This week, we were delighted to receive the first guest post from Jerry Berg, known by many on YouTube as Barnacules Nerdgasm. As a Das Keyboard user and fan, Jerry is here to share his insights on 3D printing trends...and cookies. Continue reading the full article…
My name is Jerry (aka Barnacules) and I make Barnacules Nerdgasm on YouTube (http://barnnerd.com). I'm as nerdy and geeky as they are, with a passion for all things tech. I discovered 3D printing a few years ago through a series of YouTube videos showing how large companies can rapidly prototype parts using these giant machines worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Like seeing a Star Trek replicator in real life, it's much slower.
The problem is that due to cost, space and power requirements, these machines are so far out of the consumer's control that I know it's a pipe dream to think I can have one. About a year ago, my friend Eric, a graphic artist at Bungee Studios, told me that he had purchased a printer called the Ultimaker that could sit on his desktop and extrude plastic filament into almost any Imagine the shape, and the best part is that this printer can be had for around $2000.
As you can imagine after this discovery I flocked to the Ultimakers website to order one! I've printed hundreds of decorative and functional things since I owned the printer and it still amazes me every time I turn it on. Now in the last year, the price of 3D printing technology has come down and become more affordable. I recently bought a Robo3D printer for about $700, it's not as fast as the Ultimaker, and maybe not as high resolution, but it does a great job, proving that the technology is driving the price down.
Now, you realize that the holidays are coming! That meant it was time for me to take this opportunity to impress my wife with my 3D printing abilities to make sure she didn't argue with me over future tech purchases. To accomplish this, I'm going to make her a turkey-shaped cookie cutter because she's an avid baker (and I love cookies!). To make this happen, I just go to www.thingiverse.com, type in turkey, pick up the model and that's it! I could design my own mockups, but it would take time away from this awesome blog I am writing.
It blew my mind that you could simply download something and print it into a physical presence. This is the second cookie mold I've made for my wife and now she gets excited every time I fire up the 3D printer. Everyone knows the phrase "Happy wife, happy life" and I can verify that it is 100% true! The utility of owning a 3D printer is unlimited; if you can think about it and model it in 3D, you can own it, and you can touch and feel it with your own hands. I don't know about you, but if this technology exists today and can be used on your desktop, it makes me excited to see what our future holds.
I remember when I was a kid and dot matrix printers came out, I was fascinated by the fact that you could take text off a screen and apply it to paper in the real world. When the first computer came out, I began to understand how my grandpa felt. No doubt kids will take this technology for granted one day, but I'm honored to see it emerge and look forward to seeing it evolve into the future!