World Domination, I just got my self a 3d Printer!!!

[spinningmagnets]

The company "Shapeways" is setting up several facilities to 3D print stuff that you upload from a CAD program, and then FedEx it to you. They claim to have a smoother and more refined product finish than MakerBot, and they also can print much larger items than MakerBot.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/anthony...wittersf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

http://www.shapeways.com/

 

[Samd]

Shapeways is great. Been using them from Eindhoven in the Netherland for about two years for hi def parts and metal jewellery. Pricy but selective laser sintering is very fine.

But molten deposition is just so cheap for home and functional ebike parts.

Two different needstates.

 

[Samd]

Over the headstem Turnigy wattmeter mount nearly complete. Once finished I might put a few up for sale in the relevant section.

Needs more tweaking and surface finishing.

 

[Hillhater]

Hey Sam,
stop wasting you time on brackets, and get printing solar panels !
http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/aussie-scientists-print-flexible-solar-panels-20130516-2joaj.html

Australian scientists have found a way to print large but extremely lightweight and flexible solar panels like money.

World-leading scientists at the CSIRO said the A3-sized panels, which are created by laying a liquid photovoltaic ink onto thin, flexible plastic could soon mean everyone has the ability to print their own solar panels at home.

"It would definitely be feasible to do that," said CSIRO materials scientist Dr Scott Watkins.
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"The general concept of being able to manufacture on demand, in a house or in a workplace, is really a key feature of what we're doing."

It comes as scientists around the world continue to develop 3D printing - a method of making three-dimensional objects using a digital design.

 

[Samd]

Mate thanks to living here in Ballarat I don't waste my time with defeating the startup cost associated with solar, I make my own wind turbines and brew biogas for heating

They have lower costs for domestic builders, higher output/density where I live, and the biogas comes with a free storage 'battery' - the gas itself.

I did mention this to a printer/friend from Tullamarine a few years back, he has one of the few appropriate sheet printers on the planet for this work - as a result he lays down actual colour accurate car paint for german car brochures - this machine would be perfect. I don;t know why the CSIRO is reinventing this work, Nunzio LaVecchia nailed it pretty well a few years back in Switzerland backed by Koenigsegg. Perhaps us aussies are learning from korean and chinese style 'innovation' now.

 

[spinningmagnets]

Here's a link from a guy who uses bio-plastic to 3D-print a part, then make a plaster/sand mold around the part, then bake the assembly to turn the plastic part into ash (leaving a hollow void), and then casting molten aluminum into the mold to make a metal part.

http://3dtopo.com/lostPLA/

 

[kfong]

Now that really opens up new possibilities. Currently working on a delta extruder, will post once I have something significant to show.

 

[Hyena]

Wow that's pretty cool, and surprisingly good detail for such a small part using that process.
The 3D printed solar panels are cool too. I give it 5 years until we're wearing woven silicon thread clothes that recharge our phones and what not as we're walking around

That reminds me I've also gotta instal a subdermal GPS chip in the top of my kids scalp now while they're still too young to remember. Can't have the little buggers escaping on me

 

[Samd]

Here's a link from a guy who uses bio-plastic to 3D-print a part, then make a plaster/sand mold around the part, then bake the assembly to turn the plastic part into ash (leaving a hollow void), and then casting molten aluminum into the mold to make a metal part.

That's awesome. I have seen some people using PLA, which is the most common material for our cheap printer, and doing lost wax sand casting with it. It melts at about 100c and the finish is better.

Hmmm, sand casted rotors and stators. I'm off to print me a cromotor with cooling fins on the casing and periphery.

 

[Hillhater]

Here's a link from a guy who uses bio-plastic to 3D-print a part, then make a plaster/sand mold around the part, then bake the assembly to turn the plastic part into ash (leaving a hollow void), and then casting molten aluminum into the mold to make a metal part.

sorry guys, but i am not impressed. !
As an example of the process possibilities its not a particularly good example..there are much better ones. (Ti hip joints)
....and if i had produced that component as part of even my first year (16yr old) apprenticeship.. i would probably been laughed at and advised to find another career !
The finish is v poor and i doubt the dimensional accuracy is much better . In most foundry's that part would be tossed back into the melt pot !
Simple fact is, that part could easily have been made by "conventional" machining ( vert Mill etc) much quicker, with less effort, better accuracy and finish, and from a larger selection of materials ( Alloy , brass, steel, Inox, etc )

There is definitely a place and role for 3D printing, but making poor quality simple metal parts is a waste of their abilities.

