Check out 3D printing....amazing

3D printers are affordable now. They all so far use plastic, although, there is a printer coming out - the Form 1 - that will use a light hardened resin like the expensive commercial machines. 3D printing at home is still in its beginning stages and it will only get better and more impressive in the years to come.

The printers that use plastic work just like a plotter, except the table moves down on a z-axis, and allows objects to be constructed in layers from the bottom up.

The Form 1 printer uses the same technique except it prints from the top down, and looks like it is lifting the printed object out of the pool of resin.

http://www.3dprinter.net/directory/personal-3d-printers

The most popular one is probably the Makerbot. They are about to release a new generation model with 100 micron resolution (about the thickness of a sheet of paper). The Makerbot people also started a website - Thingaverse - that allows people upload, share, and download 3D printing objects, as well as post pictures.

Then there's the Makergear, which can print at 20 micron resolution.

And then the Form 1 which was funded on kickstarter. I suspect this won't be as popular because the resin has similar properties to ABS plastic, and is WAY more expensive. It is also much smaller than the other printers. The resin can accidentally harden if exposed to light. However, since it uses a light hardening mechanism, it should be possible to add support for MANY new resins and other substances in the future that can be hardened with light.

Quoting Srehtims:

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Quoting CalebAndCo:

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Did you mean to post a link?

No, just wondering, some of the things they are doing with this technology.
It's not used only for printing, it is kind of a misnomer.
like Jay Leno, TV host hat collects cars, has a mechanism to create parts that can't be found  for his cars.
Medicine to grow body parts, etc.

...

Um, OK.

Quoting Grendell:

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3D printers are affordable now.

Now that's an interesting thesis.
Actually I wouldn't consider U$ 1,750 for a toy with (for me) very limited practical value as "affordable".

Definitely not something I see on my desktop for a long time. Prices below U$ 500 would be one premise.

I agree that these machines are currently reaching the region "Price-worthy".
But "affordable" in the sense of "being payable by the mass of the consumers" is something completely different.