Printed MDF

[brihyn]

Curious what the thoughts are on this. Saw the printed MDF and immediately thought of the potentials here.
Encoder printed directly onto the wood of the CP?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cartesianco/the-ex1-rapid-3d-printing-of-circuit-boards

[RandyT]

IMHO, this doesn't look like something of real practical value, except for perhaps some very narrowly defined applications.  I have doubts that a circuit prototyped in such a way will be of more value than the traditional methods (breadboarding, etching, etc..)  It's limited to single side, making it unusable for anything remotely complex, still need to drill for through-hole components, still need to place SMD components, and hand soldering will be a must, as the final product probably won't stand up to the reflow process.  In my opinion, directly printing an inverted design onto a copper coated substrate, and tossing it into some agitated ferric chloride would be a faster, easier and higher quality solution.

Looks like a high cost / effort to benefit ratio, but the project was funded, so maybe I'm missing something.

[SavannahLion]

Please note that it would cost you $1,200 minimum just to get your hands on the parts. You do your own assembly or pay an extra $500 to get it assembled for you. So you're looking at $1,700. I'm pretty sure that you can assemble an entire traditional set up for considerably less than that.