Continued from the Vent thread:

Quote Originally Posted by morg176 View Post
3d printing systems held the promotion that i missed out on. I have contacted them and although they were apologetic that i missed out ireally dont think they cared much. The promotion was an american 'black friday' style sale. 100's of people interested, only a couple [less than 10] units up for grabs.
Why you would go out of your way to aggravate, infuriate and alienate you potential customer base, defies logic...

that being said, The UP plus printer [available from 3d printing systems au/nz] is probably the best hobbyist 3D printer on the market, but it is still just a little expensive. The up plus has a metal chassis, and is very sturdy. The up mini has a smaller build envelope

And yes you could design a weapon/sword/mace in sketchup, and then convert that into an STL file, send that to the printer and [these machines are slow!] it will build it for you. Awesome yes.

I have been closely following this technology since early 2005.
So when it says it can print "Layer resolution of 200 microns." what is a 'layer'?

I get most of the models I get printed are through Moddler.com who have a resolution of:

Quote Originally Posted by Moddler FAQ
In the X and Y axes, we can print at a resolution of 600 dpi or 42 microns. In the Z axis, we can print in a mind-bogglingly small 1600 dpi or 16 microns. (A micron is 1/1000th of a millimeter.) That's about 20% as thick as a human hair!
So I remain somewhat dubious of the quality as I'm told that even the best 3D printers can't actually print detail less than 0.2mm. And even then you will need finishing skills to refine the model.