Future of 3D printing and cost of custom jewelry

[teobdl]

Would a reduction in the cost of 3D printing significantly reduce the cost of custom jewelry? How much of the cost of custom design goes into paying for costs associated w/ the printer (machine, wax, upkeep) vs labor in CAD design?

 

[teobdl]

Also, advances in technologies will make CAD design and heirloom re-creation much simpler (at least in theory)
https://www.yahoo.com/tech/3d-printing-company-can-recreate-long-lost-family-84143930409.html

 

[Karl_K]

The vast majority of the cost is in the final finish and mounting.
The printed wax also requires smoothing and finishing and adding elements the printer could not add.
Labor is expensive.
My off the cuff guess is that 3d printing wax in a one off custom project would drop the cost less than 5%

 

[Rockdiamond]

It's already in use in many places
Jewelry is a perfect use for the 3d printers- as opposed to some of the other applications, it's not necessary to have extremely sophisticated super high end 3d printer for jewelry
And it's also the case that CAD "printing" of waxes has been going on for quite some time, and is not a that costly.


Plus Karl makes an excellent point about the relationship of labor to cost, even if you factor in a lower cost of design ( no need to hand carve a model)

 

[Karl_K]

Also printable wax is old tech already, burn out plastics are really where the future is at.
Wax is really too soft to print complex designs where printable clean burn out plastic being much harder is more suited to complex designs.
But for one of designs I still don't see a huge cost difference developing.