Have I seen the future???

[Tetsuaiga]

Metal printing already exists and is used. Ferrari for example 3D printed their steel alloy pistons for this years F1 car, rather than using aluminium. Being able to print in steel meant they could use honeycomb designs not possible with casting/cnc and so could retain the strength of the steel with none of the flex of aluminium.

3D printing is going to be massive in the years ahead.

Wow had no idea that kind of stuff was happening. How is the steel bonded in 3d printing?

I've thought one would be nice, not for plastic parts but so you could do sand casting with what you've printed.

 

[Beau]

And there seems to be no limits when it comes to scale https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzmCnzA7hnE

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Wow had no idea that kind of stuff was happening. How is the steel bonded in 3d printing?

Laser sintering. The link I posted earlier gives a good overview. It opens up a variety of possibilities, like 3D printing dies for injection moulding.

 

[devonwoody]

I'm thinking if Patent laws do not get involved there need never be import or export of anything to worry about and the EU would be defunct.

3D could be a benefit.

 

[MattRoberts]

I just bought some 3D printed clips from a guy on ebay that hold a power cord to your shop vac hose. They were cheaper than the ones on axminster.

There's a burgeoning market

 

[Gerry]

I have two printers, The first one is only a 150mm cubed area which I quickly outgrew so I purchased a Prusa I3 clone with a 275x215x210mm (DxWxH) print area. for just under £300
Being a lifelong aero modeller I have no shortage of little brackets and components I can think of to print. I have just printed a soldering iron stand for my new 80w Antex iron, Print time is about 5 hours on something like this but it would take much longer to create something half as good in the shed.
Other items are things such as seatbelt clips, kitchen hinge spacers, boxes for electronic projects etc.
Before I bought the first one I didn't really think it would get much use but they are never off now!
3d printers are a solution to the problems you never thought you had...

Gerry

 

[DBT85]

And most importantly of all, the little tokens for the trollies at the supermarket!

 

[Roughcut]

I remember seeing this bloke on Shed of the Year, what he does with 3D Printing is absolutely fantastic:
http://www.teamunlimbited.org/e-nablebl ... is-created

Put's a lump in my throat just thinking how much difference he is making to all the people they help.

 

[Halo Jones]

NASA is also putting a lot of effort into 3D printing. If a part fails on the way to Mars then they need to be able to print it and replace it.

 

[Bodgers]

I have large format 400mm Creality CR10. After the initial honeymoon period, I am finding I don't use it that much.

I basically bought it to do 2 things, create a dust boot and some bits and pieces for my Xcarve and create the large scale version of Daniel Noree's Open RC F1 car.

I've done all the XCarve stuff, but only started on the car.

Basically, there are some limitations that are slowly putting me off it.

Actual useful mechanical parts are a challenge to print. These printers only really work 100% reliably with PLA. And PLA is brittle. I tried printing a Bandsaw knob, and it snapped like a carrot. Print in ABS and it is strong enough but doesn't print accurately enough because ABS warps. You need a fully enclosed temp controlled model for that. I did have a fantasy of creating a large impeller for a dust collector, but I just think it will end up being landfill fodder...

I've had some success with PETG, but you end up with failures on really intricate parts due to stringing.

I did experiment with some exotic copper and steel infused stuff, but they aren't any stronger than the plastic they are mixed with, weaker in fact - they just look a bit more metal-like.

It can get expensive very fast as well with the filaments. 15-20 a reel for cheap PLA, and you can burn through half of that with a few mistakes.

There real advantage is in model making I think.




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[DBT85]

NASA is also putting a lot of effort into 3D printing. If a part fails on the way to Mars then they need to be able to print it and replace it.

I beleive they've actually used it already too, they sent up a design for a ratchet and printed it off to be brought back down for testing to see how it holds up compared to one printed down here.

That's the cool thing, its not even just a static object you can print, you can print things with moving parts.

 

[Sheffield Tony]

Let's hope they didn't do the nuts up too tight.

 

[rafezetter]

I understand the US navy is investigating metal 3d printing so they don't have to carry vast amounts of spares on their ships. Star trek replicater springs to mind

I would be extremely wary of the metallurgical properties of such an item as the molecules won't be aligned and tempered as they normally are, and I doubt because of the delivery method of the "metal" printing that it could be heated in a forge to do the tempering process.

In theory it's a good thing 3d printing can be done, but I'm also concerned that as Sheffield Tony said about making more items that don't biodegrade, and on top of that the polymers are yet another drain on the worlds oil, saving manufacturing costs is all well and good, but what about the other costs?

 

[rafezetter]

Will anyone want to work wood in 5 years time?

Hopefully 3D printing will see all the veneered chipboard places either go out of business or transfer over to plastic, leaving the vast majority of wood in proper, solid original format. From there, most woodwork will be in proper wood and MDF will be forgotten!

You would rather see MORE plastic? In a world where there isn't ANY place on earth free of plastic detritus, even the furthest remotest islands, and the deepest parts of the sea have animals contaminated with plastic pollution. It's even in your drinking water.

Not to mention plastic comes from OIL, and it's not a infinite supply. Oil rationing WILL be a thing of the future, wars may be fought (again) and the world will return to the pre-plastic era of 100 years ago.

 

[NazNomad]

Most of the stuff I've seen produced by ''affordable'' 3D printers has the same surface finish as most of my woodturning projects.

 

[DBT85]

I understand the US navy is investigating metal 3d printing so they don't have to carry vast amounts of spares on their ships. Star trek replicater springs to mind

I would be extremely wary of the metallurgical properties of such an item as the molecules won't be aligned and tempered as they normally are, and I doubt because of the delivery method of the "metal" printing that it could be heated in a forge to do the tempering process.

As I said before, Ferrari have used it this year in their f1 engines for the pistons, printing a steel alloy rather than using a traditional aluminium billet which gets cnc'd. There have been no catastrophic failures as far as we're aware.

Handling the temperatures, pressures and forces in that scenario suggests that making great deal of components that are under far smaller stresses should be within the realms of a vessel at sea if need be, or in years to come, your local garage.

 

[transatlantic]

Most of the stuff I've seen produced by ''affordable'' 3D printers has the same surface finish as most of my woodturning projects.

Don't knock yourself down like that!

 

[dickm]

Just to depress you all - at the talk in Aberdeen, one guy showed us the most popular use of one of their smaller printers. Group of teenagers had been in making 3D "selfies". They have some sort of 3D scanner, which scanned the kids all round and then the scan was converted into a full colour model of the subject. Only about 3" tall but just think of the resources that sort of thing could waste!

 

[Bodgers]

Will anyone want to work wood in 5 years time?

Hopefully 3D printing will see all the veneered chipboard places either go out of business or transfer over to plastic, leaving the vast majority of wood in proper, solid original format. From there, most woodwork will be in proper wood and MDF will be forgotten!

You would rather see MORE plastic? In a world where there isn't ANY place on earth free of plastic detritus, even the furthest remotest islands, and the deepest parts of the sea have animals contaminated with plastic pollution. It's even in your drinking water.

Not to mention plastic comes from OIL, and it's not a infinite supply. Oil rationing WILL be a thing of the future, wars may be fought (again) and the world will return to the pre-plastic era of 100 years ago.

PLA plastic (that the vast majority of these desktop printers mostly use) is not made from mineral oil. It is made from corn starch.



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[loftyhermes]

Watched an episode of the Supervet and he was having some of his surgical steel/titanium plates and joints made by 3d printing.