WEBVTT - Are 3D Printers The New VR? 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:07.280 Brought to you by Toyota. Let's go places. Welcome to 0:00:07.440 --> 0:00:14.720 Forward Thinking. Hey there, and welcome to Forward Thinking, the 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.200 podcast that looks at the future and says something like 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:22.560 a recipe bits and pieces and bits and pieces. And 0:00:23.000 --> 0:00:27.120 I'm Jonathan Stupor Stricklin, and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and I'm 0:00:27.200 --> 0:00:30.000 Joe McCormick. And hey, guys, I have a question for you. Yeah, 0:00:30.320 --> 0:00:32.879 do y'all remember the fact that we have a three 0:00:32.960 --> 0:00:37.040 D printer in the office. I do sometimes look at 0:00:37.080 --> 0:00:40.120 it and think what an expensive paperweight. I was going 0:00:40.159 --> 0:00:43.959 to make the exact same joke. Where is it now? 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:47.680 It's around the corner somewhere, isn't it if Yeah, it's 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.159 near the conference rooms. Yeah, it's over by where our 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.280 our our dear friend and co worker Robert Lamb hides 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.120 out from the rest of us, and he's in the office. 0:00:56.280 --> 0:01:00.000 Does he actually hide over there? Is that where he is? Huh? 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.200 That's his spy cave, thybe, I shouldn't have revealed. Just 0:01:04.600 --> 0:01:07.480 move his desk over there. I mean, he's got a 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:11.039 lot of stuff. So okay, alright, So so we've got 0:01:11.680 --> 0:01:17.240 the the forbidden zone in which Robert Lamb and the 0:01:17.280 --> 0:01:20.839 three D printer have some sort of uneasy truce. Well, 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.720 I just wanted to highlight the fact that when we 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:26.840 very first got our our three D printer, um that 0:01:27.160 --> 0:01:30.720 was it was. It was through some work relationships. Uh, 0:01:30.760 --> 0:01:33.199 and we we don't want to come off as ungrateful 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:35.360 like that was a cool thing, but at the very 0:01:35.440 --> 0:01:37.679 first we were we were trying to figure out, Okay, 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:39.959 let's figure out how to use this thing, you know, yeah, 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:42.560 three D printer, Gonna do some stuff with it. And 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:44.120 I was doing a lot of stuff with it. I 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.160 installed software on my computer and I was making you know, 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:52.320 designs and what is he you know, CAD design, the 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:57.520 computer assisted design, and and it was fun for a 0:01:57.520 --> 0:02:02.360 while until man, it was just really really hard to 0:02:02.400 --> 0:02:04.960 get that thing to work. It was a lot of 0:02:04.960 --> 0:02:07.360 work to use the three D printer, I mean it 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:11.240 and like most jobs, failed at some point along the line, 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.360 failed really spectacularly, and like the machine or the software 0:02:15.400 --> 0:02:17.919 didn't have any way of knowing when it had failed, 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:20.440 so it would just continue to fail more and more 0:02:20.520 --> 0:02:24.440 hilariously until you had something like John Carpenter's the Thing 0:02:24.600 --> 0:02:29.000 in place of whatever it was trying to plastic hairball. Yeah, 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:31.040 well and I mean and and the reason for this 0:02:31.120 --> 0:02:35.720 is that it was it was a relatively inexpensive unit 0:02:35.919 --> 0:02:43.160 that was meant for home hobbyists. And yeah it wasn't. 0:02:43.160 --> 0:02:44.600 So it wasn't. I mean, so you know, like like 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:48.320 the all of the parts were not like like finely 0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.280 tuned for the best possible use. And their software was 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:54.600 all software that you had to go find. It didn't 0:02:54.639 --> 0:02:57.600 necessarily come with the machine. Well, one piece of software 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:00.360 came with it, others did not. And also just the 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:07.760 fact that different factors can change the the the elements 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.400 of the plastic that you're using. Right, So for example, 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.000 if you've got a lot more humidity or the temperature 0:03:13.040 --> 0:03:16.200 is different in the place where you are producing things, 0:03:16.639 --> 0:03:18.720 it may mean that you have to make some adjustments 0:03:18.760 --> 0:03:22.240 to Like the way a three D printer typically works. 