One of the comments in this thread says "Filament isn't food-safe" -- what is your friend using to print these things?

PLA is actually a bioplastic made from veggies and is actually considered food safe[1]. In fact, many of the plastic cups that you use are made from PLA, particularly anything clear. They can biodegrade given enough heat. The non-foodsafe part of 3d printing PLA is the hot end which is not clean, and can also be cross contaminated from printing other plastics such as ABS which is oil based.

[1] http://reprage.com/post/36869678168/is-3d-printed-pla-food-s...

You also have to deal with the FDM void issue. Look closely between the layers: they cannot be there if you are to consider your product to be food-grade. Fortuately there are ways to remediate this.

ABS is weak to acetone, so you can make an acetone vapor bath. Look this up how to do it.

PLA is the nasty one, as the solvent that dissolves it is methyl-ethyl ketone (MEK). Nastiest stuff I've worked with outside a fume hood. Use a respirator, gloves, and trash clothing. The stuff dissolves all sorts of polymers. It's also used as a polymer glue. But tl;dr: Don't use if if you don't have to.

They have several food-grade filaments you can use to print stuff that comes on contact with food:

http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140111-food-grade-pp-filamen...

http://www.makergeeks.com/fogrplafi.html

I've also heard a KeyTech has developed an FDA safe filament for printing objects that come in contact with food or skin.

Do you know what model of printer he uses?

Not off the top of my head. I'll see if I can get a hold of him and find out.

That sounds like a high end professional model if it's able to print items the size of a lamp.

It does sound fantastic though.