3-D Printers will be part of just about every home within the next five years. The home brew crowd has been making them for several years, and they have just about reached the interest/price point where a major manufacturer (Mattel? Roland?
Apple?) will be giving them serious thought, unless a new maverick company can get there first, making it easy to use, maintain and store. Take a look at
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/printrbot/printrbot-your-first-3d-printer?ref=spotlight - this is so close to having a major brand slapped on it I can hardly wait - and may not! The kit level is well within reach, and small enough to hide on a workbench without a spouse's knowledge -
"Oh, Hi Honey! Remember how we needed that $400 part for the washer? Well, I made that here, as well as the doo-dad the garage wanted to charge you another $75 for so you could wash your windshield, and the little one's favorite toy truck is as good as new - the one you can only get on eBay for five times the price..."
Yep, these can pay for themselves in one year at this price, and a whole new industry of .dxf files will take over where mp3's are currently torrented. This should keep the lawyers busy too - as well as congress and the senate passing or fighting over bills to allow/disallow people to make their own repair parts - don't get me started here, we're already fighting the car manufacturers trying to stop our local garages from fixing our cars.
