What are 3D Printers?

Recently, I purchased a 3D printer. With the new job snuggly under my belt and the baby now at a more reasonable age, I thought the time was ripe to get a new technological hobby. Something I noticed though is that when I tell people I have a 3D printer, more often than not they ask me if I have, or plan to, make a gun. At first I found this shocking, but now I've come to expect it. Despite what major news outlets might lead you to believe though, 3D printers aren't just weapons waiting to happen. On the contrary, they're wonderful machines that have been improving lives for everyone and will continue to do so. So, what exactly are they?

I will have follow-up posts about them as I continue to learn myself, but in a nutshell, a 3D printer is a printer that can make things. The one I have is called a Solidoodle 2, and looks like this:

I'll be writing up another post that explains all the parts in more detail, but all 3D printers have these basic things:

• Filament- This is the "stuff" that makes the items. Usually this is a plastic, but some 3D printers can print chocolate, wood, glass, or even organic tissue.
• Extruder- This is the part that both melts the filament and moves to make the shapes needed to produce the item.
• Axes (singular- axis)- These are the things- usually rods- that the extruder moves on to make its shapes. There is always an X (left and right), Y (forwards and backwards) and Z (up and down) axis.
• Bed- This is the platform the printed object sits on while it is being printed. These can have a surprising amount of variety to them and can affect the print drastically.

I will continue to write articles explaining these marvelous machines more in the future, and will hopefully have some pictures of things I've printed to post here soon. In the meantime, if you have any questions about them, please feel free to email me. Additionally, I will be having public Google Hangouts when I'm using the printer, so if you follow TechKNOWLEDGEy Today on Google+, you just may get to see me and ask me questions live!