3D printer, anyone made something genuinely useful ?

machone said:
To the OP....I have! I followed the trend and I bought an SLA printer with photo sensitive smelly chemicals. It was British made so I won’t mention the name of the firm as I have read some customers had limited success with it. I had none. I wasted a week and ruined a table with the chemical to produce a few unidentifiable blobs
Click to expand...

I must admit that I’ve never really understood SLA as a choice for home printing, even the inventor of Stereolithography didn’t go in that direction when his company (one of the largest in 3D printing) dipped a toe in the home printer market. Contact with the materials should be avoided without adequate PPE and you need to use usually flammable chemicals to clean your parts and ideally use a UV light source to finish cure. Also as mentioned above, it’s all too easy to get it very very wrong.

I have half a dozen large industrial SLA machines, they make great parts, but even in those machines the materials are horrible for functional end use parts, but they are accurate with a relatively high resolution and are perfect for my use.
 
Broke the cup holder on Scarlet a while ago, attempting to use it as somewhere to stand while working on the boom.

Jenneau wouldn't sell a replacement - would have had to buy a whole new table for £££ - so 3d printed a replacement. I even put her name on it...

IMG_4271_2.jpgIMG_4316_2.jpg
 
I have a 3D printer initially for my work (Orthopaedics) I had an article published in PBO in September on how I designed and make things for the boat. I am obviously now a convert

To design I use the free program 123D design.

I have an Ultimaker 3 printer.

I can print in a variety of materials. PLA (cellulose) is cheap and great for most thing but its not weatherproof. I am now printing with ASA which is weatherproof and UV stable.

I have printed all sorts of things, which includes amongst other things, covers to protect the cockpit speakers, a replacement support for the spinnaker pole, instrument covers, and a shroud ring for the halyards



I am happy to help and support anyone embarking on 3D printing journey. Just PM me

TudorSailor
 
RichardS said:
Not AWE ..... he's an automotive engineer and is involved in the development of armoured vehicles and gets to personally fire assault rifles and RPGs at test vehicles on the range. Does that really class as a job? ;)

Richard
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Why does he get to fire at the objects he is designing (assuming he has not at least a year of military firearms training? Would it not be better for for those that have experienced conflicts and have experience of where they would like the rounds to fall to conduct the testing with him as an observer? They may find a way around his engineering because of their experience. Engineering is a real job. Shooting things is only a job when under fire oneself IMHO.
 
ltcom said:
Why does he get to fire at the objects he is designing (assuming he has not at least a year of military firearms training? Would it not be better for for those that have experienced conflicts and have experience of where they would like the rounds to fall to conduct the testing with him as an observer? They may find a way around his engineering because of their experience. Engineering is a real job. Shooting things is only a job when under fire oneself IMHO.
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I don't understand what you mean. Once the team have designed and built an armoured vehicle how are they supposed to test it unless they subject it to real live fire on a range? :confused:

Richard
 
Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

I have found that there is a new filament that would work in my printer. It is called TPU. IN the blurb it states
TPU can be used to produce a wide variety of objects that need to bend or flex during use. Typically, this includes things like belts, springs, phone cases and vibration dampening parts. rigid.ink TPU also exhibits a high degree of abrasion resistance along with a resistance to oils, greases and a variety of solvents – making it more favorable in industry applications.
I guess that one could make O rings and gaskets. I wonder if a 3D printed impeller would last, but it might be something to use in an emergency.
I am going to buy a sample of the material and see what it is like and how easily it prints
TS
 
Re: Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

tudorsailor said:
I have found that there is a new filament that would work in my printer. It is called TPU. IN the blurb it states
TPU can be used to produce a wide variety of objects that need to bend or flex during use. Typically, this includes things like belts, springs, phone cases and vibration dampening parts. rigid.ink TPU also exhibits a high degree of abrasion resistance along with a resistance to oils, greases and a variety of solvents – making it more favorable in industry applications.
I guess that one could make O rings and gaskets. I wonder if a 3D printed impeller would last, but it might be something to use in an emergency.
I am going to buy a sample of the material and see what it is like and how easily it prints
TS
Click to expand...

Strangely, I was looking at this filament last night in the RI website. Prints a lot hotter than the regular PLA. Please let us know what you think of it.

Cheers
 
Re: Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

I am away from my printer for 3 weeks. I will order a sample and try printing on my return

TPU prints at the same temp ABS or ASA. However I wonder if it clogs the nozzle easily

I will report back in a months

TS
 
Re: Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

I’ve used TPU in a powder bed printer, but not a filament style printer....in my experience, the powder bed machines give better mechanical results, but then at £250k they should.

Anyway, I wouldn’t expect miracles from it.
As with anything manufactured in layers, the weakness will be between the layers, especially with the filament machines. Keep this in mind when designing and orientating parts, I’ve seen some nice looking parts open up like a slinky spring when load directions weren’t considered.
 
RichardS said:
His Boss asked him to come up with a project to make something on the 3D printer to show that he could use it the hardware and software before they let him loose on it for real. He asked me a couple of months ago whether I had any ideas
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I would have thought the obvious thing- being MOD- would be a stern gland for an aircraft carrier
 
Re: Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

prof pat pending said:
I’ve used TPU in a powder bed printer, but not a filament style printer....in my experience, the powder bed machines give better mechanical results, but then at £250k they should.

Anyway, I wouldn’t expect miracles from it.
As with anything manufactured in layers, the weakness will be between the layers, especially with the filament machines. Keep this in mind when designing and orientating parts, I’ve seen some nice looking parts open up like a slinky spring when load directions weren’t considered.
Click to expand...

Printing O rings is a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Gaskets would seem ideal. I doubt I could print a long lasting impeller but if printed flat, it might last long enough to get you home if there is no alternative.

I will have a play and report back. In truth I am much more excited about ASA for making parts to remain in the sun

TS
 
Re: Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

To the OP - there is a little company here in Barbados called Inktech - they sell re-filled printer cartridges, and I buy mine from them, as they are half the cost of the original manufacturers replacement cartridges.
Their Principal, Tom, wears many hats though - one of them is re 3-D printing. Here is a link to a recent Facebook post where he describes (via video - that's Tom on the left in the blue shirt) how he printed a fully functional prosthetic arm for a young girl here.
You do not have to be logged in to FB to view this video.

https://www.facebook.com/InktechBarbados/videos/1454610441283886/
 
Re: Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

It wouldn be nice to buy a cheap set of reading glasses, and copy the frames in poly plastic ,with a 3D printer, for an unbreakable set of frames, which fit dollar store lenses.
 
Re: Flexible filament - could make O rings or gaskets. Not sure about impeller

At work we've got a HP Fusionjet 4200, prints PA12 nylon to near enough injection moulded strength. Print all sorts!

Aerospace tooling and foundry patterns for work... bits of dive torch and rebreather for me...
 
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