Technical what would you do with a 3d printer??

not the most traditional of topics, but here at work we just picked up a 3d printer. it's nothing big but it will do something like a 7" cube.

what would you use it for?? I've been contemplating designing an OHV conversion for a flatty and think this could be cool for pattern making... it's obviously too small for this so other thoughts would be interesting!

 

How do they work and what will it do?

 

My brother has had one for a few years, and I have yet to figure out anything to do with it car related. He has made some mock up designs for his crazy wristwatches....one of my sons made some propellers for the underwater robot....there have been plenty of other little robot parts, and some toys, made with it.

It can make relatively weak and meltable plastic parts, whatever shape you want, although the larger they are, the longer they take to make. The surface finish is not smooth. There is a variety of colors available, but mostly they make parts with one color, not multiple colors per part.

you have to design the part in a CAD program first, such as Autodesk Inventor or SolidWorks.

 

We have some at work and the options are endless. The big thing is to not limit urself to just that square. I would say 75 percent of the time we print pieces and then attach them together. We also use bondo to touch up surface finish and strengthen. I saw a few years back bully dog utilizes them for molds and quick turn parts. They are fun and also can be use for mock ups.

 

I made a 3d single edge razor blade,I gave it to my daughter. HRP

 

What you can do with them depends on the sophistication of the 3D printer. I have seen videos of metal parts being made. It uses powdered metal, deposited in layers, fused with a laser.....pretty amazing stuff.

Ray

 

they have been used to make obsolete car parts, search Jay Leno's Garage. I would make a Hot Rod '37 Ford 3 window - very slowly.

 

In a nutshell, they take a 3D design and produce it in the real world. The commercially available ones usually use a spool of PVC rod which is heated in a nozzle attached to a robotic arm with XYZ axis actuation which is driven by the software to replicate the geometry contained in the file.

The obvious application for us is to make casting positives. This hinges on being able to design that which is to be cast in a digital format (something I did for the first half of my career).

Depending on resolution, you'd likely need to use filler on surfaces that won't get machined, but you can get most of the way there, with a degree of precision.

Personally, I'd like one to play with for making shift knob positives for molding. If I had a big enough one with good enough resolution and a foundry setup, you could eventually produce your own heads and intakes, etc...

 

Could you put it on sterioids and feed it welding wire and print 1928 Chevy four banger blocks, ford "c" with counterweights and mercury cranks for the ford flathead

You would be my new best friend in a heart beat.

 

Not a lot of trad stuff here (at least that I could find), but man, they have a lot of other stuff...

http://www.shapeways.com

 

if you want your mind blown, watch what Koenigsegg is doing with 3D printing. Automotive related, certainly not traditional

 

34 Ford 3 window coupes.

 

I would make me a broad and pimp her out.

3D printers are used for about one of everything any more. I think that they are excellent for making casting plugs.

 

<<<<<I'd make a model of my avatar

 

If you want to try it out, there are several companies that will print your design (for a fee, of course). shapeways was already mentioned as having lots of designs, they will also print your design. Might be a bit more to designing something to be printed, than you think.

 

I hired a company to 3D print patterns for cast parts. I provided the digital measurements to them. 1911 Excelsior Autocycle Twin frame brackets.

 

There are currently some experimental 3D printers with MIG guns on them, but I believe they need A LOT of machining and cleanup.

 

That's a damn good ideer, could you print ma a valve cover, if I send you an gasket and some measurement of highed?

That would be sooooooo cool!c

 

The plastic machines are good for patterns, or light duty tooling. The real potential benefit is the metal machines that can produce metal parts with good strength and properties. The new term being used is "additive manufacturing" to describe the process, instead of the older "3D printing". The precision metal machines can make decent surface finish, but for typical machined 125 finish or similar it requires secondary processing. The as-produced finish is kind of rough, like 240 grit sandpaper as a sort-of example. I doubt you will see suspension or heavy loaded parts, but it could be very useful for trim pieces, small links or brackets, or comparable. The mechaincal properties are actually better than cast parts, and can be made from many commercially available alloys.

 

NOPE. Not for me! I'd rather cast from a nice cheap plastic positive than go through all my welding wire and gas before I send a piece out to a machinist or go through all my grinding discs and sanding belts any day.

That or have valve covers that look like Lasagna.

 

I had a guy try to cast me some copys of an rough old valve cover, but the way it was made he couldent make an sand form to cast in, because it wouldn't be possible to pull the two half apart without breaking the sand shape and thereby make a very bad copy of the valve cover.

But if I could print the one I want, and change the shape so I could do multiple sand forms he could cast me a couple of one's, and make me one that could make my volvo B30 look like a early chevy stovebolt.

 

Desoto grill teeth. Then sell them to all the Merc guys

 

I think I'll go back under my rock!

 

Or make a few '33-34 grilles!

 

My dad just got a 3d printer a month ago. He's been messing with it, making little trinkets for the grandkids to figure it out and get used to it , also made me a keychain for my 49 . what will he really use it for ? Who the hell knows , but I'm gonna try to find something car-related for him to make.

On the other hand, I have a friend who , a few years ago, had some plinths made for his model a to adapt different taillights to his model a rear fenders. His plan was to then have it scanned and machined out on cnc machine. I don't know what the end result was, as I haven't run into him in a while since he's been traveling a lot with his job.

 

A guy up town has one.
When you ask him about it, he can't stop using the word, extruders.
His machine has two.

I'd start off making rare old car badges, maybe use the printed plastic badge as a buck for a mould, to cast em up in metal.

Not traditional? No, but then again, neither is powdercoating.
Its just another tool.

 

i would 3D direct metal laser sinter a VIN tag... oh wait.



but really, I make nylon tooling for my planishing hammer and pullmax and it works great. I've made custom radiator mounts, i would SLA/Objet Taillight lenses, I've made fixtures for making and positioning balljoints for lower control arms, i've made AC vents for dashboards, hand plasma cutting guides.. I've been using them for about 10 years now professionally, with a few of the above snuck in.

 

If Ryan had one he could play with the new Hamb tag designs???? Shift knobs? etc. etc...........

 

What system and material are you using for your PH tooling? I'd love to play around with that on my dinky HF hammer. I didn't realize there was a good variety of rod material available. I thought they were primarily limited to different colors of PVC still (at least for civilian type units).

 

With the right scanner you could use a 3d printer to make a mold to reproduce anything - that you stuck in front of it.