3D printing makes me wonder about the future....

Thanks for the review;  I have seen overviews of the techniques used in the list you mention.

I don't anticipate any wonderful home machine breakthrough in the near future if for no other reason than the fact that I am somewhat familiar with costs involved with the current technology ( steppers, servos, servo steppers, controller circuits, bearings) , close tolerance manufacturing and materials used in the production of 3D CAM systems.

Buying legit copies of industry standard 3D CADD isn't exactly cheap, either.

Thanks for the link to 

Matthews Model Marine

I'll sift through the threads looking for current information on hardware and software used, though I suspect a visit to a manufacturing trade show next year ( if I can get time off ) might produce a better overview.

To go with the eagle's new beak, the duck's new foot. www.huffingtonpost.com/.../buttercup-duck-3d-printed-foot_n_3518729.html

Well, it helps to know not just the materials, but the processes. Just like you can vac-form styrene sheet, you can injection mold it... but which process would you prefer for a fine model? The "affordable" desktop printers that get all the hype are the vacuum-formers of 3D printing... abandon all hope for these, if you're looking for fine modeling tools!

1. In the beginning, there was stereolithography, which is the process wherein a laser draws on the surface of a pool of liquid photopolymer, hardening one layer at a time. Expensive, but capable of pretty fine resolution.

2. Then we have various forms of multijet (R) machines... which have an inkjet-like head that sweeps back and forth, squirting out droplets of heated plastic which is further cured with a UV flash. Most of your fine res parts from Shapeways are made on such a machine, which advertises a  29 micron (~900 DPI) mode... which SHOULD be very fine, almost optical quality... but in reality, the parts come out much coarser.

3. SLS, selective laser sintering, fuses together dry nylon powder... parts are relatively low cost, but porous and gritty, and the stepping is pretty severe. I used this on the cabins for the ship above, but A LOT of sealing and sanding was needed to get a smooth wall.

4. Fused Deposition Modeling, FDM, is the low cost home process... imagine building parts with a tiny hot glue gun, squiggle by squiggle... no good for most modeling purposes.

Surface finish on a mechanical part model from an industrial quality FDM machine:

Moral of the story:

Don't even think about home machines... just order your 3DP parts from an outfit like Shapeways... let THEM invest their $$$ in machines that depreciate and go obsolete in a few years.

I understand the technology limitations of the current resolution.

As printer resolution has improved, so should 3D printing.................so long as the material used to make parts also improves.

Unfortunately, I am neither a chemist nor physicist.so i don't know what new materials may be possible in the future.

No you don't... it's cheap fused deposition modeling (modeling by Silly String), and 100 micron resolution is horrible... I've moaned a groaned about the bad surface finish on parts made with 16 micron machines (multijet modeling), oy vey!

Everyone keeps swallowing the hype from these makers, but few (or none) of these machines will make a part you'd accept as a replacement for a typical injected molded kit part.

With a lot of work, you CAN clean the parts up to make them usable... see my build thread at:

cs.finescale.com/.../155741.aspx

^^    23 inches long & 99.5% 3D Printed    ^^

OOhhhh me wantsy.

Stephen_Social

Did you see this yet?

Did you see this yet?

Echo139er

I don't know if anyone has posted about this.  I don't really feel much like reading back two pages.  Anyway, talking about 3-D printing, I came across this article that I want to share with all of you... just because I think it rocks!

Injured bald eagle gets new 3-D printed beak

Borg R3-MC0

Revell certainly thinks so. The Dutch IPMS recently did an article on RoG and they are actively thinking about how 3d printing can be used by them and how this will change there business model.

Good to hear they aren't going to sit idly by and let technology make them redundant (eg the music industry). i think initially 3D will be a great tool for aftermarket companies, but i think the real money will be 3D programming and selling 3D (cad) models will be the market, assuming this 3d stuff takes off in a big way. at the moment the tech is a bit too clunky, but once it surpasses injected molding, it'll be something worth looking at.

