Hi
I could use one of these printers
http://youtu.be/ZboxMsSz5Aw
Col, might see if they can copy the bird next door. 
I remember seeing some of the early versions of these about 10 years ago, where they "squirted" resin out in 3 dimensions kind of like an inkjet
printer does.... the technology has obviously come a long way.
Would be interesting to know just how strong that wrench is !!!
Wonder if that mean's that there will come a day were you could simply "reprint" say engine parts.
Differant powders and resins could be play'd around with.....
They had them on display at the manufacturing expo in the Brisbane convention centre.
Couple grand and your set 
The idea is, they print out a 3d component out of a resin, such that you can use that resin component as a blank for a mould.
You put hte moulding material around this blank (dunno technical name :S), either sand or wateva, and when you pour in molten metal or wateva it
dissolves into a gas and dissipates, allowing the metal to take the shape of what the blank was.
THey gave out these awesome printed helical screws as examples, i will try to find it.
I have heard allot motorsport teams and other R&D based industries are using them. They initially use them to make parts for trial fitting or the
wind tunnel, then if required to be built use them as a mould like Chris said.
that being said for low strength items (anything from vases, cahirs to car door handles) they could be a chepaer way to do low volume runs.
We've got one at work......very handy and speeds up R&D time considerably. The parts produced are definately no good for structural purposes, but for fit and function it's perfect and a great alernative to wasting $1000's on incorrect tooling. Ours was around $3k from memory, can get details of models/prices if anyone's keen.
My friend has one of these printers http://www.zmodel.com.au we make some awesome
stuff on it.
You can definitely use it to make casting patterns for engine parts, the finshed product is as hard as Acrylic sheet.
You guys that have access to one of these printers - can you help me out? I am doing some prototyping and the quote to make prototype parts is
astoundingly expensive. If I could make a test part on a printer and just fit it up to see how well it fits I would save a motza and get things done
heaps faster. I have the 3D cad files ready to go.
Can anyone help a brother out? Happy to what it costs - it sure would be cheaper than steel.
I'm thinking 50/50 tail lights?
Regards,
Matt.
I am increasingly living in the Sci Fi world I read about all those years ago.