Reassessing ‘junky’ 3D printers

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I admit it. I’m a CNC machine tool snob.

Without naming names, I’ve constructed a short list of the brands and models of machines that I would install in my imaginary manufacturing company, along with ones that I might or could—if medical science comes up with a way to extend human lifespans before mine comes to an end.

My brain contains a second, similar list devoted to 3D printers. I first began constructing it several decades ago, when 3D printing and service bureaus were just coming into their heyday. In fact, had a certain small business investor not backed out at the last minute, I might have executed on that list. Oh well.

Back to the snobbishness. It recently bit me in the butt. Big time. While interviewing the manager of a machine shop for a magazine article I was writing, I asked him if the company had any 3D printers. He said yes, they had purchased one several months ago, and when he told me the brand, I unthinkingly said, “That’s kind of a junky printer,” partly because of its relatively low cost.

The actual word may have been “crappy,” but the results were the same. “We love it,” he said, before goinng on to tell me all the uses to which he and his colleagues were putting said printer. The young man wasn’t exactly offended, but it was clear from his tone of voice that he thought I was full of malarkey. Or something like that.

And he was right. I apologized for my shortsightedness and my inability to think beyond the price tag to the usefulness of a 3D printer—any 3D printer—for building inspection fixtures, toolbox organizers, show-and-tell prototypes, and conceptual models for quoting purposes. These are just of few of the everyday tasks that 3D printers make easy. None require extreme accuracy or material strength, and all save time and money.

As with traveling long distances, access to a vehicle of some sort is always preferable. It could be a jet, a sports car, a bicycle, or a swaybacked mule named Bessie. Whatever the mode of transportation—even if some might consider it junky—it beats walking. 3D printing’s a lot like that.