Don't fear the future!

I don't know if anyone has posted about this.  I don't really feel much like reading back two pages.  Anyway, talking about 3-D printing, I came across this article that I want to share with all of you... just because I think it rocks!

Injured bald eagle gets new 3-D printed beak

Didn't FSM do a 3D article a few years ago?

I'm new to this technology of 3D printing. But having read the threads I see a lot of potential in it. As mentioned. The mouldings will be made more flawless and probably more manageable with less prepping and maybe the details will be far better than ever. I don't believe in the prospects of a market where people will make their own models. That requires top notch design skills and a good amount of dosh to get the applications and the hardware to to execute the job. For the model kit manufacturers this is good news. It just new means of improving the product. I'm  sure we'll still see our models come in sprues on the assembly line for another 50 years or so. I hope...

There are websites that allow people to upload designs that you can print yourself. Some people are a little worried because theres a group thats managed to design a working .22 gun than you can download and print at home with a decent machine. Think of the ramifications of that, a firearm that wont set off metal detectors, and can be passed off as a "toy" plastic gun, or can be broken up into components that arent recognizable as a weapon, then assembled and used. Any object that can be used for good, can be used for evil.

But in saying that, you can buy a basic 3D printer for $1500 USD (or will be able to soon)

http://cubify.com/

Buy a part online, download the print files for your printer, print it out, got yourself an upgrade kit for that 1972 Airfix spitfire.

Interesting thoughts here, speaking as someone paddling in the shallow end, as it were.

But I think the first wave of Borg's 5 year evolution will come from the aftermarket boys using the stuff to make masters to cast.

Look at the work by live resin, astonishing detail on those modern weapons sets, & 'scopes, stands, mag-lites, helmets, etc....

The big stumbling block is skills to get ENOUGH people trained on the software, to get critical mass.

Then the software costs need to come down to mass-market levels, eg. Sketchup is free, but you need add-ons to use it for manufacture, not all of these are free, or maybe the guys that offer "print the parts for U" service should take files in Sketchup format, then it would take off!

I think the 'big boys' may stumble over scalability. eg, It takes big Dollars to design & cut steel moulds, but therafter they can knock out a kit in, say, a minute, (60 per hour/ 24 hrs/day, 365 days/yr, etc, etc etc).  

Judging from what I've seen at my Uni, the machines are frequently left running OVERNIGHT to produce parts with the size & complexity of a 1/24th scale car body, or a holder thingy to clamp an I-phone to a bike!

So watch this space, progress & cost falls with be rapid, but don't hold your breath just yet.

PritMar

Is a 3D printer really a printer? We have one where I work and I have never seen anyone put paper in it. I really wish they would come up with a better term for it.

Technically its not a "printer" in the purest form of the word. However, it is still a printer in that it uses digital information to "Print" a 3 dimensional "image" so technically it is still a printer.

What else would you call it? If you called it a personal CNC machine, that would be wrong too. Rapid prototype machine? What if its no longer a prototype? Rapid reproduction machine? I guess that could work, but its not very marketable.

At the end of the day, a name is just a name, i could call it a fizzwobler, if i could market that name so succesfully that it stuck to that product, it would be called that. For example, in new zealand a flip flop or thong, or sand shoe, is called a Jandal. Because it was first marketed in this country by Jandal, so the name stuck.  

"Kodachrome

You give us those nice bright colors

You give us the greens of summers

Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!

I got a Nikon camera"

Kodak sued

Nikon set them a camera

Then again, ownership of personal 3D printers may yet be restricted due to this:

http://news.yahoo.com/you-don-t-bring-a-3d-printer-to-a-gun-fight----yet.html

Sprue-ce Goose

Milairjunkie

................

I'm surprised that the big boys have only just gotten to the point of looking at it?

 

KODAK filed for bankruptcy because management didn't recognize the potential of digital photography.