 

[Apache Thunder]

At this point I'm not surprised someone hasn't tried to 3D print a 3D printer....

 

[Hyena]

That's old news, if you look at any 3d printing website like thingiverse you'll see they have a heap of printer parts. Some of the cheaper printer kits are made largely from printed parts.
http://www.thingiverse.com/categories/3d-printing

What's the latest Sam ?

 

[full-throttle]

3D printed Cyclone mount 8)

 

[nechaus]

WOOO HOO
have u used it?

iv been printing this week

 

[swbluto]

Does anybody know how cost-effective it'd be to print a small 'car' body like the acabion? (Of course, in parts.)

Mainly interested in the streamlining, the structural support would be from the frame, I assume.

Are there more cost-effective fab-methods?

 

[nechaus]

I don't know, abs is about $40-$50 per kilo at a consumer level..

 

[full-throttle]

have u used it?

It's not mine

 

[Hyena]

Wow that cyclone mount is neat! Pity it doesn't have super sound absorbant properties

 

[Kin]

In the U.S, expensive brands of ABS are $40-50/kg. Cheap brands are $30 with mixed quality. I have purchased from stores though with minimum 10lbs, $10/lb, so a quite affordable $22/kg. What I got at that place was great quality. So scaffolding can be somewhat affordable. It's the time of printing it that would be expensive in effort, even if you have full access to a 'free' printer. But people can use things like 3D printing for the joints and non 3D printed things for the rest of scaffolding. It's the combination of 3D printing with traditional methods that can be particularly clever. Though that's a somewhat vague statement.

 

[Samd]

Why that cyclone mount would appear to be the hotness!

Been working on acetone smooting of the rafts I lay down for aatachment. Need to belt sand first.

Turnigy wattmeter mount almost done...

 

[nechaus]

Why that cyclone mount would appear to be the hotness!

Been working on acetone smooting of the rafts I lay down for aatachment. Need to belt sand first.

Turnigy wattmeter mount almost done...

keep up the good work, if you feel generous, you could upload some designs on here

 

[Samd]

Indeed nechaus, in fact the pricing model I'm considering is open source in itself.

I'm treating my investment in my machine as a fully sunk cost, and power and material plus a small margin to recover the design is what I have in mind. Design chunked down to 15mm max width so I can technically send as an airmail letter.

As far as making a car body goes, you'd print the joins and nose cone etc, then fill in the gaps with flat sheet or flexible membrane IMHO. The key to cheap 3d things that are useful is integrating cheap commodity parts in order to make a fully working device, rather than 3d print everything.

What am I on about? Well consider this beer bottle opener - a commodity coin becomes the working function surface, and the 3d completes the design. Why try to print the bit with the coin at all?
http://www.grain3d.com/products/pizza-bottle-opener

Things that are globally standardised and cheap to acquire are the preferred things to integrate - skate bearings, Acme thread, or Nema 17 stepper motors in the case of build your own 3d printer for example.

Also, it probably explains why so many people are integrating common IKEA parts on Thingiverse into their designs of bits and pieces - lots of things there which are bulky but standard and can be found the world over.

 

[swbluto]

As far as making a car body goes, you'd print the joins and nose cone etc, then fill in the gaps with flat sheet or flexible membrane IMHO. The key to cheap 3d things that are useful is integrating cheap commodity parts in order to make a fully working device, rather than 3d print everything.

Thanks for the insight! I've never actually fabricated anything, so I'm pretty clueless, lol.

It would be great if it was possible to build the body fairly cheaply as the owner is asking $1.5 million and I'd rather have a design around electric - remove the air intakes, the exhaust pipe, etc.; And it would be great to shorten the body a little bit, to make it a little bit more practical turning around corners, lol.

 

[Samd]

Bard Eker has a nice movie of making a mould for a Koenigsegg on a CNC milling machine.
I think its here
http://www.ekerdesign.com/company

But it's common now to 3d design your own car body and print out a series of ribs on cardboard or ply, then lay fibreglass over the top and make a mold or a one off. A bit like those 3d plywood dinosaur toys you assemble from flat sheet. Most 3d packages have a slicer plugin now to produce the cross sections from the overall model.

Steve Graber makes kit cars the same way.
http://www.grabercars.com/gallery2/v/old/Bala06-17-04+006.jpg.html

 

[TheBeastie]

3D printed Cyclone mount 8)

Yep that is totally cool, I would guess that it one of the most useful things I have seen done with a 3D printer... At least for ebikes anyway.
I have yet to see something as simple as a battery box for ebike via 3d printer.