Grizzly Adams 3674 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Think they could print off a few thousand 73s at a reasonable price? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dog Ears Wilson, SASS #77948 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adirondack Jack, SASS #53440 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 It's the latest in a series starting with 3D laser modelling they've had for 20 years or more. As computers get more powerful, the rest follows. Once they figure out how to pre-position inserts of metal in the powder box, Glocks and the like could be "printed", without the problems of molding parts. No longer will plastic parts have to be made with "relief" in the shapes to allow molds to open. Right now it's expensive and SLOW, but just wait. That 1 1/2 hours to make a crescent wrench will be down to minutes or seconds eventually. I wonder how much of that time is scanning and computer processing? If that's the bulk of it, those aspects are "one shot" as the program can "print" as many as ya want after it is set in the computer. here's the other thing. The original, if one exists, doesn't have to be present with the printer, it only has to be scanned. You could "remote print" any object you could scan. Of course there doesn't have to BE an original, which is the main use of the technology, creating "instant" prototypes out of 3D digital renderings. A computer modelling guy in his home somewhere could hit "print" and the part be created ANYWHERE the printer exists. Forget tool and die "one off" prototyping. Imagine the implications for things like dentures and prosthetics. A doc scans a worn out knee or shattered hip, and a perfect "add-on" prosthetic could be "printed" and installed while the patient is on the table. A dentist could scan a patient's mouth and dentures be "printed" and popped right in with no need for the impressions, molding, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jed I. Knight, SASS #36423 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Amazing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Jake1001 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 And I thought a small prize in a box of Cracker Jacks was a cool thing. Progress huh? Just sayin' Big Jake Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Hmmm...Dillon releases 3D reloader - no components required; specialized powders in printer take on roles of gunpowder, primer, brass and lead. Let's see - I need 1000 rounds of .38.....click, click, run...... LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 More seriously...maybe we will turn out to have been smart to get out of mass manufacturing....this technology, as it improves, has the potential to replace Chinese heavy industry, and revolutionize how we make hard products. Mind-boggling. "Earl Grey, hot"...... LL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widder, SASS #59054 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 This is the guy that wanted to 'borrow' my thumbs for a couple hours. HAR. ..........Widder Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gold Canyon Kid #43974 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 This technology, stereolithography, has been around a long time (mid 80s) in the aerospace industry. Over time, the equipment needed to implement it has gotten a lot cheaper. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereolithography#History Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snakebite Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 More seriously...maybe we will turn out to have been smart to get out of mass manufacturing....this technology, as it improves, has the potential to replace Chinese heavy industry, and revolutionize how we make hard products. Mind-boggling. "Earl Grey, hot"...... LL That would be nice, but with our track record the technology will be given to, sold to, stolen by or otherwise by the Chinese and we will once again be buying from them. I'm not sure that our country has what it takes to bring our manufacturing back to where it should/could be. It seems that ALL of the poloticians just want the campain funds and the unions all want $50/hr pay for a $20/hr job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adirondack Jack, SASS #53440 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 And I thought a small prize in a box of Cracker Jacks was a cool thing. Progress huh? Just sayin' Big Jake That's along the lines of what I was thinking. My ole man was a precision machinist, and I remember the first time he saw "Lego" blocks and marveled at their precision. "Some day" he said, "plastics will be really good, and not like the crap we have now." That was in the 60s or 70s, when you needed to do a lot of fitting and trimming to build model cars..