Triple Weave - Gold Plated Steel print

Comment

Comment by martyn hogg on May 19, 2016 at 4:13pm

Yeah, the biggest blocker to the 3d printer revolution that's been just around the corner for years now is that it helps if you are a dab hand at design AND can end up with a nice valid mesh at the end of your design process. It is satisfying if you can reverse engineer the broken thingymabob to fix your Dyson then get it 3d printed but if you add up the time and cost of doing that, you might as well just buy the spare part off Dyson.

It is fun though, for some of us!

Comment by Nick Tyrer on May 19, 2016 at 2:55am

Pieter, haha true. maybe I over simplified it, i changed description but i'm keeping the name as its 'electro-plated'.

Not to be a shapeways advert, but they can print in 'castable' wax. One of my students has been printing casts with a makerbot, and taking it to a forge, where they just pour the molten metal in and it melts away plastic. Its called something like destructive casting

Kim, I'm not sure if its the availability of 3d printing that's the problem. the 'makerbot revolution' has come and gone. And nothing has changed. I reckon the main hurdles involve how people can use them and the software. For last few years the majority of printing community are just printing the same stock models off thingiverse.com

Comment by Pieter Segeren on May 18, 2016 at 1:32pm

Nice Nick! I'm well aware I'm splitting a hair (once again) but I think you meant "printed in steel, galvanized afterwards."
Maybe worth of printing in wax with a Solidscape machine, then cast it. Quality won't be comparable to this, however the costs won't be either...

Comment by Kim hauer on May 18, 2016 at 11:25am

I have been trying to think outside of the box about making 3D printing more locally available.
Perhaps a Kick starter project, involving a 3d Printing Vending Machine. These units could be stationed a local University, or local Science center. There are many sophisticated vending machines on the market, some use a robotic arm that selects you choice of Ice Cream Bar, picks it from the selection Rack and drops it into the customer receiving bin.

Just a Idea.....my 2 cents :)

Comment by Nick Tyrer on May 18, 2016 at 2:50am

Yes Carbon3d looks like it has potential. Though it is restricted to materials that cure with light. But it will take a long time before it can be more affordable as you can only print a single item at a time. With other printers they fill the entire bed before printing, which reduces the man hours significantly

A friend of mine just backed this kickstarter for a phone 3d printer that works the same way as the carbon3d: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/olo3d/olo-the-first-ever-smart...

Comment by martyn hogg on May 17, 2016 at 3:47pm

iMaterialise are in Belgium so shipping is not too bad. They also have an "Onsite" service which gets you much shorter leadtimes but at a slightly higher price I think.

Materialise Onsite

That's still a good price for a steel print!

I'm not sure the Carbon3d printers are commercially available yet to the general public and the materials are plastics / resins rather than metals. It looks interesting though.

Comment by Kim hauer on May 17, 2016 at 12:37pm

There has to be a better way. UPS shipping KILLS this service, unless ur in the UK. Apart from that everything shipped via UPS also goes through Customs which adds even more to the final cost!

But there is also new 3d printing technology now available 7 x faster: http://carbon3d.com/

Comment by Nick Tyrer on May 17, 2016 at 12:04pm

hmm interesting. Never thought about it before, just always presumed they would be similar to be competitive. Just tested side by side printing out of steel.

I-materialise = £34.17

Shapeways = £40.81

But i-materialise does a 10% student discount as well. I think i will need to be more careful in future who i order from.

Comment by martyn hogg on May 17, 2016 at 10:57am

Have you ever used iMaterialise as a comparisson for 3d printing?

I found Shapeways more expensive and less helpful, but the full refund sounds like they looked after you well!