3D printers

Don,

This is a corner of the hobby that we're going to have to watch closely. The Asian and European markets are embracing 3D printing as a serious part of the scale-modeling hobby, although it is still in its infancy.

Expense is a hurdle, but costs are coming down precipitously, both for the printers and materials. As more and more CADs are uploaded to the Internet for free or minimal-fee downloads, the world ahead could be exciting (or scary, depending upon your vantage point).

Other than the 3D-printed products we've had come through the office, I haven't had any personal experience with the process. But I hope to change that.

Hi Don!  That's a nice looking printer.

My only concern is that it's limited to PLA, since there is no heat bed.  Here's some info about the difference between PLA and ABS.  From reading about it, I can't choose which one I would prefer.  I'd like to try printing a project with both before I make up my mind.

matt

3D Printing is certainly a revolutionary process that was developed for rapid prototyping. I had a brief exposure to it. Although the machines are coming way down in price it does not stop there. The price of a powerful enough computer to handle 3D CAD programs and consumables for the machine has to be factored in. If you want to design anything yourself will entail tha cost of a good 3D CAD design package, and these do not generally come cheap. The cost may be prohibitive for a casual user. Also a time investment to learn how to use the CAD, as there is generally a bit of a learning curve to master. The industry standards such as Autodesk Inventor, Solid Works, Solid Edge and Pro Engineer take some time to master. Many schools and colleges were using a CAD Program named Pro/DESKTOP up until recently.

I do expect to spend considerable time learning 3-D CAD.  I learned 2D CAD for a scratch modeling project and am happy I did, as I have used it a lot since then.

There seems to be a lot of talk of using Open Source 3D software, a reasonable thing since these lower cost kits seem to be centered around the OS movement.  Don't know how good the software is, but I'll find out.

I suspect many of us, including me, will just "acquire" the completed rendering instead of using a CAD program to create our own design.

I don't think it will be that long until you can go to a manufactures site like Dragon and just buy the designs. From there you'll just pick your scale and render away.

Look whats happened to the photo printers which 10 years ago where quite expensive and now you don't even fix them you just go get a new one as they are so cheap, 3D will get that way

I think this will be the future for people in the hobby and could instill some younger blood too

Phil

The recent article in FSM thinks that 3-D could be the future in modelling.  I am not ready for the printer yet but an keeping my eyes open.  John

I recently had an article accepted, and the fee would be exactly what the price is on the 3D printer kit I was looking at.  The check arrived yesterday, and I had already decided that I would use the check to order the 3D printer kit.  So, in the next day or two I will be taking the plunge.

One of the reasons I want a 3D printer is that I do a lot of scratch building, and of odd subjects (why scratch build a common subject that has a big choice of kits?).  So it isn't that likely I will find 3D files of parts/assemblies, whatever, for the projects I want to build.

For example, I am looking at converting Revell's big 1:32 Super Cub to a J-3.  But, I will need a Continental A-65, since the engine is very visible in a J-3.  There are no resin aftermarket A-65s in any scale, and I don't forsee anyone making a CAD model available anytime soon, so I think that will be one of my goals in learning 3D CAD- to do an A-65.

I also hate carving wing airfoils.  I am guessing that a wing in 3D will not be a very difficult project, so a wing will be an intermediate goal.

Ordered my Printrbot Simple from Amazon yesterday!  I expect a lot of learning.  We'll see how difficult the learning curve is.

Congrats, Don! Can't wait to see the first airfoil.

Congrats on the purchase !

I still do not see model brands, like Dragon, selling complete kits via CAD design files to be downloaded by us.  With that one file we could print out multiple kits, possibly even change the scale, pass it on to friends, etc - all this would be business lost to the manufacturer.  

Take for instance decal manufactures. I don't know of any of the main stream ones offering their researched decals as download files - and I'm sure it has nothing to do with most printers not being capable of printing white ink.  In  fact, when viewing their products online, they purposely have it out of focus, or have their logo stamped all over to render it useless for copying.

What could be possible is a corrected part being offered as a file for the modeler to print out at home.

Am I the only one seeing the loss in revenue for the manufacturer in offering his files online?  

regards,

Jack

jgeratic

Am I the only one seeing the loss in revenue for the manufacturer in offering his files online?  

regards,

Jack

I wonder if somebody in a trench coat is standing on a street corner somewhere selling illegal copies of the FSM 25-year collection DVD ?

The printer was back ordered when I ordered it the other day.  Yesterday I got an email that they now had a shipping date and I would get it Saturday.  Today, another email- they moved up the delivery date to tomorrow (Friday) and said the package was shipped and on its way!