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I'm with you, but I have a cousin who makes a similar comment with a slight difference. He says if he could get one that could print very hard materials (for me
by jeffool 14y ago
I'm with you, but I have a cousin who makes a similar comment with a slight difference. He says if he could get one that could print very hard materials (for mechanical parts to be used in engines, I believe) he'd consider one around $500, just for convenience.
He tells me such printers that can do that definitely exist, but they're just too costly to bother with.
He's the kind of guy with a spare building out back full of broken things people give him. They collect for five months, and then in the span of one he realizes he's accumulated enough stuff to fix a few projects, and churns them out. It's funny how he'll have a hole in the wall of the building, a pontoon boat, and a car or two out there... And then a week later all the vehicles have been fixed, returned, and he's now got a new wall, paint job, refrigerator, and fan for his building.
- wlesieutre 14y agoAny idea what those printers use? I've heard of C&C machines carving hard parts out of blocks of metal, but 3D printing them would be really cool.
- wtallis 14y agoThere are 3d printers that use a laser to sinter metal powders. It's hard to make that as strong as cast metal parts, but it can certainly make parts that are harder than the extruded plastic that the more affordable 3d printers work with.
- emgeee 14y agohttp://production3dprinters.com/slm/direct-metal-slm http://production3dprinters.com/slm/direct-metal-slm They use small layers of metal particles fused with lasers.
- ballooney 14y agoThere exist metal 3D printing technologies, but usually the mechanical properties of the finished material are not as good as an equivalent cast version, although can be as good as about 80%, in terms of Youngs Modulus. At the cheap end of metal 3D printing, shapeways.com will make you stuff out of stainless steel at $8.00/cm^3. More b2b companies will provide more detailed mechanical info about their process and the results. A site close to my hobby interests is http://rocketmoonlighting.blogspot.com http://rocketmoonlighting.blogspot.com , where this chap has printed a rocket engine, complete with internal regenerative cooling channels (where you keep the combustion chamber and nozzle cool by pumping the fuel in channels around it before it gets injected in the chamber). I think it's wonderful, and is a reason I'm excited by 3D printing. Also, being able to print Printed Circuit Boards, i.e. printing copper tracks onto a fibreglass substrate, would be a serious boon.