Anyone used a 3d printer

[simso]

Anyone ever used one,

Ive just paid the money and having one shipped to me, but really know very little on there capabilities or limitations

I need it just to make small plastic parts that I physically cannot purchase, am currently doing these parts by hand and its frustratingly slow

[DaveW]

Ive seen them on youtube and they look incredibly expensive !!!

[simso]

They have come down a long way in price, yes still midly expensive but cheaper than the last time I looked

[Chalks]

Hi Steve. I work for a technology association and the company you bought it from, if bought from Australia, is very likely a member of ours. I know the technology fairly well in terms of capability. What do you want to know?

Chalks

[simso]

Just how accurate are they.

Ive bought it for the following exscuse.

We repair flutes saxes trumpets and so forth, a lot of the chinese shops open and close within a year, this means replacement plastic parts which break are no longer available, example I have a $2000 tuba in for repair which cannot be repaired because the one little piece of plastic which guides the piston up and down in the chamber is no longer available

Up until now I will spend hrs trying to machine make a part, and then if you get another one in a month or so later its frustrating because you have to make the same part again.

Where as if I draw it up in cad, Im hoping this new machiune will be able to plastic print it out for me.

Will that realistically work, or is it humbo jumbo.

To this end, Ive thought about making fluoro plastic nuts / saddles / machine head knobs and so forth, is this possible

Thanks

[simso]

Sorry and machine, which hasnt arrived yet

[Chalks]

Hey Steve. The machine you have there is pretty much a base model. You will be able to make some pretty cool stuff but the accuracy is not great by comparison to other machines.

These will give you a plastic part that you can process with a mill or lathe to a I tighter dimension but will struggle with tight tolerances.

Sorry to sound negative but I am actually quite the opposite. Once you have it in your shop and learn the capacity and limitations of this particular technology you will find a whole world will open up for you.

No longer will you have difficult to make jigs or fixtures. Simply put if you can design it draw it in CAD then you can print it. Special purpose tooling, tuning machine knobs, whatever you might think of you can draw and print. Just become familiar with the limitations of your particular machine.

Chalks

[Chalks]

Steve the other thing to remember if ya gunna make one over night ya might as well make as many as the platten will fit on it. Your sleeping anyway. This means that if this particular part can be made to the tolerances needed straight off the printer then you could put a small stock away for later. Material costs go up of course your making more than one, but labour doesn't because your sleeping. It doesn't need your intervention, you're just printing as many as can be fitted all at once.

Chalks

[simso]

Not negative at all, if anything that sounds promising, we looked at all the ones out there and really had no idea, in the end we decided go for it and from this purchase we can learn its down falls and what to look for should we decide to buy one again at a later stage.

Thanks

Steve

[Nick]

Hey Steve, haven't used one per se but have access to one in the phyiscs department workshop (we share the building and facilities with them) and have had a handle made by it. It was a similar situation as yours, the bit of gear the original broke off of was so old, the company no longer carried spares so in that instance it was a god send as it was either that or the whole instrument had to be chucked (at $10K for a replacement! ).
They are great bits of kit and it surprised me just how strong the new piece was! As Chalks pointed out, the accuracy of the smaller benchtop models isn't exactly to three decimal places but for my handle it was only a matter of quickly running a reamer down the bore that fits over the shaft and take a skim out of it. So even if you still have to machine a part to fit, machining time is very much reduced!
I don't know if it is the software that runs it (chalks maybe able to shed some light here?), but the matrix this particular printer lays up is a little on the coarse side so the surface finish is never going to be as smooth as a moulded part but a light sand and a skim of epoxy fills any surface roughness if that's the finish you are after.
They certainly are fascinating to watch in how they build up surfaces and build internal bridges e.t.c.

[Chalks]

Yep a combination of a bunch of things. If you go all the way and spend some serious six figures, tolerances get way better. Never as good as a machined finish, but they are amazing. Steve you have started at the right end. Experiment at this end until you know the possibilities and grow your imagination into this technology. I have seen titanium parts, plastic parts, compound material parts made with this technology that cannot be done any other way.

Add to the printer laser scanning and reverse engineering is crazy fast. No drawing. Scan, tidy up the data, fill in the missing bits and print.

Anyway I sound like a propeller head. Enjoy your printer.

Chalks