The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area The Tool Chest Printing parts

Maybe I'm behind the times but I found this a bit interesting..my 17 year old son bought a car (the Z) recently and one of the center caps off the wheels was missing..it was chromed plastic...so he mocked one up (including the Datsun logo)on some type of Google drawing program, transferred it to a CAD program and then emailed it to the local university to be printed on their 3-D printer. They offer this as a public service and charge 8 cents a gram for the product. It should cost under $2. It will be interested to see how it turns out.

I was shaking my head at this. Is this the future for tools and parts? Print up plastic parts for the trucks?

Well then, what is the mailing address and phone number of that company? Nice find.

Thanks,

not only plastic, they can 3D print food now too
saw a bit recently that NASA is setting up to use a 3D printer on the space station to make metal parts - only need to send up raw material instead of complete parts

Bill

It's still an early technology, with the saying "you get what you pay for." There are cheaper printers that do the job, and higher ones with the better quality. Solid Concepts printed a fully functional Colt 1911 with assembly, honing and finishing, estimated at $1million. We use it where parts cannot be physically machined or fixtured. There are uses for it, but right now I think the public tends to re invent the wheel with it, where it's just as easy for me to make a colt 1911 like they did in 1911

Tim the printer is at a local university - the Killam Library at Dalhousie University in Halifax. It is a currently a pickup only service. I can help on that end if needed.

Print a part

They have 2 printers - MakerBot Replicator 2. Apparently there is a bit of a queue to get a print job but nothing too long.

Has the finish improved much? I've seen some 3D printed parts that would take significant hand finishing to make presentable.

The high school where I taught about 5 years ago had a 3-D printer in their CAD/CAM lab. Pretty rudimentary, but it gave the kids the experience of programming the machine and seeing the parts produced.
Jerry

Do your homework--I have sat in a couple of seminars about 3D printing and even the plastic parts are not as sturdy as "normal" as the printer puts it together one little grain at a time.

My understanding is that in metal, 3D produces stuff that is not as good as cast, although Hot Rod had an article this month about JPL (rocket people) with an advanced one that looked like (only skimmed the article) it could produce parts that would have some toughness to them. I believe the metal ones that are commercially available uses laser sintering to fuse powdered metal together.

Basically these things have years to fulfill many of the things you hear about them. Right now they are good for prototyping parts or producing trim pieces or jewelry or things that don't get stressed, but like Diseasel said, for most of the things we do, this technology is not better than the way we normally do things. In the future, things will be different...

Another thing the 3D printers do very well is print out forms to grow body parts on using stem cells. In this capacity, the technology is used and useful today. They grow ears and noses and such cosmetic things, but also more-useful things like bladders and they are working on complex organs like kidneys and such. Interesting stuff if you like technology.

Just my .02

I think it'll take off once the tech gets a little better. It'll be a benefit to both consumers and suppliers. The material for a 3D printer will be easier to ship for the supplier as you could box it up nice and square like. For the consumer you should see reduced shipping costs, shorter wait times and parts wouldn't go out of production. I'm darn excited for it.

I have a 3D printer with a huge build platform for prototyping parts before I make the patterns to cast them. These things keep getting more and more advanced everyday just like cellphones. Here is an intake i'm tweaking a little bit before I begin to cast them. My print bed is large enough I can print a whole 6 cylinder intake on it.

3D Solidworks Model

Printed part next to actual intake

Inside view

That's all cool but if you really want to come up with a
product that will sell like hot cakes, design a decent well
fitting set of headers for the 216/235. The carp that is
being thrown at us that is suppose to be Fenton doesn't fit
worth a dang and the Williams copies are even worse yet.

Back in the day the original Fenton's were a direct bolt on,
fit good with no modification necessary. I know cuz I used
them back in the late 50's & 60's. They have been copied so
many times now that they don't fit, holes don't line up and such.
A good large volume heat riser for quick warm up would be
more than welcome also.
dg

I am designing a better set of exhaust manifolds for the 250/292 style engines, but I didn't really know there was that much trouble with the ones for the Stovebolt's.

It does seem though, that with the Fenton copies having such a stronghold on the market because of brand recognition and tradition even though they don't fit correctly, it would be tough to educate the public and sway them away from them even when offering a better mousetrap.

I can do it though. Can you tell me or show me with some pics more specifically what the fitment problems are with the Fenton's that need to be corrected? Thanks

The wheel centers are not bad but do require a bit of finishing. so far tho a successful and cheap experiment.

My engineering buddy has access to a metal printer, we may try a run there next. they use if frequently for prototyping parts for marine oriented GPS technology.