Its not quite "The Diamond Age", but I still think it is really cool, especially from a hobbyist perspective. Just think about all the stuff you've wanted to build, but could not because it would have required both access to a a workshop and the skills to use the machines there properly.
Well for someone wanting to prototype something, it might be a lot cheaper to buy one of these than buy the equipment needed to create a prototype out of wood.
I mean the fact that it can make a cylinder is great. I mean the only good thing about prototyping with wood is that a wood lathe is relatively cheap due to them existing for centuries.
Buying a small wood lathe and chisels would be relatively cheaper than this 3D printer, but it would take a lot more skill and talent to create some of the models you can see on the shapeways site.
I would like to know what temperature some of the 3D modelling materials melt at as it would make it easy to use for casting of metal models. I mean if the stuff melts at 100 degrees, you could just build the cast and melt the plastic out just like using wax. If this was possible, it's just easy to imagine the uses for turning a good prototype into a final product. It's like if you design a good model, just build the cast pour in the metal and there's something to sell. Like if you get this on a large scale imagine what could be done for a cast-iron furniture business. Instead of hours spent sculpting a model and then building a cast off it, you make a design and reuse it repeatedly. For the convenience of printing out the model it would save a lot of time and to say I saw a simple (very simple) cast-iron gate selling for around $1500, you'd be able to absorb the $200 for making a new model every time.
