 3d printing services so you don't have to learn about it and can use it the simplest way
@ bingo
When I saw "Bambu" and "AI", I was hoping to read that they would use AI to inspect a 3D print and then adjust slicer settings to address any issues by changing cooling, print speed, etc.
Anyone want to hazard a guess as to when someone will do this?
Sounds like you have a business ,idea. Get to it.
@@nustada I don't have the necessary skills, we'll just have to wait for Bambu or whoever to do it
@@nlkatz Business 101, what you can't do delegate to someone else.
@@nustadaI delegate it to you
It is way too early to make a meaningful guess. Five to ten year guesses are always popular (because there are five fingers on each hand), but they are meaningless (the same guess is repeated every year or two).
Re Bambu Lab organization. Yes, there are at least companies collaborating so far. Two are the Bambu Lab proper; another one runs the Maker World.
People discovered in 2017 that 3D printing is never going to become mainstream, people don't want to make stuff, they want to buy stuff. Most people can buy things cheap and easy from Amazon with 1 day/same day delivery. People in higher scale manufacturing have better processes for almost everything that are significantly better than print farms. Some materials like acetal are fantastic to machine and a nightmare to 3D print. We explored moving several of our parts and assemblies to 3D printing before we moved to casting (in china) and now we've moved back to machining/welding in house now that we have a CNC mill, lathe, laser and robot welder. 3D printing is good for low qty runs, specialty/prototype parts or legacy parts.
And yet every week we ship thousands of parts to final consumers.
Thank you for your work.
I have a bandsaw so for me the 3d printer is something nice to have additionally..
I suspect some of these sells come from companies also buying the cheap printers as they are pretty much on a good level already.
Ohh what do you think will Ultimaker be able todo with there new FAB wahtever printer?
I'm always a little suspicion of year-over-year percentages. At one point the local government was losing its mind over a "400% increase in armed robberies" and trying to decide what to do about this heinous crime wave. But if you looked at the actual numbers, we'd gone from a record low of only 1 armed robbery the year before to a more typical 4 in the current year. 4/1 * 100 = 400%.
Still, Bambu's 330% increase is on top of some substantial numbers of actual units shipped the year before and includes a serious gain in market share, so this is indeed a serious and remarkable increase. And I suspect, without real numbers behind my feeling, that a lot of Bambu's market was taken from Prusa. Four years ago Creality was the "it only mostly works but it's cheap" option, and Prusa was the "it costs more but it's reliable and you won't want to light it on fire after a month." Bambu has done an excellent job of claiming that second niche.
I do wonder how long until they hit saturation, though. I *have* my Bambu printer. I don't need two machines. And as you say, it's a tool for hobby builders, not an appliance for day to day life. There will always be some churn from the people who bought a Creality because it was cheap and now realise they should have bought a better printer in the first place, and there will always be some new people entering the hobby, but I think right now Bambu is still mostly selling to folks like myself - people who got into 3d printing as a hobby back when there wasn't any choice but a printer that you had to fiddle with, and have happily upgraded. That can't last forever.
No sir... Fourfold increase is 300% more. Since you will not believe me, ask Google for an explanation.
@@michaels3003 That's pretty rude, to assume I wouldn't believe you. I don't pretend to have all the knowledge everywhere, and "percentage increase" is one of those things I had to go back to my textbook to remember how to calculate.
Normally I'd thank you for the clarification, but since you've already decided I'm an asshole, I guess I won't.
@davydatwood3158 , sorry about that. It is the ratio minus 100. E.g., double means 100% increase.
A lot of people do not believe information that can be easily obtained from Google. Maybe you are different.
ive 3d printed for years ive never found a useful print i didnt throw away or was ugly looking only recently with filament getting nicer for a lwo price and good printers and software ive been able t omake money of a niche i found but im not even geting consistent sales anymore
Yes, 3D printing has some needed expertise and then the 3D cad to go along with that is another skill the consumers don’t have
The main problem with model dev. that I can see, is that tech such as AI scares the bejezuss out of anyone who is currently working in model dev. They don't care about people who want to model in the future. They want to protect their current expertise.
You see this in discussion boards all over the place.
And that can be a barrier to folks making the tools that allow people to make these models.
If they dump in AI too quickly, the trad market decides that they might drop that tool.
Read a funny comment on a Blender vid, where it was disclosed that Blender already uses AI to denoise images (blender has a pretty militant and noisy anti-ai group).
This comment announced that they were so pissed off that they were going to switch to Maya.
I had to point out that Autodesk is pretty much neck deep in AI.
I like the idea of 'guided cad' but I think it will need someone to disrupt the CAD software market. An not Autodesk, cause those buggers will just screw people.
Is the 3d printing market also including filament manufacturers?
I'm still working out my Etsy store, but recently I uploaded a model to your prototyping app to get a costing on the production.
I wanted to get the product under $20 to produce, so I scaled it down in the slicer, and re-uploaded it.
Gee it would have been nice to do an edit and get feedback like this within the cad software :-)
Thanks for letting us know
curious but since trump wants to apply a ton of tariffs that will limit plastics from coming into the states.... i suspect if that happens print farms would have a totally new validity because getting products in the states will become alot more expensive.
