Printing parts using 3D printers

[arc01]

Printing cockpit sets? Flaps? Landing gears? Would the level of detail be worth dropping 1200 dollars and making your own subject of a model?

If anyone has experience and pictures, please share.

Thanks!

[Wege]

http://stores.ebay.com/Combat-Group-Dynamix/_i.html?_fsub=4294345

the level of detail at 1/144 from on of the 3D printer vendors.

[dnl42]

3D printers vary widely in their abilities. If you do want to plunk down $1200, make sure you know what you can and cannot do with such a device, which is, quite frankly, at the low end of the price & capabilities spectrum.

Here's a quick overview that can help start you learning about the technology. Note the buyer's guide a little down the page...

To be clear though, 3D printing is an absolutely revolutionary technology. In the early 90s, these devices were $100k or so; now, you can get a hobbyist level capability for 1% of that!

[MoFo]

Long post on the subject here.

In terms of consumer oriented printers... depends. If you're looking at something like a Makerbot type printer, which uses rolls of plastic filament, heated up and extruded out of a nozzle... no. They won't get anywhere near fine enough for modelling purposes and would need an immense amount of post-processing. If you're looking at a Stereolithography printer like the Formlabs Form1, which uses UV light to cure a special resin... maybe. I haven't really seen decisive images one way or the other showing off the actual print resolution. *But*, you're also looking at more than $3000 for a Form1, and $3000 will buy a lot of high res, high quality prints done on something like an Envisiontec printer from an existing print bureau.

[Crazy Snap Captain]

Check out some of Nick's work with 3D printing HERE. He's got another WIP somewhere where he builds a gyro copter using the 3D printer. Waaaaaay beyond my capabilities but looks good.

[Jennings]

The thing I don't see anyone talking about is that you have to have something to feed into the printer. You can have the best quality 3D printer in the world, but like the old saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. If you don't have a high quality 3D design going in, you're not going to get super duper parts.

Everyone talks about this technology putting model companies out of business - I doubt it. High quality 3D designs take a lot of expertise and man hours to produce. They will undoubtedly be sold, but we're still a long way from there right now.

[habu2]

Check out some of the threads in the ARC Real Space forum. Lots of detailed replacement parts being made for spacecraft models. I had RCS nozzles printed for the 1/48 Apollo C/SM and LM models I'm doing.

[Inquisitor]

The thing I don't see anyone talking about is that you have to have something to feed into the printer. You can have the best quality 3D printer in the world, but like the old saying goes, garbage in, garbage out. If you don't have a high quality 3D design going in, you're not going to get super duper parts.

Everyone talks about this technology putting model companies out of business - I doubt it. High quality 3D designs take a lot of expertise and man hours to produce. They will undoubtedly be sold, but we're still a long way from there right now.

And stll companies with state of the art molding and plastic injection machinery still output tons of poo on a regular basis cause their CAD artist don't give a damn about research, accuracy or even basic kind of logic when designing parts. And let's not forget that even if you pick up a 3D CAD design software, you won't turn into a genius in a single day.

[arc01]

Thank you all for the info, you guys just saved me $1200. The low end of the 3D printers are just not worth for the level of detail I was looking for. It's cheaper to stick with the aftermarket sets.