I've decided to take the icy plunge into 3D printing. Been interested in the technology since I first encountered it whilst working in the Strategic Research Centre for Rolls-Royce (Power systems not cars - so no, I didn't have a great company car!). We were looking at metal sintering technologies to produce complex metallic jet engine components my 'additive' manufacture - rather than machining them out of blocks of metal.

There have been 'consumer' printers around for some time but only recently have the cost/performance figures began to look sensible - might be wrong of course but time will tell. This post is a very basic intro to the technology and a chat about my final choice of printer - hope it works OK!