Eh? *looks at self* how is 3D printing only for tech experts? It is currently well within the mainstream realm. Seriously, if you're smart about your model/print, there's no reason for it to be a horribly expensive process. For example, here's just a few of my prints available through
my shapeways shop:
Actually, the rings aren't in the shop atm, because I'm still working on their base model.
These items were all made because I was frustrated in *not* finding what I wanted... so I modeled them out and had them printed. Mainly I was originally only interested in the Kamas, but Yanagi-sen asked if I was going to make a Kusarigama as well. So I re-worked the original model and was able to come out with an acceptable MSD scale Kusarigama. Though, I'm still working on that segmented chain-whip. ^^;;;
Now, making something like a printed SD, THAT would be cost-prohibitive. Keeping to small light-weight items, is more cost-effective.
<3
-Kiki-chan78.