3d printers... The endless possibilities :)

[blenny]

http://www.shapeways.com/model/79072...ductBox-search

I'm just fascinated with how these things will change the world. And they are becoming cheep too, imagine the artistic creations that anyone can make all off their own PC at home.

Look at the 360 view, this guy scanned his daughter with an Xbox kinect then made a manipulation and then made this cool figurine.

I can't wait to get one of these. A decent one runs from $1500-4000.

I doubt the the materials are available yet, but imagine being able to scan yourself and make the perfect fitting tail and perfect creative design of a tail.

[Mizuko]

I work with engineers and they say you can get the materials to make a 3D printer for around $100 and make it yourself! Its incredible! And then from making the machine, you can actually print out parts to make ANOTHER 3D printer, and so on and so forth. haha!
They're already using them in medical science, by building tendons and organs using layers of cells. Imagine making a REAL tail? XD

[blenny]

So printed organs, printed new limbs. All made from maybe your own cloned cells or something. Imagine if the technology could make a real limb that was of your own DNA and the body wouldn't reject it.

If real limb replacement at some point became a proven fool proof technology. Imagine people could become mermaids/mermen for a vacation or short period of time then change back.

People could take a mermaid vacation for 2 weeks then get back to work. Professional mermaids could stay a mermaid for years...

[MerMarla]

It sure would make life easier to print a 3D design of your tails' scale pattern and have the mold printed for you! As far as I know, the printers don't use platinum cure silicone. But using it for hard gears, all kinds of tiny parts, molds, medical replacement limbs and joints, the ideas are endless! Maybe there is a polymer that could be used to make the fluke! It's awesome the things that can be made... and the criminals are right there too, already on YouTube are ways to make guns and knives, and all sorts of weapons. Sad to take such an ingenious invention and have it abused that way!

Hubby has been talking about these printers for a long time, and I'm sure as soon as the price comes down he will get one! What fun!

[Nate Walis]

There's the germ of a story in there somewhere...

[AptaMer]

Make your own custom monofin?

[spottedcatfish]

So printed organs, printed new limbs. All made from maybe your own cloned cells or something. Imagine if the technology could make a real limb that was of your own DNA and the body wouldn't reject it.

If real limb replacement at some point became a proven fool proof technology. Imagine people could become mermaids/mermen for a vacation or short period of time then change back.

People could take a mermaid vacation for 2 weeks then get back to work. Professional mermaids could stay a mermaid for years...

Sooo Cool!!!

[Nate Walis]

I now have a mental image of a woman being sliced neatly in half by an industrial laser and then fed into a printer to replace her lower portion with a tail!

[Alveric]

Hmm...You'd need some way of reconnecting the spinal cord.

[Nate Walis]

Hmm...You'd need some way of reconnecting the spinal cord.

Ah, that's small potatoes if you can actually print off limbs and organs!

[blenny]

That might be a big potato, nerves once severed rarely grow back. But I'm guessing with an MRI you could scan that exact structure, then reprint it. Humans have proved they can eventually solve any problem.

[Nate Walis]

That might be a big potato, nerves once severed rarely grow back. But I'm guessing with an MRI you could scan that exact structure, then reprint it. Humans have proved they can eventually solve any problem.

My thoughts exactly, if we've reached the stage of even considering the act of exchanging a person's lower half for a fishtail, then the necessity is there to reattach the spine anyway, so one could not really be contemplated if the other were not already at least possible.

[Echidna]

There was an article today about this.
Experts predict it will change the world as did PCs, and reading on about it, I well believe it.

So far, the printed material seems to be restricted to plastic.
Now, if it were possible to do silicone...all you needed were to download the design you liked for a tail, modify it with your measurements, print it, paint it- voilà, incredibly cheap custom made tail!!

This would be so AWESOME.

As for real limbs made from your own cells- eh, not so much.
Except maybe in specialized clinics and such, where the cell material could be grown.
Fascinating what the future might hold, though!

And guess what's the first thing that really got press regarding this?

A weapon-crazy dude who worked night and day to print a gun that could "successfully" kill someone.
He named that thing "liberator" and is proud as heck of it...
if I hadn't despaired on humanity a long time ago, this would have been a suitable moment to

[Mermaid Varshana]

A surprising number of advances in technology have developed out of humanity's baffling yet still preponderant desire to kill one another.

[Mermaid Dottie]

That is so silly. Why would anyone want to make something destructive, when there are so many cooler uses for something like that? If you watch Star Trek at all, you've seen their replicators. They use them to make medicines, food, clothing, replacement parts for their ships.... Why on earth would you want to make a gun, when you could do so many more awesome things with it?! Imagine being able to make enough enough shoes to cover the feet of every child on the planet. Blankets. Learning tools. SEEDS FOR CROPS. Seriously.
A gun?

[Nate Walis]

That is so silly. Why would anyone want to make something destructive, when there are so many cooler uses for something like that? If you watch Star Trek at all, you've seen their replicators. They use them to make medicines, food, clothing, replacement parts for their ships.... Why on earth would you want to make a gun, when you could do so many more awesome things with it?! Imagine being able to make enough enough shoes to cover the feet of every child on the planet. Blankets. Learning tools. SEEDS FOR CROPS. Seriously.
A gun?

Some people in the US seem to think that the only thing that matters is their own easy access to a gun, rather than the number of starving and endangered people the world over.

[Mermaidmechanic]

But then there are also the extreme "tree hugger" type out here in the U.S that would rather spend all our resources helping other countries before fixing the problems that lie in our own. The U.S is a balance between gun slingers and tree huggers with many people in between. It's only that the media enjoys covering the crazies because normal people are not news.

[Ponytales]

The gun control fight isn't really about guns though. Its that the government is attacking a real problem in a totally wrong way, while simultaneously doing all kinds of shady business that makes their real goal suspect. Making more types of guns/ammo illegal isn't going to stop people who already buy guns illegally. It won't stop crazy people from doing harm en masse either, because they can easily make something even more destructive from household goods (the Boston tragedy proves that). All it accomplishes is make it look like the government is doing something productive (example: a lot of the 'new' gun control laws have been on the books for years). And removing something that was included in the Constitution to ensure we can overthrow an unjust government is not making them look great either. What they should be doing is focusing more on actual public safety and mental health reform. America is just way too preoccupied with public image. Like a teenage girl starving herself to look pretty, ruining our insides to make the other countries think we're great.


Er, to bring this back on topic, my bf is looking into working through Shapeways (or possibly buying a home printer) for some custom kit parts. He's got a decent amount of experience working on 3d modeling and wants to make a few metal accessories for the dolls we collect. I might try to talk him into some mermaid themed accessories. Might take advantage of Shapeways and their metal printing to do some nice gold seashells or something. There was a pretty neat ship-in-a-bottle necklace on there when I last looked.

[Echidna]

Thought I'd resurrect this, as there was another article on a dog without forelegs, its owner printed legs and now it can run

Any tailmaker out there willing to give this a try?
If anything but plastics can be used, of course.

A tail that's a hardened shell won't be much use
but maybe a monofin?
*nudge nudge*

[Miyu]

Ooh, that's actually a great idea - we've all seen a lot of designs for experimental monofins, but I haven't seen many of them produced - likely because of an issue of being a pain to manufacture traditionally. I wonder if 3-D printers are set up to handle monofin plastics like PP? Or anything stronger for ocean swimming?