3 D Printing Is Cool!

[fiatslug87]

A guy at work made these for me. Not bad for prototypes, they need a little tweetking but pretty cool.

 

[Pete M]

for seatbelts? 

[rmbrown16]

Awesome, My guess would be for the handle to lean the seat forward.

[fiatslug87]

 

Awesome, My guess would be for the handle to lean the seat forward.

you are correct, I have three MJs and all six plates around the levers are broken in the same place!

[Pete M]

:doh:  shoulda known that!

[johnj92131]

What are you going do about a color match???  Guess you could have your friend make the end caps for the seat back lever also??

[HOrnbrod]

Who cares about a color match. That's easy. Possibility to order later Mike? Both of mine are cracked in the same place also.

[fiatslug87]

The material is ABS so I don't know how well paint will adhere, might have to use a plastic primer?? I'll get some of the ABS and play around a little.

 

Don, at some point maybe, after some changes. I'll keep it in mind.

 

This was the first attempt, milled out of aluminum.

[92tanMJ]

:drool: I wish I had a 3D printer those things are awesome. If I had one I would so print myself some AR parts. So jealous man

[jimoshel]

:doh:  shoulda known that!

That makes two genius's that were wrong. I thought they were for seat belts too. :doh:

[terrawombat]

My University had two 3D printers that I got to tinker around with a couple times.  Very neat machine, but it took forever to pump out a single part.

 

The price of 3D printers has dropped significantly over the years - you can get some smaller units for less than $2K.  I would not be one bit surprised if 3D printers became a common household item in 10 years time.

[terrawombat]

Forgot to mention.  There is a patent expiring February of next year on selective laser sintering (SLS) technology, which is currently the lowest-cost form of 3D printing for mass production.  You are able to go straight from the printer to the market because the parts made with the SLS process look like a finished product.  The current form of cheap 3D printing - fused deposition modeling (FDM) - doesn't really produce a part that has that "finished product" look or feel.  There is also another technology out there - stereolithography, but I don't know much about it to comment.

[jimoshel]

HUH?  I'm still trying to get my fountain pen to work. :hmm:

[buffalob]

I was in an aerospace facility last year in Michigan that fabricates complex bent tube assemblies for re-useable rocket engine components (ie the next generation space shuttles) among other things. As is common in tube bending there are often very short straight lengths of tube between two given bends. In high production applications (such as automotive applications) there is enough volume to justify "compound grip dies" this is to clamp the first bend in order to produce the second bend (as the straight between them is insufficient to grip the tube) and so on and so on. These clamps can get quite complex and pricey. In aerospace ( and formula one racing applications) this problem is generally gotten around by bending single bend parts and using the process of orbital welding the assembly together. All this being said, the company in question was using 3XD printing to NOT DEVELOP the complex orbital welding grips ( orienting the clocking of the two bends prior to welding) but to print these grips and bolt the 3XD renderings into the orbital welding fixtures and use them in direct production. As the need for these parts is in small quantities if not one-off, they can get away with it.

The cost savings of these resin/thermoplastic dies over similarly machined and hardened tool steel is insane.

This is incredible technology. Very exciting stuff.

[terrawombat]

Despite a major lawsuit by the patent-holders, Formlabs is going through with producing and shipping their new stereolithograpy desktop printer - the Form 1: http://formlabs.com/products/our-printer

 

Stereolithography is an enormous step ahead of FDM in terms of precision.  The level of detail you can get with it is pretty ridiculous.

[Keyav8r]

I'm with Don. I'd like two in any color. Both of mine are gone.

[mvusse]

As for painting, Krylon Fusion may work. It has specifically been designed for plastic, and is supposed to bond to it chemically.