You see that picture of the devil picking his nose? Believe it or not, it was not constructed by human hands.

I’m not saying that it was made with the hands of Angels and Demons, because hopefully they would make something better than that. No, it was made on Shapeways 3D fabrication service which allows “stainless steel printing”.

Of course, 3D printers are really nothing new. This is the first time one has been created that uses stainless steel instead of plastic. It manages to print metal objects layer upon layer, provided the proper shape is given with an 3D modeling program like CAD or CAM.

There is a lot of possibilities here. No more running to the hardware store to get screws, for example. I will digress with a personal example.

When I was in seventh grade, I was assigned by my Industrial Arts teacher to make a stainless steel sculpture of a whale. I had to go through a grueling process of carving it out of Styrofoam, burying it in dirt, and then the liquid metal was poured on it.

Sadly, the end result didn’t look like a whale at all, but a metal brick with boils. However, if I had this Shapeways 3D stainless steel printer, the only work would have been in the 3D modeling stage.

So Shapeways, let’s make certain that everyone has a 3D stainless steel printer. Because everyone needs something made that is made of metal.

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