Then I would recomend that you have a look at the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer http://www.makerbot.com/
With my 50 birthday coming up, my family chipped in and got me one of those fabulous machines. And I must admit that I’m totally blown away by the quality of the print and the robustness of the ABS plastic parts that is printed.
It comes as a kit, but the joy of building it is almost worth the 1300 by itself. If you can remember the joy of your first LED blinker then the feeling of your Sketchup model coming to life in front of you is far beyond that feeling.
Until now I have drilled, cut and bent pieces of aluminum plate to make stuff, or made a blob of polymorph for those odd shaped brackets I need. No more! Now I can make almost anything with a high precision that I had no way of building before.
And there is a whole community of people uploading part for anyone to print over at http://www.thingiverse.com/
Some of you might recall that I had some problems with a bead sorter https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/18124 now it turns out that there is a person that has made a part just for that http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7332
I’m only in the beginning of this adventure, but the other day I needed a holder for a mag wire spool and a bracket for a 40 RPM motor to wind some electro magnets. A quick Google Sketchup and an hour (or two) later I had all my parts.
