Over the years I have seen technology moving forward in the design and manufacturing side of businesses. When I saw a bubblejet printer modified to print with flour and water, or something similar, to make 3D objects I knew this would be the future, eventually… I still remember the ball bearings they were handing out with Z Corp tied on. I was hooked. Fast-forward a few decades, and what was once an idea has fledged an entire industry. 3D printing has become commonplace to the point where they could be considered toys for your desk. In conversations, people have commented about 3D printing with the notion that it has replaced older manufacturing practices, but it has not. 3D printing still has a lot of evolving to do. Their speed is slow, the materials available are limited but growing, and the precision they are attaining is far from what is possible with common machining practices. The primary issue I see is the difficulty to 3D print using super alloys. High temperature and sometimes extremely dense mixtures of almost everything you can imagine from the elemental table. Currently I see 3D printing as a toy for hobbyists and a tool for engineers. I have my reservations about printing ever being able to replace machine shops, but I do have hope that bubblejet printer finishes growing up and solving some problems in the machining side.