Personal Ultimate Drool on tool.

https://www.zcorp.com/

These 3d printers work from CAD and can create molds to handle low-temp metals like aluminium. Much cheaper than having patterns machined ect.

Now to justify the 30,000 usd.

I saw one of those at a trade show...it was printing out the Monopoly board houses. Cool.
I'm involved on a tech-transfer program with Picatinny Arsenal (here in NJ) and they have a stereolithography machine that will generate highly complex polymer models from CAD files. We do it on a regular basis.
We also make stuff directly from CAD to CNC in our engineering lab (not the same as 3D printing, but similar in concept). We use MasterCam with AutoCAD 2004...with 3 full-size CNC machine (plus some small table top CNCs).
I've been meaning to shoot some new pictures of our lab...here are some older ones:

https://www.ccm.edu/engtech/ETmet.htm

I have a little V8 engine block that Zcorp "printed" at a trade show. It's a very cool process. (Come to think of it, that trade show is going on again right now. I'd better figure out a way to weasel out of work for a few hours and get down there.)


PC.

The prices continue to come down for the machines and if you use any service bureaus for rapid prototype parts the prices have really fallen in the last few years. I order SLA and SLS parts all the time for my industrial design business. I still wish the material properties and resolution were better especially when designing injection molded parts with tight tolerances. But it keeps getting better each year.

I also have a "drool tool" ... a benchtop CNC machine with 19"X, 7"Y and 5"Z travel(plus you can move the Z axis manually to handle taller parts in steps). I design parts, usually in Rhino, run them through Visual Mill CAM software and cut them in Foam, plastics, alum., steel, whatever. Following is a link for the CNC machine and under the testimonials tab there is some work I have done (btw, I have now owned the machine for 2 years, not several months stated in the testimonial)

https://www.cncmasters.com

Cheers,
John

Hey John:

I really like the CNC Junior that you have...last year I was hoping to get one at work, with some "left-over" grant money that we had, but we didn't have quite enough. The Junior is a *real* machine with 2 HP and R8 collets. Good choice! (I wish I had one of those at home!)
We ended up buying a very small MaxCNC mill which is OK for demos, but that's about all.
Still, we're doing OK with machines in our lab. Most of our recent grant money was used to buy a Milltronics CNC mill. 15 HP with 10-tool changer. Built in Minnesotta...real nice machine. I've been thinking of building something like a scale model Healey or MGA on it (I bet that's crossed your mind too). We just built a bunch of these on it:
https://npmccabe.tripod.com/jinglebellmotor.htm


Our Milltronics RW 14

Hi Nials,

oooohhhh .... drool ... drool. The Milltronics looks like a nice machine. Must be similar to the Haas Mini Mill which goes for 30K. The Haas tool room mill is only 20K.

https://www.haascnc.com/news/display.asp?ID=13

I'm planning on getting the rotory table accessory for the CNC Jr. This will allow cutting shapes like car bodies easier. Of course, a 5 axis machine would be really handy too!

Cheers,
John

I envy you guys having daily access to CNC equipment. I've been involved with NC & CNC since '67 but never got to own one Even though I still write software for them, I almost never get to touch one these days.

John L. - you're right about 5-axis being good for car bodies. Back in the 80's I needed to build 3 car models for a business show in Detroit & was given all of three weeks to do it. The attached (poor) photo shows half of one after machining. I programmed it using a combination of manual, APT, and CATIA. The cool thing is that what you see was cut in one setup! (Machine was a 5-axis BostoMatic).

Just got back from the Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show. Zcorp had an aluminum piece that had been poured in one of their printed molds. It looked better than a lot of production parts I've seen.

I gotta get me one of them puppies.


PC.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by John Loftus:
...
Check out the following site that should really make you slobber. ...
https://www.ctek-on-line.com
<hr></blockquote>

Wow!

I love to see it hasn't all gone overseas...

[ 01-08-2004: Message edited by: coldplugs ]</p>

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by PC:
Just got back from the Pacific Design and Manufacturing Show. Zcorp had an aluminum piece that had been poured in one of their printed molds. It looked better than a lot of production parts I've seen.

I gotta get me one of them puppies.


PC.

<hr></blockquote>


Yeah, that was what got my drooler going. Using a stylus it would possible to input a stock cast iron part, like an intake manifold, adjust the ports internally and mold it in aluminium. Stock look, but less weight and improved performance. Or if you really wanted to get goofy, mold a shell that looks like an SU carb, but is and injection throttle body. Dirty pool.

John C.,

Very impressive ... especially considering it was back in the 80's. I can imagine the level of programming involved and it makes my head hurt.

Check out the following site that should really make you slobber. The CNC link shows their huge5 axis machine but don't stop there. They have laser scanning, large scale glass forming, superplastic forming of metals, 3D printing etc., etc. I've been there many times and always amazed at the scale and quality of their projects.

https://www.ctek-on-line.com

Cheers,
John

Now if we can only get one of you pros to make a 1:18 scale model of the Jensen Healey. Well it's just a thought.

Don Lancaster, a well known electronics wizard, calls those things a "Santa Clause" machine; You wish for an item and it makes it.

I understand that they can now print with steel and bronze powder. The resultant object can be sintered and used as a tool for plastic molds. The tool is capable of 1000s of parts and the average tool cost is $8000 using this technique. The turn time is 5 days for first shot parts. The drawbacks are that it is only accurate to + - .001 and it will not take a polished finish.

I wouldn't mind having one of those 3D printers either.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by ThomP:
Don Lancaster, a well known electronics wizard... <hr></blockquote>

Didn't he write some of the early home computer articles? Somehow I remember him as being associated with a classic piece on "TVT's" (Television Typewriters).

That's the same guy