The Mad Lab

The day before Schuyler St. Leger attended "Ignite Phoenix" to talk about home 3-D printing, my son and I entered the HeatSync Labs hackerspace for the first time. We were there in part because it was "3-D Printing night" and in part because I wanted to find out what hackerspaces were all about.

We were honored to see this great presentation in a dress rehearsal.

http://youtu.be/fP2hl6CO-T0

If you have never heard about 3-D printing before, I don't think I could ever explain it better than Schuyler. For about $1,000 you can buy a machine that will literally make your dreams physical - as long as they can be interpreted into a 3-D vector graphic.

Similar technology has been in use at Boeing and other aerospace companies for decades. It is a quick and cheap way to make a prototype. I have read that Jay Leno has one that uses metal rather than plastic and he can recreate special parts for his antique cars.

What if you want to make a particular prop, but you are not sure how all the parts will fit together? What if you want to make haunt themed jewelry or baubles? What would you do with a printer like this?