dave-in-england
Junior Member
- Joined
- Aug 30, 2012
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I had finished my design for a prototype, and had been looking around for someone to actually make the parts for me.
Two identical halves, which fit together at the edge to form an enclosing box, and a smaller base part for them to stand upright on top.
The casings are just 2 mm. thick aluminium, it does not need to be a butch construction.
Each Part size is 160mm high x 160mm wide. 15mm thick.
I had considered having them made at an engineering company who has a cnc milling machine, but there is a lot of metal cutting involved, jigs and fixtures to be made, and probably a lot of expence involved !
Over the last few months I had been watching the rapid proliferation of 3D metal printers featured on You-tube, so I though that this thin wall section would be just perfect for printing in Aluminium.
This printing process is where solid metal is built up from powdered material in layers of 0.002" thick, melted together with a laser beam, until the part is complete.
The advantage of 3D printing is that all edge radiuses and internal threads are actually printed, no extra machining is necessary, no drilling and tapping, no jigs and fixtures required, everything is finished in one go and the part is ready to paint and assemble.
So I contacted a manufacturing company who were showing videos on You-tube, and asked for a quote for the three parts to be made.
They want US$ 6,000 (£ 4000 ) for aluminium or £ 500 for the parts to be made in Nylon. ....
I had been expecting some price around £ 40 !!!
The layer princible gave me the idea of using thin plywood sheets instead of aluminium, so I re-arranged the internal dimensions to suit 3 mm plywood sheet slices.
Luckily I found a new start-up laser cutting company to cut the sheets for me, at a total cost of £27, for 15 parts, so I was very happy with that.
The laser cut width is just about 0.1mm, with clean sharp edges, the oilite bearings were a good tight push fit into the holes, so I was happy with that too.
I have glued all the sheets together and the prototype has turned out really well.
This new metal printing technology is amazing, but only the big money boys like British Aerospace can afford it !
It will be out of reach for us penniless model engineers for a good few years.
Dave
Two identical halves, which fit together at the edge to form an enclosing box, and a smaller base part for them to stand upright on top.
The casings are just 2 mm. thick aluminium, it does not need to be a butch construction.
Each Part size is 160mm high x 160mm wide. 15mm thick.
I had considered having them made at an engineering company who has a cnc milling machine, but there is a lot of metal cutting involved, jigs and fixtures to be made, and probably a lot of expence involved !
Over the last few months I had been watching the rapid proliferation of 3D metal printers featured on You-tube, so I though that this thin wall section would be just perfect for printing in Aluminium.
This printing process is where solid metal is built up from powdered material in layers of 0.002" thick, melted together with a laser beam, until the part is complete.
The advantage of 3D printing is that all edge radiuses and internal threads are actually printed, no extra machining is necessary, no drilling and tapping, no jigs and fixtures required, everything is finished in one go and the part is ready to paint and assemble.
So I contacted a manufacturing company who were showing videos on You-tube, and asked for a quote for the three parts to be made.
They want US$ 6,000 (£ 4000 ) for aluminium or £ 500 for the parts to be made in Nylon. ....
I had been expecting some price around £ 40 !!!
The layer princible gave me the idea of using thin plywood sheets instead of aluminium, so I re-arranged the internal dimensions to suit 3 mm plywood sheet slices.
Luckily I found a new start-up laser cutting company to cut the sheets for me, at a total cost of £27, for 15 parts, so I was very happy with that.
The laser cut width is just about 0.1mm, with clean sharp edges, the oilite bearings were a good tight push fit into the holes, so I was happy with that too.
I have glued all the sheets together and the prototype has turned out really well.
This new metal printing technology is amazing, but only the big money boys like British Aerospace can afford it !
It will be out of reach for us penniless model engineers for a good few years.
Dave
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