This would reduce the demand, not limit the supply. With less competition on price, U.S. made filament could become more expensive. Tariffs are a bad idea.
@@michaels3003 the world's supply of pla is made in the USA and the us has a lot of oil reserves for other plastic productions.. the factories just need to be built.
I agree that 3d printers won’t be in kitchens. Too much space involved. But I sure see them in craft rooms right alongside Cricuts and scrapbooking and sewing stuff. And especially in home shops or man-caves to make stuff for the home, “instead of getting it online” For that, I think the enclosed machines will be better as less dust concern that way in a wood shop.
For me though, my Bambu printer will stay down stairs where it is easy to iterate from my PC to it. Love that Bambu has made the paradigm shift like Apple did w phones!
I love how espressomachines are mainstream to have embedded in your cupboard, but not 3D-printer 👀
Ppl would rather build a garage with a hydroulic jack, or a pub in their backyard rather than invest time in a 3D-printer 😆
I don't know anybody who has an espresso machine.
I've been trying to 'prod' open source software to build into their packages, open source slicer software, to speed dev of parts (such a pain to have to swap between programs when building something)
But what I'd really like to see is software that looks at what I'm building and feeds back how that object will react during the print process...
I design an object and the cad software that I'm using tells me that I can't put in that feature cause it is overhanging.
I mod the feature and the program feeds back 'ok, now it will print, but it is a such an angle that the printer will run slowly and spin it's fan at full speed'.
So I do a bit more modifying, and the program announces that 'yep that will print, and it will print at speed'.
Great thinks I, so I move to somewhere else on the model and after an hour of work, the program tells me that it will print, but you've broken the model somewhere that you have built previously, and most importantly, it shows me where it is broken.
I don't want to 'paint' seams in the slicer, I want to place seams exactly where I want them while modelling.
I want granular control over layer height.
I want to 'push' the limits of object contact with the build plate and have the program announce when I 've exceeded those limits.
It's not like you guys even need to build such a thing. Sponsor some Uni students to create a 3d printing AI, and pour all of you're expertise into this AI, and then bolt it into some open source software where you don't need to worry about building the entire app.
Enclosed 3D printers have brought printers closer to mainstream. I think the failed print rate needs to be lowered.
I really appreciate and like your show. I tried to go to your website and wanted to contact you about what all post processing you offer with your print services but the email address didn't match the website and so I didn't feel comfortable emailing you until I could make sure that's how it actually is. Thank you have a great day...
3d printing is very slow compared to conventional industrial processes. Its I feel on a similar level to EDM wire/sinkers, meaning they can do a very specific work you can not make otherwise, but its not great for general work.
For 3d to be more (mostly consumer but also helpful for business) mainstream: take the user as a part of the process as far out of the equation as possible. They of course have to input the model and feed it material to make the model, but after that, they human should be largely taken out of the equation. That means build plates that confidently hold prints during printing and releases them afterwards without having to apply sticky stuff or having to pry the print from the plate regardless of material. Ideally, the printer and/or software will minimize any support removal needs (will never be eliminated entirely). The material needs to be affordable, available, easy to use (e.g. external dry boxes/dehydrators need to not be a thing, even for nylons), and non-toxic to the environment the printer is in (no one like having to run venting nor worry about nasty chemicals; occasional changing of filters should be the limit). Speed, of course, without sacrificing quality is always a given. And the printer needs to be affordable (current Bambu level seems to be the limit for consumers at present). And, as you say, better and easier modeling and scanning tools. People are busy and often not inclined to have to learn how to design.
I'm not saying that if you do this then everyone will want one, but without these, there are reasons for people to justify not wanting one. It needs to be an appliance, not a hobbyist time-sink.
The problem is that 3D printing is much more complex than, say, using a drill to make a hole in a wall or a microwave to heat food. And even then, people make mistakes.
To eliminate as many variables as possible, you would have to lock everything down. That means DRM and no more freedom. The user selects the object to be printed, everything is pre-sliced, the user loads the manufacturer certified filament and clicks print. The filament is in a sealed cartridge with an RFID tag or something, and you cannot use any other filament than what the manufacturer allows. You are no longer a maker, you are just a consumer.
@@andreas.grundler I disagree. The automobile is a perfect example. In the early years of its evolution through the Model-T, it was a difficult and cantankerous machine that required the user to understand how it worked and how to at least be able to fix things enough to get it to an expert if things went really bad. Nowadays, you hop in, start it, and off you go. You can delve deeper into its machinations, and many still do, but it's not a requirement for basic use by those who simply want to get from here to there. (Not a perfect analogy, I know, since training and certification is required before you can legally drive, but even that is still fairly bare-bones relative to the risks.)
@@terpcj It's actually a very bad example and actually speaks in favour of some of my points. Internal combustion cars burn fuel that is somewhat standardised. So it hardly makes a difference whether you buy from brand A or B. Filament, on the other hand, is not standardised. You are generally within a certain temperature range, but ultimately you have to dial in the settings for each filament if you want good printing results.
