3d printers any thoughts

[brewerjerry]

Hi All,

with the price of 3d printers coming down fast, anyone got one yet, for making those extra parts, apparently some you can scan an object then print it.

i am thinking of one for the santa list or earlier maybe

will it be great for aftermarket stuff, just do it at home ?

jerry

[louiex2]

I don't know if the technology is quite there yet. I recently same some parts done with an affordable 3d printer by a local modeller but the surfaces were very rough- almost like the pieces had been hit with a miniature sandblaster. I hope the technology and price will be there soon.

[Ed Russell]

With the right printer you can make real Spitfire parts

http://www.warbirdz.net/forum/showthread.php?t=2275

It's the technology of the future but still has a way to go

http://www.aussiemodeller.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6438

[Matt-Tempest]

Hi All,

with the price of 3d printers coming down fast, anyone got one yet, for making those extra parts, apparently some you can scan an object then print it.

i am thinking of one for the santa list or earlier maybe

will it be great for aftermarket stuff, just do it at home ?

jerry

It's only a matter of time before the quality gets good enough and the tecnology cheap enough and frankly....................anything is possible

It'll be very interesting to see how this technology develops in the next 10 years

It'll be a major concern for the plastic kit manufactures. If you can design kits without having to spend huge sums of money on dies and moulds, it will be a huge game changer. There will be a lot of competition entering the market to produce all kinds of consumer products

Edited June 30, 2013 by Matt-Tempest

[Greenshirt]

It may take time, but it will revolutionize our hobby. The kit makers will still make kits, but can reduce some costs by removing details. Us enthusiasts will share CAD files online for key detail parts and print as we need/want.

Imagine a very good and very accurate injection Spitfire: wings, fuselage, empennage and enough bits to make the casual or weekend builder (younger, new to hobby, etc) very happy for a ten'r. But those of us with a 3D printer will have the CAD files for cockpit details, very accurate props, landing gear, wheels, guns, bombs and racks, rockets and rails, antenna, pitot, etc.

The technology is available today, but most of us cannot yet afford it, nor do we have the CAD files. It'll take a few years to standardize formats, build the libraries, settle on quality minimums, and I'm not convinced 3D scanners are moving at the same pace. In the nears term knowing how to draw in a compatible 3D CAD application is the best means of getting it right.

We'll still be hampered by poor drawings until forums like this one cleanse the poor ones out through knowledge, we'll be asking which file is the most accurate, not which kit!

Tim

[Al Gunthwaite]

It's the future!

Al

[Test Graham]

If you look on sites such as N Gauge Forum for railways and Model Warships you will find discussions about the use of such parts in modelling, and considerable practical experience described by those who are already doing just that. It does seem as though the technology is still some distance from the dream of high quality desktop homework.

[grahamf]

I've been using this technology for the last 25 years its not new and maybe the future but not for a long time, There has lately been a rash of hard sell to push these cheap machines onto the general public who have been totally ignorant to them until the last year or two, and the conversation about them keeps appearing on here ad nauseam.

They generally have quite a bad finish to them depending on the cost of the machine, a near injection moulded finish item from a machine will set you back 250K [ Nokia has one] A rough piece with the finesse of a sugar cube will set you back 2K.

I think personally the technology has no where to go so to recoup the development costs a lot of cheap machines have come onto the market, I think it may create a different sort of hobby but will not effect the industry that much.

In my work we make Architectural models for top Architectural practices in London and we also have 3D printed models to finish and paint, the only thing saved is time not quality and its not cheaper.

Buyer beware though as an experiment we bought one of these cheap machines and it has never worked yet! Its been back to the company that sold it to us twice and we have had endless telephone conversations about it to the point that the person in our workshop who was in charge of it now refuses to have anything to do with it or the company that sold it!

And to look at this thing it looks a right heath robinson contraption and has only succeeded in converting a reel of plastic into useless blobs.

Graham.

[Shar2]

I look after the 3D printers at the university I work at. Like Graham says there's a long way to go before the general public can afford machines that will produce parts good enough to use. I have made some parts for model aircraft and ships that I've built which have come out ok, but only because the plastic we use is easily sanded down. We are looking at getting a much better machine which will actually produce a finished article, without the need for any sanding etc, but at a cost of £168,000 it's a bit out of reach for the general public. I would leave the current batch of home printers on the shelf as I reckon it will be another 10 years before anyting worth whilst will be on the home market.

[dragonlanceHR]

What everyone forgets every time this 3D printer hype pops out is the effort needed to master the 3D modeling software, and the effort of creating accurate and detailed 3D parts, assemblies and models.

Or do they think that those would be cheap or freeware?

Remember the ALPS printers, compare how many people just reprinted scanned decal sheets, and the really few who made and sold their own artwork.

Vedran