Comments on: Popular synthesizer manufacturer wants you to print out your own replacement knobs

By: DannyB2

DannyB2 — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 17:39:00 +0000

3D printers may become common in another sense. Remember before laser and inkjet printers? Printing presses were too expensive for everyone to have one. Copiers were affordable for offices, but not economical for large runs. For those there were local print shops. Even in a small town you might go to a print shop to get something typeset and printed in volume. Or even in not so much volume.

As 3D printers become more affordable, before they are in every home, might we see them appear as the main function of a local business that can 3D print anything you can bring in on a flash drive? Everyone could have the blessings of one-off 3D high quality 3D printing and reasonable prices. The business would get the scale of volume. Like the old print shop days. Or in present day, think of it is a “kinkos” for 3D printing.

Now we just need the standardization and wide availability of easy to use software to generate printable designs, standardization of file formats, etc.

By: Josh Jasper

Josh Jasper — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 08:34:00 +0000

You mean priced at a rate that makes sense for the average person (NOT A HOBBYIST) to buy them for situations like this, right now. At this moment. Not in the future. Now.

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 22:53:00 +0000

He replaced his knob with hard plastic, what do you expect?

By: Gunter Hå Olsen

Gunter Hå Olsen — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:34:00 +0000

You’ve broken… the sleeve? Wtf are you doing with it?

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:58:00 +0000

It’s like it’s really 1993 in here!

By: Viral Videos

Viral Videos — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 18:20:00 +0000

I can’t wait until we can print out our own fleshlight sleeve replacements.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 02:04:00 +0000

Sorry, that was mean. I think my perception that you were unable to imagine a future where 3d printers are ubiquitous made me scared for the future, and therefore angry, making me lash out.

Peace

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 01:59:00 +0000

Drooooool…

By: jimbeaux

jimbeaux — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 00:45:00 +0000

“The Explosive Growth of 3D Printers”

http://tech.slashdot.org/story/12/10/01/129242/the-explosive-growth-of-3d-printing

By: timquinn

timquinn — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 23:41:00 +0000

promising to work harder in the future. That never works.

By: Steve Olsen

Steve Olsen — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:50:00 +0000

If synth nerd logic was applied to cooking we’d all be eating 45yr old meals :)

This one though, as you said, is like gasoline on a fire. I observe from a distance on some synth nerd sites and TE talk just goes south… fast

By: Susan Carley Oliver

Susan Carley Oliver — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:26:00 +0000

International shipping and handling is, indeed, a bag of headaches. This is a great step in the right direction.

By: Susan Carley Oliver

Susan Carley Oliver — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 22:25:00 +0000

Yes, they’ll never become common! Ever!

Just like the fax machine never became common. Or those newfangled horseless carriage thingamabobs.

By: Robert McKenna

Robert McKenna — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:49:00 +0000

Instead of popular I think “divisive” would be a better description of Teenage Engineering. Nothing guarantees hate posts on a synth nerd site like news from TE. Hipster toys etc.

This one didn’t as its so clearly a great idea. I just dropped 90 yoyos on a plastic shelf for my fridge that they shipped from Korea.

And while it’s true the printers are not common yet, more people doing this would open up a market for high street print shops. At least until they become common.

By: Crashproof

Crashproof — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:47:00 +0000

I’ve owned a number of synths, and can count on zero hands the number of replacement plastic bits for knobs that I’ve needed.

The #1 thing that goes wrong with audio hardware is cables getting wonky, and the #2 thing is jacks getting wonky.

By: Scott Heinowski

Scott Heinowski — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:41:00 +0000

Teenage Engineering is Stockholm based, so its international for a huge chunk of their clientele which is a bag of headaches. They would most chances need local distributors (like maybe amazon, or something more boutque) for it to make sense

By: oasisob1

oasisob1 — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:06:00 +0000

Go find out what it costs to send a bit or bob in a padded envelope, priority mail, across the US. I just sent three sheets of cardboard from USA East coast to Western US for $7.00. That’s ridiculous. Even if I’d been smart enough to use priority flat rate, that’s $5.15. Add to that your cost of bubble wrap and travel to the USPO, and it just isn’t worth it, and the customer doesn’t want to pay what it really costs, either.

By: dawdler

dawdler — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:59:00 +0000

i think what they mean is they don’t want to spend the money

By: lintman

lintman — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Really, no “good delivery service for small items”? How much does one of those bits and pieces weigh? Half an ounce? Can’t they get a small padded envelope and just drop it in the mail?

By: Daemonworks

Daemonworks — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:31:00 +0000

Now, if only 3d printers were common.

By: Matthew Petty

Matthew Petty — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:42:00 +0000

A friend had a Roland TB-303 where at least two of the knobs were replaced with BIC pen caps. 3D printing would solve that!

By: morcheeba

morcheeba — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:08:00 +0000

And the yellow one works EXACTLY like lego, too!

By: Pea Hicks

Pea Hicks — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 18:03:00 +0000

this is a nitpick, but technically these aren’t “replacement” parts per se, rather they’re optional add-on accessories that provide additional tactile functionality to the OP-1 synth. they sort of work like Lego.

By: Henry Pootel

Henry Pootel — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:37:00 +0000

Bobbit rejoices

By: Conan Librarian

Conan Librarian — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 17:22:00 +0000

Five years ago they laughed at me when I told them this was going to happen one day.