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:25.640 The basic three D printers is it lays down a 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:30.200 thin layer of plastic on a heated um platform, and 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.160 the platform is heated in order to make sure that 0:03:32.200 --> 0:03:36.080 the plastic doesn't doesn't cool too quickly, stays tacky enough 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.560 to accept another layer of plastic on top of it, right, 0:03:38.600 --> 0:03:41.600 And you do layer by layer by layer until the 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.360 object you want to create has been made. And if 0:03:44.400 --> 0:03:47.240 you're talking about larger three D printers, they might even 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.120 have a heated chamber in order to keep a an 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:54.560 object from collapsing in on itself, for um, making sure 0:03:54.560 --> 0:03:57.400 it maintains its structural integrity as you go through the 0:03:57.400 --> 0:03:58.880 print job. But there are a lot of things that 0:03:58.920 --> 0:04:02.000 could go wrong. I mean, if the plastic is not 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:05.480 extruding at the proper rate, that's a problem. If the 0:04:05.520 --> 0:04:09.000 print head drags across any layer of plastic, it could 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:14.200 completely dislodge it. Yeah, yeah, if any part yeah right right, 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.200 if it if it scratches it in any way and 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:19.800 creates an uneven surface for printing. Yeah, yeah, because it's 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.960 just following directions, like, it's following a series of movements 0:04:24.080 --> 0:04:26.000 that it thinks it needs to do to complete a 0:04:26.000 --> 0:04:30.200 print job. Three D printers are not aware, generally speaking, 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:32.360 of how a print job is going, so if something 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.720 does go wrong, it just keeps on going wronger um. 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.119 And then can be very funny. It could be funny, 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.960 but it can also be very frustrating if you're trying 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.520 to print something for a specific purpose. Yeah, so today, 0:04:45.560 --> 0:04:47.640 if you can't tell already, we're going to be doing 0:04:47.880 --> 0:04:50.280 a three D printing update. We've done episodes on three 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:55.320 D printing before. We did one in October three D 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:59.680 Printing in Medicine, and one in August the Art of 0:04:59.800 --> 0:05:02.000 three D Printing. I think it was all about art, 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:04.920 wasn't Yeah, that was about replicating works of art and 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:07.000 also creating new works of art with three D printing. 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:11.560 We did one about three D printing in construction, I believe, yeah, 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.800 in May, often called print Your Dream Home. And then 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:19.919 our fourth ever episode that we ever did was called 0:05:20.040 --> 0:05:26.240 three D Printer Jam When tables are intellectual property? Um. Yeah, 0:05:26.279 --> 0:05:30.920 that's from March, and those those are the episodes we've 0:05:30.960 --> 0:05:34.240 done that are entirely about three D printing. Of course, 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.479 we've mentioned it like a lot of times if you 0:05:36.560 --> 0:05:40.400 listen to the podcast, um as an element of technology 0:05:40.440 --> 0:05:43.800 that researchers have been using and creating whatever it is 0:05:43.839 --> 0:05:47.440 that they're creating exactly. And so today we're really focusing 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.360 primarily on consumer three D printers, stuff that would be 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:57.120 in private hands maybe for some small businesses, but additive 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.640 manufacturing is clearly very important in lots of in industries. 0:06:00.680 --> 0:06:02.839 It's used in R and D and production on a 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:06.080 professional level more than ever before. Like it's three D 0:06:06.160 --> 0:06:12.120 printing is enormous in various industries. It's great for prototyping. 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:16.040 In fact, that's the primary use for three D printers today. 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:19.880 Or yes, yeah, that that is on the cusp of changing, 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.120 but it is. It has for the longest time been 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.159 the main use for any three D printer. The idea 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.120 was that you would come up with a design for 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:31.760 a product, maybe a change in a product line. You 0:06:31.800 --> 0:06:33.880 could then use a three D printer to build a 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:36.320 model of it and see if it would actually work 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.800 in the real world, because sometimes a design that works 0:06:39.800 --> 0:06:43.520 on paper is not practical, and you could do it quickly, 0:06:43.600 --> 0:06:45.760 so if it didn't work, you go back to the 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:49.479 drawing board, makes some changes, print those out and try that. 