We've been talking a lot about the history of desktop 3D printing, what makes them unique, details about the different additive technologies involved, and even took a visit to the workshop to meet one. But it is worth pausing here a moment to talk about a number of ways that you might gain access to printers or at the very least 3D printing services where you are located. The emergence of a desktop class and range of price points has increased the number of individuals willing and able to purchase their own equipment, but the story of desktop 3D printing's expansion doesn't end there. There are many more avenues you can explore than ever before if you're hunting for opportunities to try out 3D printing for yourself before you take the plunge to become a desktop 3D printer owner. Source 1, the Internet. Probably the most common place where future 3D printer operators experience a 3D printer for the first time is on the Internet. Even beyond the websites of the printer manufacturers and resellers themselves, there are thousands and thousands of videos, photos, and accounts that allow you to encounter desktop 3D printers published each and every day. While this doesn't sound strange to 21st century years, what don't we first see on the Internet these days, it's worth mentioning that the increase in awareness of desktop 3D printing in contemporary culture owes much to the evolution of how we consume and communicate about our interests online. If there hadn't been an explosion in amateur, DIY and maker your video content online, I'm not sure mainstream audiences would have developed such affection for desktop 3D printers. Have your eye on a specific model of printer and aren't sure if it's as good as the designer claims it to be, spend time hunting online for professional and amateur reviews, as well as going through the heaps and heaps of photos and videos across social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo. It won't be hard to find something about 3D printers even if it can be tricky to locate recent and useful stuff. In fact, these devices can be such photo darlings that site you already use might have an active desktop 3D printing community presence and ways to hunt by tags for a 3D printer and 3DEP to uncover individually posted community authored media that can help validate or disprove the manufacturer's claim. 3D printing time-lapse videos are particularly popular. They can accelerate the activity of hours or days down into a thrilling 20 seconds magician's act. Now, this is not necessarily the whole story for how the printer functions, but at least validates that the printer used may have successfully fabricated that particular design. Source 2, 3D printing retail stores. If you're in an area lucky enough to have its own 3D printer retail presence, visiting that store can be a great way to see the machine you're interested in in person. While there aren't that many dedicated 3D printing only stores these days, the peak period for this was probably back in 2013 or 2014, most of the major markets where 3D printers are frequently sold will have some brick and mortar opportunity, but it's better. Given that the store likely wants you to consider purchasing a unit from them, you should have no problem pestering them for more honest answers to your tough questions about the product. If they give you a bad experience, you know where to find them. Several of the more entrepreneurial of these stores are sometimes willing to print a sample or connect you with a local part performance service so that you can evaluate the printer that interests you from the perspective that is most critical. How well will it produce what you need it to produce? Source 3, libraries and makerspaces. Even in towns that do not have physical stores that sell 3D printers, chances are that there may be opportunities for free or membership access within local public libraries, school fab labs, academic makerspaces in the universities, science and history museums, hackerspaces, community texts centers, business incubators and membership-based makerspaces. Public libraries and educational institutions in particular have been making efforts to make these handy tools available to the populations they serve. While it might not be easy to find a handy listing that details which of institutions in your area have this technology on offer, searching for news pieces posted about 3D printing in your neighborhood can often be a great chance to learn who has recently invested in 3D printing and who's just done a ribbon cutting on a new makerspace. Source 4, 3D printing meet-ups. Even if there are no retail stores nor free paid printer access week to week where you live, check to see if there are any regularly occurring 3D printing meet-up groups or one-off events that you can attend. Opportunities to see these devices and speak with others who are using them about their experiences with each model and material they have tried is invaluable. There are sometimes even grass root printing services. They can help you find local printer operators in your area who can help you with your project and tell you what they think about the equipment that they use every day to fill customer orders. Even if there aren't local events and meet-ups, chances are that at some point over the course of the year, there will be an event such as a Maker Faire, a Technology Expo, a Design Conference somewhere in your region. Source 5, service bureaus and crowd printing. If you are ready to dive in to 3D printing immediately, but want to postpone the expenses involved with committing to a desktop 3D printer for much longer, there are third-party printing services and communities that can print your designs on demand instead. In addition to Shapeways, i.materialise, Sculpteo, and other go to services, this is a great way to have your models printed for you while you continue to master your skills and research the many desktop 3D printer options. In addition, these services offer materials and processes not otherwise easy to own. Source 6, selected retail stores and malls. There are now 3D printer stations available for free or rental use and a handful of locations in places like office supply chains, UPS Stores, and Microsoft Stores. By the time you're hearing this, many more services may be available in a city near you, more options for you to try before you commit yourself to a particular printer or printing technology for your home hackerspace, school, or business. On the other hand, many of the places I could have listed here might have tightened their belts and drop the 3D station to leave others to take up the cause of this desktop factory in the future. Not all of these routes will work for all geographies and all students, but the pervasiveness of this technology is quite remarkable. There are villages with power grids running on gasoline generators that may also have 3D printers, and there also enterprise automotive companies exploring this technology for the first time. While I base this lecture largely around my experiences accessing desktop 3D printers in North America and Europe, widespread global interests in this field encourages me to hope that these options might exist for you wherever you live, and hopefully, all our 3D hardware learners can try this. Have an excellent option for trying out 3D printers that I didn't list here, share it with me and your classmates here within this course.
