In college my son had 3D printing capability for 'free'. But their machine shop had 3D printers (filament, powder deposition, etc versions), laser cutters, CNC machines, ... all the toys I wish I could have access to. They had standard over night delivery from Grainger and Small Parts for whatever they needed (keeping the school from keeping a large inventory of many expendables onsite).
Yes they made trinkets, but as an engineering school, they did lots of projects and special items for class design projects. The school also has a student company incubator, and the shop had lots of odd and shaped designs. They didn't teach old school tool and die making, that is still needed for big production runs of plastic and metal parts. Or the old school 3D modeling techniques of clay or wax modeling to make design molds (think old school car body sculpting from the '50s). IMHO, every technology (from clay sculpting and lost wax, pouring babbit bearings, to 3D modeling and production of today) has its benefits and issues. Oh, out if it, somehow my MechEngr son now designs and builds advanced coffee machines, medical equipment (human factors part of the designs), and doing international consulting on control systems for his own company and others. ... The best thing is he is doing what he loves, making money at it, and adding to the value of society at large, IMHO. I never had the skills while in college, but I dreamed of doing what is today a 'makerbot' style machine using powder metalurgy, so once it is made, put it in a sentering oven, so you would have a real metal part right out of the machine (and oven). But I turned to computers even with a minor in mechengr. It's been a good ride. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Emc-users mailing list Emc-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-users