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:55.159 And it speeds up the prototyping process by several factors. 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.440 And also because it's additive rather than subtractive, it's less 0:06:58.440 --> 0:07:02.280 wasteful than other method. It's a prototyping so we've talked 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.719 all about that extensively. And of course, though I wonder 0:07:05.760 --> 0:07:08.479 if the wastefulness thing will will be challenged by the 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.920 fact that you have to create like four failed attempts 0:07:12.000 --> 0:07:14.720 at something before it actually takes. I think it depends 0:07:14.800 --> 0:07:20.120 upon the printer. To some printers maybe uh less prone 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:24.480 to print failures than others. Oh, I know that. I 0:07:24.600 --> 0:07:26.960 just mean, if you've got one of these that I 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.679 still think it's probably faster than than like carving away 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:34.200 at some material so that you finally get it whatever 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:37.280 it is you were you were aiming for, depending upon 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:39.800 the how you're carving. I mean, if you have a 0:07:39.840 --> 0:07:42.720 robot arm doing it. Maybe. Yeah. I was about to say, 0:07:42.720 --> 0:07:46.200 like I am not personally a master whittler. No, I 0:07:46.200 --> 0:07:49.480 I've been known to whittle, but I mostly little toothpicks, 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:55.120 depending I'm aiming for, like a spoon, but it never 0:07:55.720 --> 0:07:59.040 I never get there, so toothpick it is. I figure, 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.200 you know, you just say, whatever you end up with, 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:03.240 that's what you were uting for, and then it's a 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.120 success every time. Um. But we were also seeing the 0:08:07.120 --> 0:08:10.480 potential for using three D printers in areas like in 0:08:10.640 --> 0:08:13.720 space exploration. There have been a lot of recent experiments 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:16.760 NASA has done several about how how can we do 0:08:16.840 --> 0:08:21.000 three D printing in a micro gravity environment where including 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.440 three D printing of food yep, yep so, and that 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.840 introduces challenges that you know you're on Earth, we just 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.080 don't think about because we can rely on gravity to 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:33.920 be a component of a three D printer and hold 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.959 stuff in place. But up in space that's not necessarily 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.280 a luxury that you have at your disposal. UM. But 0:08:42.840 --> 0:08:45.200 on that consumer side, we really want to look at 0:08:45.240 --> 0:08:48.280 what's going on, because when we started this podcast a 0:08:48.280 --> 0:08:51.080 few years ago, uh, three D printing was one of 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.680 those buzz words that was really really starting to hit 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:58.720 UM full speed, because I can tell you the first 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.280 year I went to CE which was two thousand and eight, 0:09:01.800 --> 0:09:03.600 was the first time I had ever seen a three 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.120 D printer in person. I saw a maker bought three 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.280 D printer. UH. My UM co host of Tech Stuff 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:12.920 at the time, Chris Pallette was with me, and he 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:15.840 flipped out when he saw it. He knew immediately what 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:18.640 it was he was looking at, whereas I did not. 0:09:19.040 --> 0:09:21.160 I had never encountered the three D printer before, and 0:09:21.160 --> 0:09:22.720 when I found out, I was like, Wow, that's a 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:26.600 really cool idea. And obviously those had been used in 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:30.640 various industrial purposes for a while, but it had really 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.840 just started to dawn in the consumer realm, right It 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.800 just started to show up By two thousand thirteen, when 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.600 we were really getting started with this show, uh, that 0:09:43.280 --> 0:09:46.760 it had gone beyond just hobbyists, like a very small 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:48.920 group of hobbyists who were aware of it, and it 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:54.240 entered into the general public consciousness. And that's