3D Printing of a Ship in a Bottle

[Nightmoss]

Maybe not really the traditional 'ship in a bottle', but pretty interesting technology just the same. Some of our members will certainly know more about this than I, but clearly this was a higher end 3D printer than what I can afford.

http://blog.stratasys.com/2012/11/21...bref=ssys_list

[calm]

Amazing !!!

[Berthier]

That is pretty amazing, using two different materials and bound together in the bottle which is transparent. This technology is improving so quickly it's staggering.

[Naharaht]

I had no idea that they could 3D print using more than one material.

Ship models embedded in clear plastic would be much less likely to break during transportation or during play.

[7eat51]

That is impressive.

If the price of these printers keeps dropping, I foresee one in our future.

[Cpt Kangaroo]

Wow, this was a real eye opener!
I am going to be looking at this technology a lot more.
The learning curve to make creations in this medium must be huge.
Very impressive.
Thanks for sharing!

[Blackjohn]

I found the learning curve to be rather small, but I'm a click-monkey during the day, so maybe I took to it naturally.

[Naharaht]

I received an e-mail from Maplin's today announcing that they will soon be selling 3D printers in the U.K..

[OmegaLazarus]

This is closer to what I expected from 3d printers.

I remember when I first heard about the concepts in the late 90's/early 00's and the idea was similar to that. Instead of printing a single plastic and using excess plastic as webbing to create a removable structure to stabilize the object in manufacture, the idea was that a printer would use plastic or whatever AND a sort of wax to support it so that every intricate structure would be completed inside a block of the waxy material. Of course, the material would then be melted and washed away in an adjacent chamber and the object would be ready.

Clearly the method they changed to is cheaper and easier and equally useful for most home use. The original method would only be needed for really precise parts and those would probably need a much finer printer.

BTW - Love the music. Moonlight Sonata is my favorite classical piece.