Quote Originally Posted by Exsecratio View Post
I fully agree even though my day job involves using the latest technology, even now there are moves for metal loaded UV resins for 3d printers...give it a few years and any skills I had as an engineer will be worthless
You say that, but someone has to know the first principles regardless. If the sole understanding is to plug in the numbers and get something out, there's a limited knowledge of the materials & limitations - when I did aero eng, we'd already lost forging as a prototyping method; we did cover design for manufacture, which is where the "proper" skills came in (had to spend time on lathes to do it too). And... RP is still best suited to prototyping, not mass production and will be for some time to come.

Lasers are fast and accurate but I'm due to have a ring made for my Wife for putting up with me and there's no way I'll be looking for some teccy based stuff, I'll be looking round here at having one handmade by one of you CraftsPeople. A handmade ring for my Wife has more "Soul" than mass produced laser made stuff.
Well, *clearly* you need someone local to you