really when 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.240 things took off, and we wanted to kind of take 0:09:56.920 --> 0:10:00.680 bearings of where we are now based upon are compared 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:05.319 to where we were then, right, And it's it's not 0:10:06.160 --> 0:10:08.720 it's not like the graph just goes up and up 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:12.800 and up into the right. No, I mean I remember 0:10:12.800 --> 0:10:15.800 what things were like back when we started this show 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.679 in Yeah, So essentially, I guess the question I want 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:25.640 to ask today is is three D printing another example 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:31.040 of a bursting or recently burst tech enthusiasm bubble, kind 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.560 of like you you might think of virtual reality in 0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:37.080 the nineties, not where the technology is you know, never 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.920 going anywhere, but at least for a while, it has 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:45.680 seriously squandered its public interest capital, right, because back in 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:49.959 two thousand thirteen, the narrative that was being shared was 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.439 that three D printers were going to be ubiquitous. Yeah, 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:54.360 everyone's going to have one and one in every home. 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:56.520 He's going to change the world. Yeah, you could print 0:10:56.520 --> 0:10:59.199 anything you needed. If your chair broke, you could print 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.600 a replacement or the part that broke. If you needed 0:11:02.640 --> 0:11:05.920 to end up printing out utensils, you could do that. 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.480 Like you've got more people over than you have plates, 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.959 for no problem, print a few plates. I think it 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:16.720 was it was seen as a form of democratization and 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:21.600 decentralization in a way, doing for physical objects what the 0:11:21.640 --> 0:11:27.400 Internet does for information. Right, And so there there's one 0:11:27.480 --> 0:11:30.640 question that we have in here. We were asking did 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:35.760 it did it really have that fund that huge of 0:11:35.840 --> 0:11:39.520 an impact on people? And I would argue that in general, no, 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.840 it has not. That's not to say that there aren't 0:11:43.200 --> 0:11:47.120 specific cases where it did have an enormous impact, there are, sure, 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:48.960 But the kind of the kind of fear that was 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.920 being expressed that was like, well, I'm I'm a I'm 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:56.160 a furniture designer, and will anyone ever buy my art again, 0:11:56.360 --> 0:11:59.600 my my my artistic beautiful items again if they can 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.240 just print them at home, which everyone will be able 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.559 to do really soon, right, that the fear that businesses 0:12:05.640 --> 0:12:11.280 like Ikea would disappear because anyone could just go take 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:15.000 some photos of Ikea furniture, go home, and three D 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:17.720 model them and then print them up in a day's 0:12:17.760 --> 0:12:20.240 time and then you've got your own, you know, shelf 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:23.280 with a weird Scandinavian name. And and looking at our 0:12:23.320 --> 0:12:28.240 at our legacy collection of of these bizarre plastic hairballs 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:31.600 that that's hilarious and it's like fear is just funny. 0:12:31.720 --> 0:12:35.200 And even the successful print jobs, which are mostly just 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:39.320 chot keys, right there's we didn't really succeed in printing 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:44.120 anything of of real substance, and at least that's on 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:46.440 a large scale. The best thing I was able to 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:50.800 print was a flat, uh flat thing in the shape 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.880 of the state of Tennessee, which is my home state. 