Do you think the 3D printer could become a household item like the PC is now?
Lose a chess piece? Need new footwear, clothing, kitchen/household/office stuff, personal stuff (eyeglasses etc) almost anything... Your household 3D printer can produce almost any kind of thing any time you need it.
I doubt it. Even if they make them cheaper and less fussy I don't really see it. I don't see many people having much use for them. You have to be a tinkerer and it takes a fair bit of technical thinking, lot's of screen time, and the process is slow. The big reason is they take up a lot of room for them to be able to make anything of much use. Doubt people will find a trade off of keeping one when space of keeping one vs. use comes into play.
I'm sure they will become much more common in handyman and crafty peoples basements and garages though.
I can't imagine it as becoming as ubiquitous as the computer. You'd need to learn not only how to programme it (or write CAD/CAM files for it) - a very advanced skill of its own - you also need to understand materials and their manipulation, limits etc. Effectively you adding a complete, very deep layer of skill to the craft itself.
And I cannot imagine a domestic-pattern 3D printer of attainable cost and compactness being able to make some of the items Kittigate suggests. The chess piece, perhaps, but these machines can produce only one type of item - that which can be moulded in thermoplastic. (There are 3D printers that can sinter metal but this in industrial realms.)
Whilst there already 3D printers being used as craft hobby machines, their owners are almost axiomatically people with the associated craft knowledge and skill. Many other people nowadays seem so devoid of practical experience and understanding of the most basic tools, they don't even know how to use a knife and fork.
With respect to Glis, the machines' speed is not really important. It may take a few hours to print a simple item but how long would it take to make it in more conventional ways, or to find and buy one made commercially? Besides, if it's being used in the home, that time does not matter. While the thing is printing you can get on with something else.
Plingsby 