User:Steven Crump

Senior at Penn State studying Mechanical Engineering. Excited to further my interest in 3D printing and look forward to working with fellow students in section 1 to create a solid top notch printer.

Blog 6: Bio-Printing

If you asked what I thought of bio-printing before I read the “How 3D printers are reshaping medicine” article I would have told you you were crazy. But after reading through the article it sounds a lot more feasible and extremely practical as well. I think it is amazing how the printers use this “bio link” mixture that is the same concept as our PLA filament. Except our filament doesn’t contain living cells.

Another neat fact that made me approve of bio-printers even more was that it was able to save the pharmaceutical companies billions of dollars all together and speed up their process of getting drunks on to the market and intern making more quantity and quality of medicine that we could use to help our everyday health. Unfortunately just like the blog about the gun project, these printers can have legal problems as well. Just like abortion and skin cell research, some people are very against the idea, unlike myself, and I am sure printing out cells and making organs is no different.

It would be really amazing if this technology could be extended to RepRap printers. A long way down the future I could see this being very feasible as long as we would create an extruder that could extrude the “bio link” along with keep it at all the right temperatures. Unfortunately it sounds like growing organs is still about a decade away, so for the technology to extend to the RepRaps would be even longer.

Blog 5:

1. If I were a member of the DIY gun project and ran into this problem, I would find another printer. I don't see why he cant get a different printer from a different company. Does he have to tell the rental company exactly what he is using it for when he rents it? I think if worst comes to worst he should just buy a reprap printer like the ones we have but a little nicer (and maybe a little more reliable haha). It just seems like a lot of money to rent a $9,000 dollar 3d printer when he could buy a Sargent Welch MakerBot 3D printer for $2,400.

2. I can see how a 3D printed gun could cause trouble. And if they were to actually create a gun like that wanted to in case 2 that is entirely plastic then anyone could get onto airplanes with them. And with the open software I mean literally anyone could get on to a plane with them. In addition the police would have no way of tracing the gun or where and when someone bought it because it would be the exact same gun that everyone has. So in response to the question I think it should be regulated. But with the internet now days, once something gets uploaded it is there forever. So regulation will be extremely difficult.

3. I think guns are the biggest issue by far when it comes to prohibitions towards 3D printing. Other 3d printable constructs that might cause similar attention would be anything that you could print at home that copies someones patent. Like if all of a sudden people could start printing cellphone cases successfully, those companies would have a problem .

Blog 4:

I kinda of side with Makerbot to a point. They are trying to make money as well and if they keep making everything open sourced it becomes hard for them to please their investors. As far as Thingiverse owning the rights to everything people upload does not agree with me at all. I think Prussa is taking it to far in trying to own everyone's designs and ideas. I think he is trying to push his luck with the Thingiverse terms and conditions and trying to alter all that legal nonsense. Unfortunately I also believe that if Prussa has enough money and good enough lawyers he could get what he wants. No one really reads all the terms and conditions anyways so he very well could be right with saying he owns the ideas. I guess only time will tell what the end result is. With all this buzz about what is going to happen with the Thingiverse debate I guess a great question is will we still post our own class ideas on Thingiverse. I think if Prussa is trying hard to take everyone's ideas it might be good to post our own ideas and designs on a different website. At the end of the article Benchoff was talking about a great alternative website called GitHub. I think they might be something good to look into as a class.

Blog 3:

1. I think once the 3D printing would becomes even more popular and more profitable we will start to see restrictions being placed on STL files. Some files might be very complex and take the designer hours upon hours to construct, making him or her want to place a restrictions on the file. But in the mean time and in the future for smaller or not as comprised stl's, they will still be open to the public and Thingiverse will still flourish with downloadable STL's.

2. Although I am still young and have sever passions that come and go and change as time goes by, my current passion is rock climbing. I definitely don't climb in the hopes to one day get thousands of dollars from this passion. It is more of a money pit if anything. As far as attracting mates I guess that could be a stretch. I guess getting my swell on at the rock gym could attract girls. Even though there are a lot of attractive women at the climbing wall I have had no such luck. Maybe I should take up another passion hahah.

3. I dont think 3D printing will end intellectual property. In that post he mentioned that you would print your iphone and start making them at home which is not true at all. There is no way you can print the electrical components. But figuratively I can kind of see where he is coming from. If it does end up that people can print their own things I think that would be bad for the economy. Business will no longer be able to hold on to patents and become bankrupt. And I would get fired as an engineer because all the ideas i come up with would become non-profitable once the product comes out and everyone would print it themselves.

Blog 2:

1. I think a goal of a 'self replicating universal constructor' is not quite feasible yet or else they would already exist. With the current RepRap printers the idea is getting closer but it is still not quite there. I think more advanced software and robotic engineering need to be improved and implemented before his goal can be reached.

2. The phrase wealth without money means that you can still gain a wealthy style without actually having a ton of money. I agree with the phrase to an extent. I think so future implications or problem this could have is a huge rise in unemployment. If everyone had these self sufficient machines then no one would need to buy anything. Some possibilities could be non wealthy people creating and printing things that only wealthy people have.

3. Reprap projects have come a long way since 2007 so it is mind boggling to think where they would be in the future. I can definitely see an improvement in accuracy. They already have "High resolution" printers, but down the road I can see the technology improving ever more. Another improvement that is very possible is software. They are always coming out with new software and software upgrades all the time. Hopefully down the road printers will be able to print a part in 5 minutes where now it takes 2 hours.

Blog 1:

Useful: "Hose Clamp" Simple yet very useful.

Artistic: "Mario" Life is good when you know you can print your very own Mario.

Pointless: "Automation Hand" Looks like a lot of work to make fingers tap on a table in my opinion.

Funny: "How would you feel if someone just turned you on and left" I don't think my mother will be putting up to many of these any time soon.

Weird: "Inverse Colbert" Something just isn't right here.

I have been on THINGIVERSE for a total of one day now and am already looking on Craigslist for 3D printer kits.