0:12:54.200 --> 0:12:56.520 I remember that we used to have a three D 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:58.920 printer before the one that we've got now. It was 0:12:58.960 --> 0:13:01.440 a smaller one, and I remember one of the things 0:13:01.440 --> 0:13:03.600 that printed, and I remember being blown away by it 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.760 at the time was it was like a little castle 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.559 tower kind of like right yeah, and it had windows 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:13.319 in it and if you look through the windows, you 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:15.959 can see a spiral staircase on the inside of the 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:18.960 chess piecease. And there was that, and that just blew 0:13:18.960 --> 0:13:22.400 my mind. It printed, it printed a spiral staircase on 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:25.840 the inside of this thing. That's that first printer you 0:13:25.880 --> 0:13:27.840 had might have been a better one. It was. It 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:30.520 was also it was also a much smaller one, and 0:13:31.520 --> 0:13:34.960 it was not capable of printing in two different colors 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.679 of plastic simultaneously. But then you could argue neither was 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:42.840 ours though it was designed to do so. Um, So yes, 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:46.280 I would say that in large part it has failed 0:13:46.280 --> 0:13:48.520 to deliver. However, that being said, I do not want 0:13:48.600 --> 0:13:52.120 to be completely dismissive, because we are very much aware 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:56.000 of cases where three D printers, even consumer level three 0:13:56.080 --> 0:13:59.559 D printers, have made a remarkable difference in people's lives. 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.840 One example of that are there's there are a couple 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:08.720 of different projects where people have open sourced the design 0:14:08.800 --> 0:14:13.080 and production of prosthetics for kids who might not otherwise 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:15.400 be able to afford them. Yeah, and I like, like 0:14:15.440 --> 0:14:18.720 a whole bunch of high schoolers have done this, and 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:22.440 it's amazing. Now, these prosthetics that are designed, they're not 0:14:22.520 --> 0:14:25.520 intended to be permanent replacements. They tend to be sort 0:14:25.560 --> 0:14:29.360 of a temporary thing while a child is still growing, 0:14:29.520 --> 0:14:33.840 because obviously that's going to require new prosthetics over the 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:37.040 course of of the person's life. But they are something 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.560 that allows a child to have a little more utility, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:44.080 uh than they would otherwise, And so there's no denying 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:46.120 that it's had an impact. And again, that was using 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:52.440 consumer level three D printers. But that's a special case, right. 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:55.760 We are not in the future where everybody has their 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.120 own three D printer, where everyone is printing all the 0:14:58.160 --> 0:15:01.240 physical things they need. Well, And it's not just that 0:15:01.240 --> 0:15:04.240 that hasn't happened yet, because you could still argue I 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:06.800 guess that, well, maybe that's going to happen someday in 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.520 the far future. It's just you know, no one would 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:12.280 have expected such a thing to happen so soon. But 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.640 I'm interested in the fact that that used to be 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:19.720 a much more strongly represented narrative in tech journalism and 0:15:19.840 --> 0:15:22.720 the popular consciousness than it is today. I don't hear 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:26.160 people talking about that anymore. And it feels like the 0:15:26.200 --> 0:15:28.480 idea that that Back to the Future Part two had 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:30.920 that we would have a fax machine in every room, 0:15:30.600 --> 0:15:34.040 yeah right, right, yeah, And so that kind of ground 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.240 level enthusiasm for three D printers does not seem to 0:15:37.240 --> 0:15:39.640 be on the rise. And I also wanted to talk 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:45.720 about some some specific market trends, like just economic trends 0:15:45.720 --> 0:15:48.120 regarding three D printing. Yeah, because this can this can 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:52.440 lead to evidence about whether or not that that we're 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:56.200 actually seeing a bubble or if it's just no, we're 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:59.280 just on the journey to that destination. We just haven't 0:15:59.320 --> 0:16:03.040 reached it yet. Yeah. I think that was really the 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.880 first big boom year in the stock market for for 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.840 companies that were offering commercial and consumer three D printing 0:16:09.880 --> 0:16:13.320 technologies for sale. UH. Stratusis was up a hundred and 0:16:13.320 --> 0:16:16.880 sixty percent that year. That's that's pretty significant growth. Three 0:16:16.960 --> 0:16:23.400 D Systems was up two hundred and seventy stratess UH, 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:26.880 and their stocks would continue to rise. The Stratusis maintained 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:30.320 its growth longer. So Stratusis that you know, they said, well, 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.080 we we do three D printing solutions, so they were 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:36.480 one of the big consumer three D printing companies out there. 