Lego 3D Printing

[garson]

Watch this video

Amazing what a bunch of plastic bricks can do!

[DLuders]

Yes, one can build a lot of things with Lego -- "This [LEGO 3D Milling Machine] model was developed by Arthur Sacek for ZOOM Education for Life":

[Phoxtane]

A 3D printer works by adding materials to create the final product. This device removes materials, making it a milling machine.

That said, I'd love to see a Lego-built 5-axis CNC machine!

[JopieK]

@phoxtane: exactly. I think we will be seeing more and more of this however (real 3D printing of custom LEGO acc.) At this moment the 3D printers are mostly not that accurate yet (at least the ones in Dutch FabLabs that I have experience with) but they are becoming better and better.

[Phoxtane]

At this moment the 3D printers are mostly not that accurate yet (at least the ones in Dutch FabLabs that I have experience with) but they are becoming better and better.

That they are. While high-end industrial printers are almost there, the average consumer doesn't necessarily want to take out a second mortgage on their house to get one! Consumer-grade printers are still limited to rapid prototyping, and the final product still has to be sent to a printing company for best results.

For now, I think that making your own Lego components is rather expensive - Lego quite a bit of money on just one mold. I think the closest you could get to that would be milling your own parts on a machine like this one:

But that'd still be prohibitively expensive