I wouldn't think that printed dowel pins would ever be cost-competitive with mass-produced ones.
Woodgrain can be simulated with these plastic composites by varying the extruder temperature, and there are some software tools to help. It looks great in the marketing literature - the "real life" example I've seen looked more like a burnt crouton than a piece of wood.
Years ago thre was a rapid-prototyping (AKA, 3D Printing) technology called LOM (Laminated Object Manufacturing) which was based on laying down layers of paper and then laser-cutting the outline of each layer as well as cutting grids across the areas where there were voids in the final model. Afterwards you would 'punch' out the 'cubes' of material from the voids and the resulting model would have the texture and consistency of 'wood', particularly if you used sometime like kraft-paper as the 'media'.
While the original company has gone out-of-business, there are apparently some people still working on this technology as discussed at:
John,
We had one of this type of machine at General Dynamics in the 19 90's. It got the job done, but it took for ever to cut and paste all of those layers of paper to produce a solid object. I recall it cut the paper contours, then indexed and glued them using breakout tabs .
B.E.
The paper layer method I believe was an attempt to kinda copy stereo lithography where liquid resin was cured by a UV laser in layer upon layer. In my opinion it mostly fell far short of the liquid resin UV laser method.
3D printing of course has greatly reduced costs of rapid prototyping and I think increased the number of viable materials.
The same resin laid down by 3D printing falls somewhat short of injection moulding re mechanical properties due to the lack of packing pressure during the moulding process.
Re the plastic wood thing.
Recycling wood as a filler in plastics or using plastic resin as a binder for wood are two different things and simulating wood with plastic is another entirely different thing.
Just adding volatiles before the moulding process along with a grain surface texture on the mould can give somewhat of a natural wood surface.
At this stage I don't see 3D printing as having the resolution to produce a sufficiently sharp edge to a thread on a screw for the screw to cut its own thread into anything but the softest wood.
Regards
Pat
See FAQ731-376 for tips on use of eng-tips by professional engineers &
If we had access to one of these machines we could give a client their grading plan in 3D. We have a client who has flown out a famous Japanese Architect for their project which they then made the topo out of foam board to show what's going on with the site.
I would love and I mean love to be able to show certain clients their projects in 3D with the new topography. Anyone know how much something like this would cost to do? The more tools at our disposal the better,
And yes I am all for the idea of designing a lego and having some big machine spit that lego out. Imagine if that machine was actually making each part. I could imagine a machine that would make an edible wedding cake to my custom design. Or make a custom aero part for my car out of the material of my choosing.
B+W Engineering and Design
Los Angeles Civil Engineer and Structural Engineer
That video is a bit misleading, you can never print something like that bike in one go.
Some advanced 3D printers use 2 kinds of material though, after which you put your piece in an oven and melt away the softer plastic.
I suspect that when Stereolithography was first being developed way back when, that if someone had suggested that it would eventually lead to what's covered in the article below, that they would have been met with total disbelief if not actually having someone suggest that they may need to have their head examined:
Just as products can become outdated, so can laws. I believe that is one point that can be derived from this.
Another fact is that when something is outlawed, the demand and cost will increase. This really has little to do with 3D printers, as much as it has to do with technology making such laws outdated.
or a similar vendor that has multiple capabilities.
One thing I will say from my experience procuring rapid prototype parts, size is a big cost driver. If you're thinking of models the size of an E/A0 drawing or similar then it might get pretty expensive.
There are also techniques that use layers of paper or similar - Staples is looking to introduce one apparently
If you're thinking of models the size of an E/A0 drawing or similar then it might get pretty expensive.
I was thinking that if I was going to print a landscape elevation model to cover a desktop that I'd slice the model into 7x7 inch sections (my printer can do up to 8x8x8 inches) and print them separately. Then I'd number them as they printed, and assembly the lot of 'em on top of a suitable board, perhaps with a dab of glue at each seam.
The way I'm picturing these things, I bet I could make a pretty big landscape (lets say 3 feet by 5 feet) for less than $50 in plastic, but it'd probably take a week for me to print 'em all given only evenings and weekends to work on it.
To say nothing of using something like this to put together a model train layout. Not only could you 'print' the landscape, but you could include the buildings as well.
John R. Baker, P.E.
Product 'Evangelist'
Product Engineering Software
Siemens PLM Software Inc.
Industry Sector
Cypress, CA Siemens PLM: UG/NX Museum:
To an Engineer, the glass is twice as big as it needs to be.
Are you sure the detail is good enough for a model train layout? Maybe the basics could be printed, but other than the color you could get about as close with a machine that carves foam board. Instead of placing plastic, one with a router bit to carve down the foam.
I still have my doubts on the buildings, and realistic textures.
ivy, well indirectly it's the same issue - relatively lots of machine time to make either one big part or lots of smaller parts you then have to assemble.
If you've bought a machined and so that's already a sunk cost though then why not.
Out of interest Ivy what's the routine maintenance like on your 3D printer, do heads need to be cleaned etc. or is it pretty low fuss?
haven't had to clean the extruder tip, although I hear sometimes people have trouble with that when switching from one type of plastic to another (ABS to PLA or back). I've only been playing with mine since November, but there has been a fair bit of maintenance required. The biggest things have been related to vibration (loosening nuts) and leveling/adjustment of the print bed. The printed parts have to adhere well to the print bed or they don't come out right - but then the print bed gets a bit out of whack when you pry them off. You also end up replacing the plastic tape that covers the bed on a regular basis. I also had my print bead heater fail due to overload (current) of the pins on the circuit board - so I retrofitted with a relay to reduce the fire hazard.
I can see it now, the next remake of 'Frankenstein', only the 'monster' is created in some guy's attic using a 3D printer assembled from some salvaged printer parts and stuff from:
