Ever needed a bit of equipment and what was available just wasn’t quite right? Well now you might be able to make it yourself.

It might be for a clinical application, a piece of simulation equipment or testing a concept.

Ciaran McKenna (@drciaranmckenna) and Andy Buck (@edexam) have a pow-wow with Matthew Mac Partlin (@rollcagemedic) on 3D Printing – Where it’s up to, where it might go and how they are using it.

If you have been dabbling in 3D printing, we’d love to hear from you, so you can get in touch through our Twitter handles above or by leaving comments on this page.

Here are the names of some of the 3D printers that you can buy in Australia. They range in cost from $500-$6000 depending on what you want them to do.

MakerBot CreateBot UP Zortrax MakerGear FlashForge BCN3D

Here is some of the freely available software that you can use to scan items and create 3D model files to get your printer going:

3D Printing for Beginners is a website with a ton of resources to get you going

MeshMixer and Blender are open source downloads used to generate the 3D printer files for the item that you want to print.

Shapeways and iMaterialise are online companies that will take your model files and print out the product for you.

The music that tops and tails this podcast is a sample from Kraftwerk’s “The Man Machine” from their 1978 “The Man Machine” album.

Here’s the podcast: