Back in the old microcomputing era, a printer was an expensive peripheral. It was often one of the last things you purchased for a computer. Today printers are par for the course. But 3D printers?

As a budding writer, I knew that I needed a printer for my piddly old TRS-80 Model III back in the early 1980s. Heck, I couldn’t even afford a 180K floppy drive at $800 a pop.

I paid $800 for my C-Itoh 80 printer, an old dot matrix clunker. Okay, it wasn’t a “clunker” but it was morbidly slow compared to today’s printers and it produced that earmarked dot matrix output that looked tacky compared to the typewriters of the day.

Most publishers back in the 1980s refused to accept submissions produced by a dot matrix printer. They insisted that you type it, or use a daisy wheel printer. I paid about $1,200 for one of those as well.

Today printers are commonplace, but a 3D printer? You may not have one today, but in a few years you’ll wonder how you lived without one.

3D printing technology is nothing new. It’s been around a few years. I remember seeing a pickup-truck-sized 3D printer at a robotics convention back in 2004. (It’s weird to write “back in 2004.”)

The size of the beasts and price have come down recently, almost to the point where a hobbyist could own a decent 3D printer and start making their own gizmos. That will probably be the state of 3D printing for a few more years, especially given the mass consumer migration from computers to tablets. At some point, however, having a 3D printer in your home will be as common as having a toaster.

Confession: I don’t have a toaster.

3D printers will be used around the house to produce small, consumer items. Ideally, you’ll purchase plans from an online vendor, say Amazon or eBay, and then print out the gizmo you need. So if you need a replacement screw for something, or even a new fender for the car, you’ll buy it, print it, install it.

Or maybe you’ll go to a Home Depot where their larger, faster, more capable 3D printer will make you specific items that you choose from a catalog.

That’s the ideal vision. The reality will probably be different, of course. There will be 3D piracy and legal battles and copyright-this-and-that. Anyone who observes human nature understands such things are par for the course.

One thing I can think of that puts a damper on 3D printing is the raw materials required. You can’t print plastic, metal, or wood. You’ll still need to go out and buy the stuff, then put it into the printer somehow. That may not be a big deal, though. I mean, I could see people from the 1970s wondering why anyone needs a whole ream of paper for home use. “Who would type that much stuff?”

In a few years, it might be commonplace to pick up a few pounds of plastic, aluminum, steel, and teflon. That’ll be weird, but I think we can get used to it.