Guide to this year's crop of 3D printers



Brian sez, "At CES, someone told me that there are something like 15 consumer 3D printers on the market. Turns out that was a low-ball. Kits included, there are 24 in this roundup — and that's not including some that didn't make the cut for a variety of reasons…"

CES 2013 proved to be something of a coming out party for consumer-facing 3D printers. Sure MakerBot earned a fair amount of attention at last year's show with the announcement of the Replicator, which snagged its share of awards from various press outlets. This year, however, saw a relative deluge in 3D-printing representation, with strong showings from 3D Systems, FormLabs, MakerBot and the cloud-based 3D printer, Sculpteo. Even with so many companies rising to prominence, the dream of truly mainstream 3D printing still feels a ways off — if that is indeed where we're inevitably heading.

The shape of things to come: A consumer's guide to 3D printers

(Thanks, Brian!)