The above link is to a 5 minute video that shows an inexpensive $1300 3D printer in action.
The video shows an intricate green rook chess piece that the machine manufactured in 45 minutes, from $3 worth of material.
This is a scaled down 3D printer intended for use at home. I have previously read where thoughtful people believe 3D printing will be as big a revolution as the internet (something on that scale anyway).
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The material cost and inaccuracy of the final product makes 3D printing inferior to buying mass-manufactured goods. Maybe someone can use it to custom-design and print a part they need for something or other, but I haven’t seen success stories of people boasting that they did this.
The people most interested in it these days seem to be those who want to print AR-15 stripped lower receivers.
I agree with Artichoke. The material cost is high. The problem that I see is the chess pieces produced from a 3D printer would be that the pieces aren’t weighted. An unweighted chess set currently can be had for much less than $15 for 32 and sometimes 34 pieces. The pieces are also not durable, per the video.
Even if the technology becomes less expensive for the materials and the materials themselves become more durable, they would still need to come up with a weighting system that would give good balance and heft to the pieces and make sure the weights don’t fall out easily. There also is a need for some type of felt or billiard cloth cut-outs for the bottom of the pieces.
Yes, this system might be a nice novelty, but I don’t see it easily producing a chess set that is durable and playable for games of Chess.
True, but will it look, feel or weigh anything like the other pawns?
My guess is not with the current technology, but give them a few decades and you may be able to order your Earl Grey tea this way, just like Captain Picard.
but they use 2-d printer and “step” it vertically in extremely small increments to create a very detailed 3-d printer, printing cells onto the organ until it has the right shape.