This is also the reason why the industry almost exclusively prints with filaments from the manufacturer, even though they are more expensive. And many of these filaments are supplied in cartridges with an RFID chip and some form of DRM. If you want to use a resin from another manufacturer with Formlabs resin printers, for example, you need an Open Material licence.
The second point is about when something no longer works. If a mechanic wants to diagnose a modern car, this must be authorised by the manufacturer. Ask a mechanic how much effort is made by the manufacturer to ‘encourage’ the customer to drive to an authorised workshop instead of an independent workshop. You will be surprised how much DRM is in a modern cars.
I'm hoping some one like elegoo jumps in to bring Bambu like quality at even lower prices
Race to the bottom is how we got the Ender 3 clones. Clones. Copies of a crap machine made cheaper and crappier yet.
They are already trying and failing. I'm hoping some raise their prices slightly and make machines that don't break or fall apart every other print like my Creality KE.
Maybe they should start making cheap iPhones...
I agree. 3d printers won't be a "home appliance". Services like yours will be the solution. Some technologies will always have a barrier to entry. Not everyone can design and build an airplane. At the end of the day 3d printing will bring items and services to the consumer that they never have had before.
Nah, soon enough
Can we do a 2 colours for something like a play chess (black&white from same files) on your app?
Btw. to the point of AI current studies show in Programming they are more a hindrance than a benefit.
Make a sequel to the largest 3D farms in the world right now. Maybe
Has not changed much unfortunately.
@@slant3d I had a question how many filaments does your printing farm consume in a month?
Made me want to go back through your videos to look at the progress of your teeth straightening :p
Doubling Speed only if you need to print the same part not really doubling in speed to make the one thing faster.
Only making one thing isn't manufacturing, though. There's no company out there that survives by ordering just one part. If my company sells widgets, I don't need just one part from the manufacturer, I need at least 100. So on any practical level, doubling the number of printers really does double the speed. This basic idea - increase speed by increasing the amount of work being done simultaneously has been true since ancient Summeria, at least.
@@davydatwood3158 Well this is the idea of Printing Service Companies you will not get a order of 10 parts you might get 1 and another day another one. As you really don't want to store products but produce on demand
People want convenience, and I think one of the last obstacles to convenience is having to slice a model prior to printing... I would not be surprised if the next step to mass adoption is the availability of pre-sliced models, download, press play.
3mf seems to be a step in that direction but still has some interoperability problems between hardware companies
Too bad no two printers use the exact same setting to print well, because that prevents good/great results from pre sliced models
@@montezdot Actually, 3mf is standardized. You can look it up. The problem is when certain manufacturers add incompatible extensions on their own.
I don't think slicers are that complex.
But, it would be helpful if:
1) 3D models were saved in an orientation conducive to printing. The number of times I have had to reorient the model on the bed or wonder if there is a reason why it was in that orientation.
2) recommended slicer settings could be saved in a file (open source format) and downloaded with the files.
3) slicer software used the same terms to describe the same settings rather than propriety terms, but there also has to be a way to recognize/reward these innovations.
@@karlsnowsill208 I don't think slicers are that complex either, but have you ever tried to explain to someone at the opposite end of the spectrum how 3D printing works? It blows their mind. So I think that BL's approach with their almost automatic model generators for lithophanes for examples, is a really good idea.
It will be like having a microwave in 10 yesrs. Mark my words.
They said that ten years ago.
@@canadiangemstones7636, true. Also about "drones" (small quadcopters).
On the metal processing, that is why SpaceX is printing their own machines, and Tesla used a print service for prototypes of parts that come out of Giga presses to keep down the costs of the molds for the Giga presses.
can you just talk normal? we want to hear what you have to say, just talk normal
3D printing was invented in 1986. So after 38 years, I think 3d printers are as popular, as they are going to be...
Disagree. It was locked down and industrial only for decades. As printers are now just becoming almost appliance easy, more people who are interested but not techy are getting in on them.
@@MinnesotaHomesteading Thats like saying "virtual reality" will someday become REALLY popular!.......... :^)
@tazanteflight8670 EVs have existed for almost as long as ICE cars. They sucked for a long time. Then a company like tesla shows up and after a few years they are extremely popular. Bambu is kinda like the tesla of 3d printers. There are still some rough edges, but 3d printing is becoming easier and more useful constantly. The industry has much room to grow into. Or maybe not. I'm not a prophet. Just don't write it off yet.
@@dordan9987 This is kinda like the Sienfeld episode where george said toilet paper hasnt changed in 100 years, and jerry was like um quilting, colors, scents!! But the incremental tweaks dont increase how "mainstream" it is.
@tazanteflight8670 The difference is that everyone already uses toilet paper? What is your point? You are just being skeptical and contrarian. We won't know who's right for a while, but I'll leave you with some food for thought. The first computer (arguably) was a room sized machine called the ENIAC. It was built in the 1940s. At that time, people would have never believed that computers would be so ubiquitous just 80 years later. People (like you) would laugh at those who were excited about the future of computing. Nobody is laughing now. Let people be excited. That way, they can be the people who actually change the world.