The Replicator is Near

I was sitting in the dentist office yesterday afternoon, to have some work finished up, when I pick up last June's Popular Science and start reading about Fabricating Items at Home OMG, need a replacement Lego piece? Want to create that perfect chocolate confection? Just 3-D print it! Okay, so the flashlight took about eight hours to print, still hobbyist and inventors alike will love to have one of these twenty four hundred dollar kit printers in their home shop. The days of the Star Trek Replicator are getting closer, and yes I asked if I could take the magazine home. Twenty years from now, you may just shop for patterns online, download them into your 3-D printer and produce the item in your own home.