I really don’t want to go off topic cause it’s not my thread but I was wondering …If you had the money??? Would you purchase a 3D printer or would you continue to scratchbuild like we have in the past before the days of 3D printers? I know what my answer is.
You go from cutting hardware to make the modification to CAD design in software then casting etc.
I will give an effort to make the piece by hand. I am a IT guy and there is a place where automation just has to back off.
My opinion
I would not buy a overly priced machine if the economics weren’t right. If I were to go into the parts supply business, it would be a different story. Of course if money were no object, I’d buy anything I’d need to do the job.
It’s kind of like building a jig to make pieces over and over again. It’s only worth it if you’re going to make a certain quantity vs. the effort.
Jeff Walls said:
I will give an effort to make the piece by hand. I am a IT guy and there is a place where automation just has to back off.
My opinion
…(http://www.freethoughtnation.com/components/com_comment/joscomment/emoticons/funny/images/smile.png)…
David Russell said:
I really don’t want to go off topic cause it’s not my thread but I was wondering …If you had the money??? Would you purchase a 3D printer or would you continue to scratchbuild like we have in the past before the days of 3D printers? I know what my answer is.
It’s still scratchbuilding, but in a different form. I’m using sketchup to draw a piece of rolling stock that I want to model, and I’m finding the process of drawing it up just as fun (and frustrating) as cutting styrene. I guess my answer is it depends… You can’t printed out a building (at least so far) so I would built it but at the same time, if I need something that has close tolerances I might be more willing to lean towards 3d printing…
Actually the only limitation on building something with a 3D printer is the size of your machine and the clearance you have under the “Y” axis, the cross member that your spindle or 3D printer head mounts to. The clearance on the machine that I’m building is close to 8". So basically I could make a part that is 8" high and what ever the width and length of the machine is.
Of course you also have to figure in the time it would take to produce that size of a part and the amount of material.
3D printer product can be expensive, $10/square inch according to the last person I knew who used one. Detail parts thats not too bad, but the raw material is not cheap.
The other thing is obtaining anpretty appropriate CAD program, even the most basic ones can be several hundred dollars. That should be factored into the equation .
Vic Smith said: The other thing is obtaining anpretty appropriate CAD program, even the most basic ones can be several hundred dollars. That should be factored into the equation .
Actually Draftsight (something like AutoCad) is fairly cheap…it’s FREE! Just Google “Draftsight” and it’s free download…from the SolidWorks people.
Gary, you are correct on the Draftsight price. It is however NOT 3D. It is a 2D drawing package only. At this time, the cheapest 3D package I am aware of that will directly output files a 3D printer can work with is the former Alibre Design. I know they were recently taken over/merged and don’t remember the new name off hand. Look for the ability to output an STL file format. That is the format the 3D stuff runs on.
Bob C.
I can draw in 3D with my package same as I do in MasterCam. About two years ago, I was dealing with a “bridge” vendor (making some ABS bridges for me). When he would send me AutoCad drawings of my parts in 3D, I would always open Draftsight first, to look at them. I would then convert to MasterCam to actually work on the drawing if I needed to make changes.
When I was working in the “industry”, I would use MasterCam for converting to STL files to send to a vendor.
Sketchup version 7 has a plug in that allows the sketchup files to be converted into .dwg file. The current version 8 does have this ability, but it costs the user money. The earlier versions of sketchup had/have plug ins that allow this conversion. So yes there is a ‘free’ 3D program that can than important into a 2D CAD program. I’ve never actually tried this process, but I’ve read a few articles online.
I’m not sure what 3D printers use as a file language, but it might be possible that sketchup through various plug ins could allow a 3D design, and printing…
Craig Townsend said:
Sketchup version 7 has a plug in that allows the sketchup files to be converted into .dwg file. The current version 8 does have this ability, but it costs the user money. The earlier versions of sketchup had/have plug ins that allow this conversion. So yes there is a ‘free’ 3D program that can than important into a 2D CAD program. I’ve never actually tried this process, but I’ve read a few articles online.
I’m not sure what 3D printers use as a file language, but it might be possible that sketchup through various plug ins could allow a 3D design, and printing…
Craig,
I did a little search and was surprised to find this.
http://extensions.sketchup.com/en/content/sketchup-stl
I also got to see the items that Gilbert Lacroix had displayed at Fred’s. The quality was phenominal. Also seemed like a great guy, trying to get started and ideas for 1;29 detail parts might be received very well. He was looking for ideas. His counter detail parts for stores was not easy to see in the white resin, but up close quite the WOW! factor.
Ric Golding said:
I also got to see the items that Gilbert Lacroix had displayed at Fred’s. The quality was phenominal. Also seemed like a great guy, trying to get started and ideas for 1;29 detail parts might be received very well.
This is good