0:16:36.800 --> 0:16:40.720 According to Nasdaq, the Stratusis stock price peaked around a 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:43.000 hundred and thirty to a hundred and forty dollars a 0:16:43.080 --> 0:16:47.080 share around the end of and it stayed high through 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:51.080 the middle of but it has been falling ever since then. 0:16:51.160 --> 0:16:54.240 It's now close to about twenty bucks a share. That's 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.920 a pretty significant drop, although I would need to look 0:16:56.960 --> 0:16:59.040 into it further to see make sure like they didn't 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:01.760 have any stock splits or anything, because that can affect 0:17:01.800 --> 0:17:04.040 the price as well. But oh yeah, but assuming that 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:07.679 there weren't any splits, then yeah, that's not a great story. 0:17:08.000 --> 0:17:11.360 Uh again, Also three D Systems, I decided to look 0:17:11.400 --> 0:17:14.080 that up. The three D printer manufacturer three D Systems 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.439 peaked closer to the beginning of at about a hundred 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.640 bucks and has been mostly falling since then, is now 0:17:20.640 --> 0:17:23.920 out about fifteen bucks. Yeah, so if you look at 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:28.120 market trends, it's it's looking pretty dire, right that that 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.639 kind of leads to or leans us closer to the 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.320 conclusion that there was a bubble issue. Um. And you 0:17:35.320 --> 0:17:37.399 can you can also on the on the technology end, 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.120 on the price end of the technology, kind of look 0:17:40.160 --> 0:17:44.800 at at how how it's been developing over that period 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.960 of time, like like how how how low can you go? Um, 0:17:49.119 --> 0:17:51.120 Like like how how much can you make this available 0:17:51.119 --> 0:17:54.680 to people through price cuts? And and that affects there 0:17:54.720 --> 0:17:56.840 there are multiple effects that we would discuss your right, 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.520 like like you have the very low ends side. Once 0:18:00.560 --> 0:18:02.520 you get the price down to a certain amount, yes, 0:18:02.520 --> 0:18:05.800 you've made it more accessible to a larger audience. But 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.240 chances are, you know, the phrase you get what you 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:11.360 paid for it comes into play, right, So if you're 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:13.919 paying a smaller amount for a three D printer, chances 0:18:13.920 --> 0:18:15.960 are it's not at the quality of one of the 0:18:16.080 --> 0:18:18.680 really good ones, which means the experience of the person 0:18:18.760 --> 0:18:21.040 has even though they now have access to a three 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:25.520 D printer, is not necessarily a positive experience. Yeah, And 0:18:25.560 --> 0:18:28.280 I think there's like a strange little curve happening in 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.119 those prices over the past few years where wherein actually 0:18:31.160 --> 0:18:33.440 the prices have started to go up again for for 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.439 some of the like base unit models. And we'll talk 0:18:36.480 --> 0:18:39.080 about this. So so at the back at the kind 0:18:39.080 --> 0:18:40.960 of kind of beginning of this trend, back in a 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.560 the low end of consumer devices was a little bit 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:48.280 above a thousand bucks a pop um. The low end 0:18:48.320 --> 0:18:52.600 of of commercial devices was about ten thousand dollars. Yeah, 0:18:52.640 --> 0:18:56.239 by the end of we saw home units priced as 0:18:56.280 --> 0:19:01.360 low as two hundred. That's that's great. That's obviously not 0:19:01.680 --> 0:19:05.480 a advancement in the technology in that time, at least 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:08.200 leading to that kind of pricing. I think what happens 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:12.280 is this is an armchair analysis here, I would argue 0:19:12.320 --> 0:19:15.239 that what happens is in two thousand twelve UH and 0:19:15.480 --> 0:19:19.840 early two you see this incredible interest in the concept 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:25.160 of three D printing. UH the media, and the media 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.240 has involved, Investors are involved. As they start to drive 0:19:28.359 --> 0:19:34.680 up the market value of various companies, other companies say, hey, 0:19:34.960 --> 0:19:37.639 we can make some money getting into this business too. