February 14, 2026
Punch cards vs. plastic
Ask HN: Are there examples of 3D printing data onto physical surfaces?
Printing secrets in plastic? Crowd says: vinyl, paper, braille
TLDR: A user asked if 3D printers could store tiny amounts of data on a plastic “disk” for century-long safekeeping. The comments roasted the idea as low-capacity and fragile, steering the conversation to analog solutions—engraving, paper-in-resin, punch cards, even vinyl—arguing durable, easily readable materials beat clever but brittle plastic.
A Hacker News tinkerer floated a sci‑fi idea: 3D‑print a tiny ‘disk’ that stores critical data, then read it back with a printer’s own sensors. Cue the crowd clutching their calipers. The loudest chorus said plastic isn’t the vault: “low data density,” warned arjie, and others pushed for engraving on inert metal or stone. 8note delivered the line of the day: just print a barcode on paper, seal it in resin, and pop it in a safety deposit box—oh, and expect the printer’s vertical detail (the “Z” height) to “really suck.” Translation: layers wobble, time warps plastic, and your future self cries.
Then the thread went joyfully analog. Someone pitched punch cards—yes, the grandparent of USB sticks—while another deadpanned braille as “3D printing,” and humdaanm cracked, If it has to be a disk, how about a vinyl record? The vibe: maker dream vs. archivist reality. Folks loved the creativity for securing long‑term secrets like encryption keys, but the consensus was clear: if you want data that lasts a century, go simple, go durable, go readable without special gear. Less cyberpunk plastic, more library‑grade materials. It’s not that the idea is bad—it’s that the comments think analog already solved it.
Key Points
- •The post suggests encoding small data onto a 3D-printed surface as a form of filament-based storage.
- •It proposes using 3D printer bed-leveling measurement tools to read the encoded data.
- •The author asks whether implementations or proof-of-concept systems exist.
- •They consider advanced versions that employ specialized equipment for reading and possibly writing.
- •Use cases include century-scale archival storage and physical-only storage of encryption keys, though practicality is uncertain.