NightHawkInLight Posted May 2, 2012 Posted May 2, 2012 I don't know how many of you have been drooling like I have over 3D printers the last few years, but they are a game changing technology. Anyone with a couple grand to spend can buy one of these printers and fabricate parts and prototypes on their kitchen table - stuff that is impossibly intricate to be manufactured with other methods, or otherwise would cost a fortune for a manufacturing company to produce. As I said, they have been upwards of several thousand, to tens of thousands of dollars until very recently. Now I see there's a new company with a model up for pre-order that is capable of creating 6"x6" objects, at a price of only $500: http://store.solidoodle.com/index.php?route=product%2Fproduct&path=59&product_id=56 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6z6kyISTR4&feature=youtu.be That makes my jaw drop. Consider this, for $500 you could have a machine capable of making perfectly formed 2" diameter hard plastic crossette tooling printed directly from a computer model, nine positives at a time in the 6" work area. How about making perfectly formed leaves for sectional rocket tube supports or clam shells at the press of a button? I may buy one of these once I see a little more footage of them in action just to make replacement parts for the plastic pieces that break on my vehicles and equipment. It would pay itself off in no time.
Peret Posted May 2, 2012 Posted May 2, 2012 That looks as if it addresses a lot of the problems with the Makerbot, especially that the head moves X-Y and the table moves Z. Also has a steel frame instead of plywood, comes assembled, and appears to be half the price. Hmmm. We've had a Makerbot at work for six months and have yet to produce a single useful part with it, though I did produce a small bust of Steven Cobert. The ABS printed parts are not very strong; even in compression, the parts crack apart along the filament lines, and they have little or no strength in tension.
NightHawkInLight Posted May 2, 2012 Author Posted May 2, 2012 Yeah I really wasn't sure what could be expected from the strength of the prints with them being put together with such drastic heating and cooling. At a minimum you could make perfect positives for casting other materials. I'm sure given a few more years there will be inexpensive printers out there capable of making very high quality parts. Who knows, maybe makerbot doesn't work as well as this or other printers do at joining the material, or the layer thickness can be adjusted for greater strength.
nater Posted May 2, 2012 Posted May 2, 2012 (edited) I have looked into the RepRap project, but I'm not convinced they are much more than a novelty at this point. I can see the use for someone making a model or a prototype before utilizing traditional manufacturing. There is potential though, it would be nice to "print" a small order of tooling for our uses. I wonder if it could make useful molds or a star plate? Edited May 2, 2012 by nater
JFeve81 Posted May 2, 2012 Posted May 2, 2012 I would love to get one of these as well. I could make so much stuff with it and very easily as compared to making it by hand. The only problem is that I suck at pretty much ALL 3D type programs.
asilentbob Posted May 2, 2012 Posted May 2, 2012 I like this video: There are many 3D fabrication technologies that are very interesting. I'd like to see a DIY approach to vacuum e-beam metal powder sintering. Or laser at least. With the extrusion printers a lot of the time the companies that make them have to do quite a bit of research, pay for their office space, etc... So you tend to get hit with part of that cost as well as the brand new materials cost. For a DIY person, sourcing all the parts as used parts could be ridiculously cheaper... Its just a pain in the ass to have to do so much scrounging sometimes when you can just place an order and get it all in one box on your door step. Thingverse and similar 3d object repositories have started to pop up. Several years from now it may be the next step from vinyl-casettes-VHS-CD-DVD-(Blueray/etc)... And of course there are already some people wanting to copyright 3d shapes and models to make 3d printing of them at home illegal. They view it as the next step of "piracy," lol.
NightHawkInLight Posted May 2, 2012 Author Posted May 2, 2012 Here's a video demonstrating the strength from the Solidoodle printer:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsJLrwEJfj8&feature=player_embedded#! Obviously it's not spectacular, but it looks plenty strong to hold up under hand pressing if you were to make xette pumps.
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