Why get a 3d printer? What value do they bring? Personally, I think they solve many problems that the manufacturing industry has struggled with. Prototyping, for example, comes to mind. It might take the tool shop a week to build a prototype part just to see if something will fit in an assembly. If you just need to check the overall envelope, you can often do it much quicker on a 3d printer and iterate through the design process.

Personally, I use mine all the time to solve problems at home. My wife can’t find curtain tie backs that she likes? Fine, she can just sit with me while I design something and then I’ll print it for her.

We inherited a TV over the weekend. My father-in-law had it mounted on a wall in his workshop and he had thrown away the feet for it several years ago. He gave it to us and I thought it would be a good learning opportunity for my kids to learn how to solve problems. I had them design some feet for it. Their first step was to create a drawing on paper. I’m old fashioned. I still believe that if you can’t put it on paper then you probably have no business trying to put it on cad. Once I approved of their design they had to sit down and draft their new idea. Then they had to print it. What you see below is how a 10 year old solved the problem of a TV having no feet.