Cameron Coward - 3D Printing

No one likes a know-it-all. Most of us realize theres no such thinghow could there be? The world is far too complicated for someone to understand everything there is to know. So when you come across a know-it-all, you smile to yourself as they ramble on because you know better.

You understand that the quest for knowledge is a never-ending one, and youre okay with that. You have no desire to know everything, just the next thing. You know what you dont know, youre confident enough to admit it, and youre motivated to do something about it.

At Idiots Guides, we, too, know what we dont know, and we make it our business to find out. We find really smart people who are experts in their fields and then we roll up our sleeves and get to work, asking lots of questions and thinking long and hard about how best to pass along their knowledge to you in the easiest, most-accessible way possible.

After all, thats our promiseto make whatever you want to learn As Easy as It Gets. That means giving you a well-organized design that seamlessly and effortlessly guides you from page to page, topic to topic. It means controlling the pace youre asked to absorb new informationnot too much at once but just what you need to know right now. It means giving you a clear progression from easy to more difficult. It means giving you more instructional steps wherever necessary to really explain the details. And it means giving you fewer words and more illustrations wherever its better to show rather than tell.

So here you are, at the start of something new. The next chapter in your quest. It can be an intimidating place to be, but youve been here before and so have we. Clear your mind and turn the page. By the end of this book, you wont be a know-it-all, but your world will be a little less complicated than it was before. And well be sure your journey is as easy as it gets.

Mike Sanders Publisher, Idiots Guides

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eISBN: 9781615647453
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2014951305

17 16 15 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Publisher:Mike Sanders

Executive Managing Editor:Billy Fields

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This book is dedicated to my lovely wife Sarah, who has always stood by me and supported me. Without her, I could never have done this.

Introduction

In many ways, 3D printing is the fulfillment of the future we were all promised. We may not have flying cars or robot housemaids, but we do have access to an almost magical device that can make our imaginations a reality. It wasnt long ago that such a device was considered far-fetched, even by science fiction standards.

Ive been a lifelong geek myself. As long as I can remember, Ive been building things, taking things apart, and putting them back together (sometimes successfully). When I was very young, this mostly meant building things like spaceships with Legos. When I got a little bit older, I gained access to hammers and nails, and suddenly I could build things at a life-size scale (though this mostly resulted in lopsided tree houses).