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Driftwood Johnson, SASS #38283 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Howdy The technology has a long way to go before you could 'print out' a bunch of '73s. I used to work in a company that had something similar. We used it to prototype parts for products that were still in the engineering stage. The parts created were used to look for interference and fit problems, and to give the engineers and salesman something they could get their hands on. The parts had no strength at all, the plastic used was very weak. You had to be careful how you handled the parts, they were very brittle. Plus, it took hours to make one part, for instance a housing six inches by four inches by two inches would require the machine to run over night. It was much quicker to make an actual housing out of aluminum on the CNC machines than print these 3D plastic parts. Don't forget, time is the most important factor in driving down the cost of manufactured parts. The parts made this way were extremely useful in the engineering stages of a project, just getting your hands on properly sized parts is always better than viewing them on a computer screen. But that was the total usefulness of the parts. Don't forget, we are talking about plastics here, not steel. You would probably be able to implant metal parts surrounded in plastic, but you are never going to make a steel rifle barrel this way. I guarantee if the happy owner had applied some real torque with that wrench he would have snapped off the handle. He did not push it very hard. I don't care what the guy in the video said about implanting more resin or powdered metal, that will not have the strength of forged steel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Dave Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 AJ, it's already being used in dental offices, when I got a crown earlier this year, they took pictures of my mouth, what was left of the tooth, fed it in a computer and a CNC machine milled the crown while I was in the chair. Not quite the same, but similar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tucson Jim Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 It'll really get interesting when one machine can print the parts to make another. Then it all goes "viral". And the Chinese won't even be a factor anymore... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Angus McPherson Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Maybe I'm the only one, but I'm a skeptic. I don't see how you could scan an item and have a 3D WORKING model come out. How does the scan see inside the item to make the seperate working parts with proper tolerances? A static mold I can see. Kinda like a rubber gun - looks like a gun - holsters like a gun - points like a gun, but no moving parts. With the working interior parts already inside... That one I've gotta see for myself. Granted, I don't know how this computer thing really works either, but I can grasp the theories involved. Maybe I'z just ign'ant. Angus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullwhip Karl Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 It'll really get interesting when one machine can print the parts to make another. Then it all goes "viral". And the Chinese won't even be a factor anymore... Actually that has already been done. There is an open source 3D printer. The parts needed to make the printer can be made by someone else with the printer and you assemble it yourself to make your own 3D parts. Link: http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page I have seen wax 3D printers to create lose wax castings, powder metal, I seen a paper 3D printer, the end product was strong enough to work as an intake manifold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adirondack Jack, SASS #53440 Posted July 21, 2011 Share Posted July 21, 2011 Howdy The technology has a long way to go before you could 'print out' a bunch of '73s. I used to work in a company that had something similar. We used it to prototype parts for products that were still in the engineering stage. The parts created were used to look for interference and fit problems, and to give the engineers and salesman something they could get their hands on. The parts had no strength at all, the plastic used was very weak. You had to be careful how you handled the parts, they were very brittle. Plus, it took hours to make one part, for instance a housing six inches by four inches by two inches would require the machine to run over night. It was much quicker to make an actual housing out of aluminum on the CNC machines than print these 3D plastic parts. Don't forget, time is the most important factor in driving down the cost of manufactured parts. The parts made this way were extremely useful in the engineering stages of a project, just getting your hands on properly sized parts is always better than viewing them on a computer screen. But that was the total usefulness of the parts. Don't forget, we are talking about plastics here, not steel. You would probably be able to implant metal parts surrounded in plastic, but you are never going to make a steel rifle barrel this way. I guarantee if the happy owner had applied some real torque with that wrench he would have snapped off the handle. He did not push it very hard. I don't care what the guy in the video said about implanting more resin or powdered metal, that will not have the strength of forged steel. True enoughj, Driftwood. But imagine this. Aboard a space station or space city, 99% of the "Stuff" they have probably requires no more strength than that resin crescent wrench. If you can print accurate 3D parts Or "upgrade" facilities by printing parts with data sent from earth, maybe re-designing a filter body or a pump housing, etc, it'd be a whole pile cheaper than making one in Texas or Tula and flying it up, and ya'd get it NOW, not next year.... Similarly, ships at sea could print parts for many things instead of inventorying so many things not needed often, making a few bags of resin a nearly universal repair kit, the "baling wire" or "duct tape" of the 21st century. I bet our antarctic colony gets one soon..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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