3D Printing Vending Machine on the UC Berkeley Campus

I pass by this machine all the time, so hopefully I can offer some insight:<p>* It's pretty much just a Makerbot in a enclosure. There is an Android tablet that you enter your information into which allows you to retrieve your object.<p>* The machine is surprisingly busy, even though a lot of people I talk to on campus don't know about it. I suppose that's one of the perks of having a lot of people in one area.<p>* It's great for people to make 3D models without the hassle of setting up and maintaining a printer of their own.<p>I'm curious to hear the metrics to see if it's in line with my casual observations.

What a great minimum viable product!<p>Ignoring the fact that there's obviously going to need to be more breakthroughs in 3D printing before this can scale I think that this setup could shed some light on the demand for consumer 3D printing. A large spike in demand followed by a bunch of complaints about the user experience/wait time/build quality/etc could tell you which part of the printer process needs to be optimized first before this can gain widespread acceptance. Excited to follow this in the months to come.

Great concept, but it's a bit ahead of it's time. We'll get there, but consumer-grade 3d printing is nowhere near unattended operation like this.<p>Stereolithography maybe, but additive 3d printing tech like the one shown in this video suffers from all sorts of issues requiring operator assistance - like the object unsticking from the build plate, and the head needing frequent cleaning. Unless this "vending machine" is manned, I doubt it could be useful/successful until technology improves.

I like this model. It makes a lot more sense to get people used to the technology without a huge upfront investment.<p>The biggest reason that I don't have a 3d printer is after the first week of making things, I have no idea what I would possibly use it for. Having a setup like this would be perfect as parts would still be rapid (compared to having them made &#38; shipped) and it would save the large upfront expense.<p>Sure there may be some quality &#38; operational issues to address, but that's fine.<p>A webcam might be useful for both the end user to watch his part being created and for the operator to remotely check for jams, clogs, messes, and other disasters.

Though I like the idea, I feel like this would work much better as a business if you had professional printers instead of (what appears to be) Makerbots in the vending machine. The fact that this is limited to small, one colour designs greatly lessens the appeal. Also, I am concerned that objects would break coming down that shoot mechanism.

This could be really cool, although as other people have said, achieving unattended operation seems like it will be challenging.<p>Does anybody know how the metal printing is supposed to work? Selective laser sintering machines that I've seen all seem way too big to fit in a vending machine.

This seems cool, but I was wondering: Why is it called "3D printing" machine and not "sculpting" machine?