plastic printing

[David Lee]

i was watching a video on plastic printing. Ha anyone used one of these tro make light weight brackets or other parts?

[SSDiv6]

Originally Posted by David Lee

i was watching a video on plastic printing. Ha anyone used one of these tro make light weight brackets or other parts?

You must be talking about 3D printing.

There are already a few parts out there, including intake manifolds that have been manufactured from Nylon. There are also printers that will create metal parts from powered metal.

[FireSale]

The trick with 3D printing of custom parts is that they need to be designed in CAD files. That requires fairly expensive software and a good deal of skill to prepare the file to feed the printer. Couple of grand to set this up for a bracket lighter but not as strong as 6061 aluminum. I'd much rather have a mill and lathe.

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by FireSale

The trick with 3D printing of custom parts is that they need to be designed in CAD files. That requires fairly expensive software and a good deal of skill to prepare the file to feed the printer. Couple of grand to set this up for a bracket lighter but not as strong as 6061 aluminum. I'd much rather have a mill and lathe.

there is sw that is vert very good and for free, one is made by the makers of autocad. while i would love to own a nice lathe and mill, the cost and space required would be prohibitive.

[Ben Holt]

We have one and have been making quite a few parts with it. It is perfect for setup and/or temporary parts. We have made quite a few sets of runners for our comp car this year, we have even been running the runners down the track all year. Much cheaper than the billet aluminum runners we had made before...

That being said, you do need to be able to draw the part up, but that merely takes the program and some practice

[Chad Fergen]

We have 5 of them at work and they can make about anything you want but like said, someone needs to draw them up for you first. Ultem is one of the stronger materials you can get for that but its not as strong as aluminum.

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by Chad Fergen

We have 5 of them at work and they can make about anything you want but like said, someone needs to draw them up for you first. Ultem is one of the stronger materials you can get for that but its not as strong as aluminum.

can you tell me what printers you are using?


Thanks

[Myron Piatek]

I couldn't help but wonder if there is a compatible material that could be used in 3D printing to make replacement Thermoquad fuel bowls.

[David Lee]

Originally Posted by Myron Piatek

I couldn't help but wonder if there is a compatible material that could be used in 3D printing to make replacement Thermoquad fuel bowls.

find out what plastic was used and would be more than happy to investigate it.

[Myron Piatek]

Originally Posted by David Lee

find out what plastic was used and would be more than happy to investigate it.

I'll ask/check around. Don't know if it's accurate, but I've heard it referred to as "phenolic".

There is a source for small primary bowls for under $150, which I don't know if they are still being manufactured or there is just a large overstock. But no source for big primary bowls that I'm aware of.