[Doogle]

".....couldn't have a name like Sam Smith eh?"

[fireman15]

We purchased our first 3D printer last November. Along with open source freeware, there is an incredible amount of professional design software made available to hobbyists by the developers for free. My favorite’s are Autodesk’s Fusion 3D and Autodesk’s 123D Design.

I have printed out a wide variety of the typical objects that can be found on thingyverse.com and other download sites, but I have used it to make many parts for repairing various items around the house. I have also designed a few interesting projects that I will eventually share myself when they are perfected.

The next big project that I intend to work on is the MPCNC open source project which stands for Mostly Printed CNC. It is a CNC router that is scalable and can be used for a wide variety of projects. The electronics, stepper motors, router and other parts that are not printed will still cost several hundred dollars, but it is a very capable machine with a lot of support in the community.

[Vince Ferrer]

If we want to sum up the idea of 3D printing in health care, it is that health care is moving from the older factory model of mass production and interchangeable parts, to personalized medicine. Devices are printed to meet an individual's body, they don't have to accept a general device that doesn't fit anyone perfectly.

Drugs and organs will also be just as individualized. Right now, drugs are approved based upon mass testing with lots of people, and either approved for everyone or denied on those groups. In the future, before giving you a drug, the hospital will grow a liver from your stem cells, then test your own reactions to the drug with the printed liver. They will know what drugs you can handle before they inject you with them.