3D Printing - PVC Plastic Parts

[rotarycraig]

My CNC machine I am building will also double as a 3d printer. 24x48 table with 9 inch x axis. 3d printer will be 4 axis. I will post pics of the CNC once I get the motion electronics delivered and installed.

[SchulzeA]

We have laser tracking machines at work that could do it but the cheapest one is about 80k. And it would take forever to do any large parts like Chris pointed out. I've had the operators do small parts like the Egear shifter trim which took about 4 hours alone.

[No Bull]

That's sick lol
3 months isn't long when you see how long it's taking guys to carve and mold their own bodies

Is there anyone out there that can laser scan a whole car?

There is a lot more to laser scanning an object and having it converted to a point cloud than the videos online would lead you to believe.  The process takes some pretty specialized equipment that is really expensive and a lot of processing horse power and time.  There are times when reflective parts need to be "powdered" so the laser can see them and other times there may be areas that a laser just can't read and it must be added manually.  I was going to invest in a small desktop scanner at around  $3000 and I was quickly talked out of it by the company that sold me my 3D printer.

There is a software program out there called Artec - http://www.artec3d.com/3d_scanners_for_fun/ that converts a XBox Kinect camera into a 3D scanner.  It's still somewhat of a novelty and we can expect to see a lot of advancements in this and 3D printing over the next couple of years.

Chris

[Robert]

That's sick lol
3 months isn't long when you see how long it's taking guys to carve and mold their own bodies

Is there anyone out there that can laser scan a whole car?

[Tallon]

That's sick lol
3 months isn't long when you see how long it's taking guys to carve and mold their own bodies

[Jah316]

Those layered parts just need an acetone vapor treatment (see youtube vid) and it will be close to OEM usable!

Still Extruding: Vapor Treating ABS 3D Printed Parts

With these 3D printers coming down in price (about $500) like this one:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1682938109/robo-3d-printer

 you can probably print out a whole car for about $250 in plastic (about a 500 pound  plastic body)!  Even the filament (about $50/two pound roll) can be greatly averted by making your own for about $5/ two pound roll like this:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:34653

You can download the PDF plans for free at that site!

The whole car would be under $1000!  I would guess it would take 1 to 3 months to get it done (using these small machines (10 inch by 10 inch by 8 inch) or making bigger travel arms and heat plates using the supplied nozzle/controllers - to speed up the process) - mostly just supervising the machine as it does all the work!  Afterwards, just brush/spray/vapor treat the car with acetone and you would have a smooth shiny car body that you could pull molds from or even use as is - coating it with paints/vinyl wrap/chrome wrap (to reflect high heats)/ or even a coat of resin or gel coat!  All for under $1000 - ANY CAR, ANY MOLD!  That beats the cost of any fiberglass body!

All this being said, I wonder if the other type of 3D printers might not be the real future - the ones that scan a UV light over liquid plastic layer by layer - the part "magically" apears to rise from the liquid like something out of Star Trek, check it out:

DLP Image Projection 3d Printer by Envisiontec @ MDM 2012

Dlp 3d printer

[No Bull]

Update

After waiting 30 days for my Cubex to arrive, I received an email from them telling me that it'd be another 30 days for delivery.  This was the last straw so I cancelled my order and received a full refund. 

I ended up finding a smaller Cube printer for about half the money in Dayton Ohio so I drove down and picked it up.  The quality is less than "finish ready" and the printer is limited on options for tweaking the printing output.  The materials are expensive and the Cube software is proprietary to the printer.  My advice, wait until this really begins to explode (about this time next year) and save your money.  I've decided to use this first printer as a learning experience (little spent and a lot learned) and save up for a larger multi-head unit next year.  The quality of the print is determined by the nozzle size and the nozzle size can affect the speed that the printer can run at. 

I tried printing the Reventon fuel assembly and it was estimated to take over 20 hours and would've used about $40 in Cube materials.  I printed out about half of it and canceled the job to avoid material waste. 

All of the ABS supports (break away) left the part very rough and you can clearly see the layers that make up the part which would not be acceptable to most members here.  The multi-head units can print separate support materials (and even different colors) that can be dissolved away and this wouldn't leave the rough edges from the break away supports but you'll still have texture from the layers.

As far as 3D scanning is concerned, I did a lot of research on this before spending any money and I've been told by several trusted sources that this is still a very time consuming process that is far from easy or perfect.  What they don't show you is all the steps involved in scanning then healing and converting into a point cloud before you can do anything with it.  There will be a lot of improvements in this area as 3D printing matures as they compliment one another in the area of reverse engineering and replication.

Just my 2 cents!   

Chris

[plans4sale]

 Someone at the MM forum already posted this link.  The printing resolution is lower than that of CubeX and the printing quality is not yet proven. But I agree that prices of all 3d printers will go down if Chinese start to flood the market.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1682938109/robo-3d-printer?ref=live

[Tallon]

definitely want oem mirrors
don't need the headlight washer covers but I need the headlight brows

[No Bull]

How did you pay?

PayPal with my checking account as my funding source.  Not a big deal, I've looked at the other 3D printers and they all seem to have delivery times of around 3 - 4 weeks.  There are some "open source" versions on EBay, but I've been reading about the benefits of this Cube X printer and I think it's worth the wait (it's just going to drive me nuts!).  This will give you guys plenty of time to get your 3D drawings lined up so I can start printing for you in about 45 - 60 days.   

I have a set of folding LP640 side mirrors that I think I can print in three pieces and bond two of them together.  The third piece is the base that is modified to fit a G28 door.  Anyone interested in a nice "finished" set of LP640 folding mirrors for the G28?  I'm also going to try printing some headlight brows with one piece hinges on the bases, a dome / courtesy light base for a roadster and the many other little hard to get and expensive OEM trim parts. 

Chris

[Murci-Me]

How did you pay?

[No Bull]

Yep... I'm commited to this one and have not options but to wait the 30 days and hope it arrives like promised.  This is going to be a very long month. 

Chris

[01Lambiero]

Unless you are really sold on this unit and can't delay the purchase, I SAY "PULL THE PLUG".  You know that the Chinese will have a copy out in 6 mo. for half the price.  I would be willing to bet that there will be some Chinese servos on the Brit unit also.  That's a pathetic attitude on their part.  What ever happened to the "Customer is always right".  Oops!  I'm showing my age again.  I'm sure that they have 24 hr. service calls for the first year of warranty too??

[No Bull]

Update - I received my invoice today and it said the following - Shipping $365   Sales Tax - $145 and expected delivery date March 2nd.

So I write them and ask why the high shipping for something that's 80Lbs. and they reply that "it's shipping direct from the UK".  ::confused

I ask them about the Sales Tax for an on-line purchase and they reply, "we have offices in all 50 states so we are required to charge sales tax".  I ask if I can pick my printer up from one of these 50 plus locations and I'm told that they don't stock printers there and "as I told you this ships from the UK and you can't pick it up".

I ask about the four week wait and why this wasn't made known before I completed the purchase and I was told "since the release at CES a couple of weeks ago, the demand has been very high".  I suppose I can be very happy for them somehow and remain another customer that has paid for the privilege of being able to purchase from such a wonderful company.

To say the least... I went from being really excited about this purchase to becoming very annoyed by a company that is letting me down on day one. 

Chris

[apsara]

you can just use a probe instead of getting an expensive laser scanner.