I wonder about this often. While I agree that additive manufacturing is incredibly exciting and just getting started, I don't expect that it will get as much mass market adoption as you think. Of my last dozen purchases or so, only a few would have been possible to 3d print. Many include microelectronics or precision machined surfaces with a finish that 3d printers would be hard pressed to match. Several need greasing, and only one was made entirely out of the same material. Nobody is printing entire washing machines or motorcycles anytime soon on house-level printers.
Music, movies and software had the huge advantage that basically all the effort is in the up-front design and then it can be digitally copied at basically zero cost. A car design or washing machine design on the other hand is only a small part of the total effort required to fabricate it. They require at least a dozen different raw material types, careful assembly, electrical certification, programming the microprocessors, greasing the bearings, etc. Most people will have neither the inclination or the skills to do the required post-processing themselves. Anyone living in an apartment will probably also simply lack the space for big machinery, especially if it sits idle most of the time.
Even apart from whether it could be made at all in a consumer-grade printer, some things are just unbeatably cheap with modern mass manufacturing methods. Your example of a cutlery set is one: a modern hydraulic press will stamp hundreds of spoons per minute out of steel plate. That process probably won't improve a lot by transporting the raw steel to your house first and manufacturing it yourself.
I think there are massive opportunities for additive manufacturing in industry, where companies would be willing to spend several million on a production grade device and can hire dedicated operators to get the most value out of it. You can already see that happening in the aerospace industry, and it will probably trickle down to almost anything that requires complex shapes in their assembly process. I don't think it will ever move beyond hobbyist in the home scene, the machinery is too expensive, too big and too complex. That said, the type of person who in the 80s would have gotten a lathe for their home workshop could now get a 3d printer instead (or both!).
Music, movies and software had the huge advantage that basically all the effort is in the up-front design and then it can be digitally copied at basically zero cost. A car design or washing machine design on the other hand is only a small part of the total effort required to fabricate it. They require at least a dozen different raw material types, careful assembly, electrical certification, programming the microprocessors, greasing the bearings, etc. Most people will have neither the inclination or the skills to do the required post-processing themselves. Anyone living in an apartment will probably also simply lack the space for big machinery, especially if it sits idle most of the time.
Even apart from whether it could be made at all in a consumer-grade printer, some things are just unbeatably cheap with modern mass manufacturing methods. Your example of a cutlery set is one: a modern hydraulic press will stamp hundreds of spoons per minute out of steel plate. That process probably won't improve a lot by transporting the raw steel to your house first and manufacturing it yourself.
I think there are massive opportunities for additive manufacturing in industry, where companies would be willing to spend several million on a production grade device and can hire dedicated operators to get the most value out of it. You can already see that happening in the aerospace industry, and it will probably trickle down to almost anything that requires complex shapes in their assembly process. I don't think it will ever move beyond hobbyist in the home scene, the machinery is too expensive, too big and too complex. That said, the type of person who in the 80s would have gotten a lathe for their home workshop could now get a 3d printer instead (or both!).