Actually, the management at Kodak did recognize the importance of digital photography. But they where not able to get into that market effectively and they thought that people would still be printing their photographs. Lastly, making digital camera's is a different business then making film. For digital camera's you need to be an electronics company. Kodak was more of a chemical company, that was the expertise required dor making film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodak#Shift_to_digital

As to 3d printing, I think the big boom is going to be the next 5 years, the technology is already here, it will become cheaper and better. I wonder was this will do to the global economy, what is the point of letting everything (including models) be manufactered in China when you can print is easily at home...that is the paradigma shift we are going to see.

Milairjunkie

................

I'm surprised that the big boys have only just gotten to the point of looking at it?

 

KODAK filed for bankruptcy because management didn't recognize the potential of digital photography.

Is a 3D printer really a printer? We have one where I work and I have never seen anyone put paper in it. I really wish they would come up with a better term for it.

I'm looking forward to seeing the first mass producer getting really behind this. It wont be cheap to do it right, they will need large scale laser scanners to get it right.

Imagine the new Tiger kit from them, they go to a museum while the tank is being restored and laser scan all the parts. This can then be fed right into the 3D printers. Once you have one done all you need is to scan the parts which change so the costs start to drop. It would remove so many of the problems we dont like with accuracy. With modern items these are already made with CAD so this could be fed right in

You could end up with a possible situation where you walk into your LHS and say "I'd like a tiger produced in Feb 1944" and be asked "How detailed would you like it - basic, complex or every single part down to the bolts for the radiators, oh and what scale"

I hope this is the way the hobby goes but I'll have to finish my stash first

Phil

I don't know what the finished material is like or how it compares to styrene in terms of durability, workability & longevity, but it certainly is an interesting arena.

Thinking aloud here, but if I was a kit manufacturer I would certainly be interested in this - injection moulding is a costly process, using expensive equipment & consuming a fair bit of energy, add to this the fact that the moulds are EXPENSIVE to manufacture, are not easily altered, have a high minimum output before break even, aren't exactly convenient to store between runs & cant be quickly changed....

I imagine that once printing speed & resolution can both be brought up to the right level it might make sense for the mass production outfits. If / when speed is improved, it could save a fortune on equipment, moulds & energy - it would reduce their required minimum output & product changeover would be by the click of a mouse.

No more moulds to forklift about the place to swap or store, get mysteriously lost at sea, destroyed in a train crash or simply disappear.

I'm surprised that the big boys have only just gotten to the point of looking at it?

Borg R3-MC0:  "Most dificult thing is acuatly using CAD software to create models. I have a host of aircraft of which there are no kit but no skills to make them into 3d models"

I testify to that, I'm learning  Sketchup, & AutoCAD to be able to play.... you need a totaly different headspace!

So Far.... I've used Google Sketchup (free!) to make my own drawn components, then laidout the design to the desired scale (1:48th) using Sketchup Pro (NOT FREE, sigh...)

I've used Autocad to produce parts I've laser-cut, then back to Sketchup to produce a 1/48th building, RAF bomb shelter, & CNC Milled the blanks.... 14 hours PC & CNC work so far & 4-5 bench hours to go

FunFunFun.... all part of my personal development, honestly...  & I note the labs have a bench sized laser cutters and a 3D printer....

I have seen some of this in action as it were, by MDC who are using 3D CAD to produce Masters for more conventional resin casting.  can't say much.

There have been 3d produced tracks for the LVT's, forget by who, they looked good but were USD$80.00 plus, but are now available much more reasonably, so there is a lot to look forward to here....

I would not be surprised if , someday, model builders were downloading 3D "kits" in place of buying models online.

Interesting, I even found a few 1/48 parts and kits at reasonable prices.  Here's a 3d printer you can buy for $1,300.

cubify.com/.../index.aspx

Like borg says, it's really making the 3d models thats the difficult part, but then you can buy those plans.