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:40.200 We like money. So you get a lot more companies 0:19:40.240 --> 0:19:43.000 making a lot more three D printers. Along the entire range. 0:19:43.040 --> 0:19:45.040 You've got some that are making very expensive ones and 0:19:45.080 --> 0:19:47.960 some making budget ones, trying to hit that consumer market 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.119 because once interest goes up super high, you can really 0:19:52.600 --> 0:19:55.440 profit off of that. Right. People, people know what three 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:58.240 D printing is, they've heard the term. They are eager 0:19:58.280 --> 0:20:01.119 to get involved in this. Uh. And if you're not 0:20:01.200 --> 0:20:04.000 already part of the hobbyist scene, you may not be 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:07.600 aware of what devices really are the best ones. You 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:09.920 may just see, oh, hey, I've heard of three D printing. 0:20:09.960 --> 0:20:12.720 This thing's on sale for two dollars. That's that's an 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:15.639 investment I feel comfortable making. It's like your well meaning 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.120 uncle getting you and in Timbo for and you just 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:24.600 started going like, well think thanks, Polly station three man, 0:20:24.640 --> 0:20:28.480 I played so many hours of Super Macio Brothers. It 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:33.640 was Ralph Macchio, but they never named the other one. Yeah. 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:37.359 Fun times anyway, So to kind of look at some 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.840 where the spread is right now, if you're looking at 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:43.679 like what's considered the best of three D printers in 0:20:43.840 --> 0:20:48.080 various categories. One of the resources I like is a 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:51.040 site called three D hubs dot com. I've used it 0:20:51.040 --> 0:20:53.760 before actually, because it also can put you in touch 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.560 with people who run businesses where they print three D 0:20:58.359 --> 0:21:01.399 objects for you. You can send them the plans or 0:21:01.480 --> 0:21:03.560 and and in fact I used this a couple of 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:06.480 times with some costume pieces I was able to send 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:10.119 because because our printer, well it's awesome. I mean, I 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.280 do really like our printer. It does definitely have some 0:21:13.400 --> 0:21:16.800 major problems that you've gotta babysit that thing which is 0:21:17.080 --> 0:21:20.359 problematic because it takes so long to print. Um, it 0:21:20.480 --> 0:21:23.280 was just not gonna I think. I recall at the time, 0:21:23.320 --> 0:21:25.680 the size of the build plate was an issue. Yes, 0:21:25.760 --> 0:21:27.919 I needed something that was going to be larger and 0:21:27.720 --> 0:21:29.520 I and I didn't want to have to break the 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:33.520 build up into too many smaller parts and then glue 0:21:33.520 --> 0:21:36.280 it all together. Uh. I did have it printed in 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.280 three parts because it was still pretty big. But I 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:41.720 was able to go with use three D hubs to 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.520 find someone and they were you know, they would oversee 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:48.280 the build and make sure the quality was there, so 0:21:48.320 --> 0:21:50.040 I didn't have to worry about any of that. But 0:21:50.119 --> 0:21:53.120 three D hubs also has a section where they rate 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:55.960 various three D printers that are on the market and 0:21:55.960 --> 0:21:59.679 they divide them up into categories that include enthusiast, plug 0:21:59.680 --> 0:22:02.879 and play, a budget and kits or d I Y projects. 0:22:03.680 --> 0:22:06.640 So the costs have certainly come down over the last 0:22:06.680 --> 0:22:08.280 few years. I mean, when you look at when they 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:10.760 were first on the market, you're talking in excess of 0:22:10.840 --> 0:22:14.359 five thousand dollars, but again by we're getting down to 0:22:14.440 --> 0:22:17.240 a round a thousand dollars. Today, if you want a 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:19.600 really nice three D printer, you're still paying more than 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:22.760 a thousand dollars. It's not like it's not like computers 0:22:23.160 --> 0:22:25.280 where you could say, well, I'm gonna get a mid 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:27.320 range computer and that's gonna be like a couple hundred 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:30.320 bucks or five hundred dollars, maybe on on the higher 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.639 end of mid range, and it's not like that. With 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:36.360 three D printers, you're still really getting what you pay for. 0:22:36.960 --> 0:22:40.640 Uh So, most of the reliable models they listed in 0:22:40.680 --> 0:22:45.160