[mickman]

Hi All,

I am interested in creating a 3D prototype of a car. Seems the technology (see image below) which only a few years back was restricted to large corporations is now available on your home desktop.

There's an active following here in England and all over the globe. You can easily build your own if you wish for around £400.00 they send out all the materials including computer boards etc..

Imagine a printer that prints for you in 3D. You design your car and hit print and within about half an hour presto ! you have it in your hands.

Here's a few links to get you going. warning these links are addictive !!

http://reprap.org

http://www.thingiverse.com/

http://robosavvy.co.uk/store/product_info....roducts_id/1216

 

[mickman]

here's an example of fine detail one can achieve.. and it can get down to 0.1mm fine

 

[PSRRFH]

wow, I wan't one

 

[Ian B]

Mickman,
its great for design work, however it's the wrong plastic for general slotcar use as it's too brittle.

 

[Mr Modifier]

QUOTE (bleep @ 9 Aug 2011, 16:52) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Mickman,
its great for design work, however it's the wrong plastic for general slotcar use as it's too brittle.

Yes but you could use your 3D print to make a silicone mould and cast it in resin...

 

[Phil Kalbfell]

David from RMS resin has produced two bodies from a master printed on a 3d printer, his Datsun and Cougar. I believe that the printer masters still needed a lot of work to finish so the could be moulded. There is also a thread Somewhere of a complete car including chassis that has been printed. But I believe the cost at this stage is still expensive.
The cheaper printers are low resolution.
There are some good videos on utube of z printers.

 

[mickman]

I was thinking it would work well for moulding purposes.

Just take a look at thingiverse.com to see how advanced these 3D printers have become. and cheap to push out a prototype.

Towards the end of this video http://www.makerbot.com/ you will see the founding creator hold up a toy car.. you can see the quality of the car.. not perfectly smooth but a little sanding and then spray paint it, comes out perfect..... & no, it`s not a solid block, it`s a lightweight tough shell less than 1mm thick.

I realize some designers are still experiencing difficulties in terms of calibration of a new machine... but with a bit of tweaking and a month of getting to know your new machine one can really get great results.

Earlier versions of rapid prototyping machines sculpted the prototype model by slowly eating away at a powdery type block of material that left the prototype brittle and weak but not any more... this new plastic is very strong... see for yourself... at thingiverse ie. a bottle opener / camping gear / even bike parts the list goes on....

Sure has got my attention ... Soon will come a day when many a company will be going under due to this new technology now easily affordable ..
In essence, this is placing a little made in china factory on your desktop ( I should re-phrase that to... no longer made in China) ... this is the next evolution ... can`t simply ignore it as it is coming to a home near you ..... these machines can even replicate themselves !!! sounds strange but already groups are using these machines to craft new machines... so you buy one & pay it off by simply manufacturing the parts and selling them on to the next user. Simple.

 

[John Cahill]

hi, Mickman
I share your interest in this technology...I've been playing with it (at work) since it was lasers beaming into pools of liquid plastic. I also was watching as the printers/powder technology evolved. What I haven't seen yet are the inexpensive or diy tools. Where are you seeing that? I'd love to have one at home *grin*

Also, I completely agree that using them as a mold master for resin bodies is an excellent idea. That would be my principal interest at present...

John

 

[Ember]

Choc-Ice was doing the 'wallowing' chassis via rapid prototyping. The thread about his creation is here

Datto has created a few bits and pieces for his track, inlcuding a monster, via Shapeways as the production source. In fact, have a look at his track build thread and you will see 'Grandpa' who was 3D scanned and printed. A photo of Grandpa can be seen on this post.

It's something that has been of interest since I first saw a story on 3D printing well over 10 years ago, but then I'm a technophile from way back (although not as far as some).

Embs

 

[UshCha]

3D is great but expensive and I suspsect getting high resoloution from a home machine may still be a hobby in itself. I have got a contact to make some F1 spoilers for my old Scaley F1 cars. link 3D spioler. These were shapeways best Lazer Scinterd Nylon and are as tough as old boots but are still not polished, and on the foils, a bit thicker than the original. If you are interested this would be the way to start as the costs would be small for small bits and unless you are familiar with cadds getting a good model for the machine is not always as easy as it looks.

Ps if the hobby machines came good they would be about 200 times cheaper to do the work, about $0.07 per cc vs $1.6 per cc for Shapeways.

