3d scanner and printer?

[Martin McGrath]

On 20 March 2017 at 18:48, Paola Di Maio <paola.dimaio at gmail.com> wrote:
> A few years back ( even before you joined perhaps) community 3D printing
> hubs were planned everywhere, and they were going to impact manufacturing
> sector, at least social innovation in terms of letting people be creative
> and pring out their own teeth and shoes at the local hubs etc

Planed by whom? Have you contacted these people to find out why this
didn't happen? Are you referring to the Fablab for which there was
lots of talk and some presentations at the Electron club? I believe
(someone correct me if I'm wrong) this morphed into Maklab. We are
frequently contacted by people who want access to 3D printers or laser
cutters Maklab are on my list of suggestions but the response is more
often than not that it's prohibitively expensive for people just
starting out, or just getting interested in the scene.

> Scotland/Edinburgh were going to be leading social innovation, at least
> based on some of the funding proposals which were going around at the time.
> I was hoping to come back to a thriving 3D printing community of innovators
>
> P

Where is your evidence for this? While I personally think it would be
great to have more maker spaces available with tools for people to use
I think it's unrealistic to call it a social problem. Consider that we
live in a country where we don't produce enough food to feed
ourselves, rely on imports and in which many people are dependant on
food banks.

Outside of academia there are a several places where people can get
access to 3D printers and alike, with many more individuals offering
their services at a cost. 3D scanners, not so much.

> vouch to buy one for EC after escaping wolves

> Does anybody have  experience/recommendations for somethiing to buy and make available to the club? (if there is interest)

You clearly can't be following this list very closely. We can't even
get many users of the space to clean up their own mess after use.
Attempts to build tools for people to use from donated parts/equipment
have several times been hampered due to those in attendance having to
clean the mess and fix problems created by others just so we can
operate.

Your expectations are vastly different from the reality of the
behaviour regularly exhibited by users of the space.