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The difficulty with 3D printing is that the materials you get to work with aren't as robust as you do with conventional casting and forging techniques. That said, a 3D printer is a hell of a form maker for sandcasting or lost wax, either of which are foundry processes well within the realm of the experimenter/mechanic. And hell - if it doesn't need to be particularly tough, 3D printing works fine for low production volumes. FInish is still iffy.
That said, there are a lot of fun possibilities. One of my favorites:
I agree. I'm an architecture student, and recently took a grad seminar at ___________ which focused on the overlap between digital fabrication and material science. We used a _________ printer which could print over 20 different materials, material blends, and elastomers. Essentially, you could print stuff which was stretchy or bendy, or stuff that had a gradient from stiff to very flexible. This culminated in the production of a modular wall membrane hooked up to an arduino and a mic, which would deform relative to whatever acoustic conditions it was picking up - the idea was that you could have this mutable surface condition that could be configured in different ways. Unfortunately, as well as being outrageously expensive, the prototype materials weren't very durable. The $100-a-pop modules were breaking all over the place. Here's a picture of the little prototype we made -
http://s3.amazonaws.com/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lpg9t77zrK1qb...
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It will probably take years for materials research to catch up. However, even from a decorative perspective, it unlocks a lot of possibilities. I almost see it like smartphone apps, it's going to be interesting to watch the crowd explore this space. I'm sure there will be surprises.