 

[superhornets]

Hi
Let me get this right ,as I am a notorious technophobe
1) if I scan in a wooden mould that i have made (ie what is mormally called a buck ) and feed that into the machine it will print out a usaeable body shell ,how strong would that be and how light ,as good as resin?
2) if I programme in details from a drawing will it knock me up a buck that I can mould from
3) how easy is it to use?

cheers tony

 

[mickman]

Hi,
I`m by no means an expert in this field of prototyping but recently I have been on a personal mission to create a car shell & other bits and pieces.

If you want a simple run down of how the 3D printer operates check the video on makerbot.com, not the main video but the video of the kid doing a stand up demo. It`s located to the right of the main video window.. I think its called " Why Schuyler loves his Makerbot"

ENJOY

 

[mickman]

Hi All,
These new 3D printers use a plastic ABS material ( the same stuff Lego is made of ) so they are strong !!

Another idea that sprung to mind..... If you feel you`re not very competent at using a CAD software programme to design a car, there are a few small booths in shopping malls around the country selling 3D portraits encased in clear acrylic blocks. These booths use a 3D scanner to scan ones head. Why not simply ask them to scan your favorite car & put the file onto an SD card. Take it home load it into your new 3D printer & Hey Presto !

I believe the 3D scanners in these booths are much higher quality than the scanner that Makerbot is selling.

note.. makerbot is not the only company currently making these affordable 3D printers .. there are a few here in Europe too. I believe `Ultimaker` is another company located in Europe.

the inventor of Reprap is based in Bath, England.. & get this, occasionally he does DIY classes to build your own 3D printer.

 

[mickman]

Ember: Wow ... Shapeways is great !

I`ve been designing using a professional 3D program called MAYA for nearly 8 years now... so this will be perfect for me.

I can simply upload my 3d model and Shapeways will create it in stainless steel which will be great for molding purposes.

 

[Ember]

QUOTE (mickman @ 11 Aug 2011, 06:49) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>I`ve been designing using a professional 3D program called MAYA for nearly 8 years now... so this will be perfect for me.
I know Maya, although I've not used it much myself. Dabbled with LightWave early on, but I've had most experience with 3d Studio Max. But these programs are all built for animation rather than CadCam. Would a model out of any of these packages be suitable for proto-typing via Shapeways or one of the other 3D Printers?

 

[lordjw]

Hi!

I have seen MakerBot in action and feel that accuracy is not adequate for finer body details. You can print body shape but all fine details will have to be done with traditional modelling methods.

A good alternative for modelling machine would be small CNC milling machine. Surface quality will be better and you can use variety of materials with milling.

Cheers!

Julius

 

[merkit the grof]

Can I just ask a question? Why?

Besides which, buying the printer is the easy part, how do you get the designs to print?
After all, how many people print their own decals? Yet the hardware has been readily available for the last 20 years.

Joel

 

[UshCha]

If it helps. Shapeways can use Blender which is free. Alex uses TUBOCAD as that is what he learnt on , a home version, which he uses, is around £70. The only issue is translation which has to go through Blender to get an acceptable file type.

 

[choc-ice]

QUOTE (Ember @ 10 Aug 2011, 03:58) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Choc-Ice was doing the 'wallowing' chassis via rapid prototyping. The thread about his creation is here
It was, and they turn out very well. However I use SLS rather than 3D printing because the material is stronger and on a chassis the finish doesn't matter. It's also cheaper than 3D printing, I've sent my design out to 6 different suppliers (and I use this stuff every day in work) so I've got a good idea on costs.

QUOTE (mickman @ 10 Aug 2011, 20:31) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>These new 3D printers use a plastic ABS material ( the same stuff Lego is made of ) so they are strong !!
That's not quite the whole story; ABS is used for Lego and slot car parts but the injection moulding process packs the material much tighter than a 3D print does. However adding ribs or thicker sections might help enough. Or as suggested above, use it as a master to produce resin bodyshells.

QUOTE (mickman @ 10 Aug 2011, 20:31) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Another idea that sprung to mind..... If you feel you`re not very competent at using a CAD software programme to design a car, there are a few small booths in shopping malls around the country selling 3D portraits encased in clear acrylic blocks. These booths use a 3D scanner to scan ones head. Why not simply ask them to scan your favorite car & put the file onto an SD card. Take it home load it into your new 3D printer & Hey Presto !

I believe the 3D scanners in these booths are much higher quality than the scanner that Makerbot is selling.
That's a very interesting idea! Has anyone tried it?

 

[Ember]

There is a chap on the Aussie forum who seems to be setting up to try just such a thing. Can't think of his name, nor find the thread about his workshop at the moment (and I couldn't post a link here even if I could find it). Suffice to say, if one had enough funds available, one could come up with quite a remarkable CAD based studio.