3-D Printing
 

That's the pinnacle of first-world problems.

I've thought for a long time there's a great start-up business opportunity for 3D-printing lots of the silly little plastic clips and what-have-yous that always break on cars and that you can't buy individually (only as part of some assembly that's usually not inexpensive...) Niche market.

if they laser sintered that 356 sheet metal looking bracket thing, they must be really bored

3D-printed parts are rarely anywhere near as strong as what they replace.

I think the way to get strong parts is lost wax mold sample
then cast in al or steel
but then you can carve a wax block without the 3d-printer

I don’t recognize that part. With a little effort I could reproduce it with a hacksaw and a bench vice - but if I had a 3-D printer just sitting there...

Files can be tweaked with free 3D
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1367185
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1518591072.jpghttp://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1518591129.jpg

Printers can be gotten for a few hundred
https://www.pcmag.com/article2/0%2C2817%2C2470038%2C00.asp?path=zpc-12075-mpc-100a1a&creative=78065366937481&device=c&dps=1&keyw ord=78065449188825&source=s&ntst=1

Or have them custom printed and shipped
https://formlabs.com/request-sample-part/?utm_source=bingads&utm_campaign=GP_US-NA-Prospecting-Search_Brand-Trademark-EN-Exact-Paid-Bing&utm_term=formlabs&utm_medium=cpc&msclkid=c6cd 077b721a1efb501d5d29c832f66d&utm_content=formlabs

Yea stuff like that. I have a grille piece on the Mercedes that got lost someplace. Would be lovely to 3D print a new one, snap it into place on the grille and be all set. Only alternative today is buy a whole new grille assembly for $200+. Same with snapped-off screw mounts, tabs, etc. It'd just be great to be able to make these things and then epoxy them into place. It'd save tons in cost!

A few links to "convert photos to CAD" search.
AFAIK you just take a bunch of pics and the software stitches it together into a mesh model to be sent to printer.
https://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/1506203
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-create-a-3D-model-using-a-CAD-software-based-on-a-real-object-measurements
https://www.autodesk.com/products/recap/overview

Photogrammetry.

It’s as simple as it sounds but in practical application not really.

Surface material, size, color, how reflective, does it have cavities, symmetry, all make it not as plug n play as they make it sound.

I’m currently working on an AR app using photogrammetry and structured light scanning to generate content.

There are utilities out there that will let you use an Xbox Kinect as a 3D scanner.

MSFT stopped making Kinects so you can get them used at GameStop for $25.00 these days.

The second gen had a separate adaptor to use with a PC but the adaptor is nearly unobtainable. Going for more than original retail on flea bay.

But there is a hack that lets you use any of the multiple portable device power supplies you probably already have lying around plus a standard USB cable.

My neighbour printed some arrow nocks, 5mm shaft, push on , type, unobtainable in stores. First draw on a 20 pound bow, nock broke.

A 3-D printer sounds like a great toy to play with. I’ve been thinking about a small milling machine, but maybe I’ll get a printer instead.

We 3-D printed a car here at work. We've also 3-D printed stuff out of concrete and titanium. Definitely the wave of the future. Not just for kids anymore. ;)

I think this is where the area is still new for the DIY in us.

There are multiple materials that you can use with widely varying strengths.

At some point to print and use objects in real world daily use there will need to be some resource for the non engineer to make determinations on appropriate materials to use.

Does it need to flex or does it need to be rigid?

What's the load look like, compressive or tensile?

What environmental factors affect it? Think heat, cold.

When thinking about automotive use, reaction to fluids, sunlight, vibration?

Lots to think about.

^^
If you could 3-D print your own duct tape all that would be covered.

SM you have a seriously cool job!! I can only fanboy at my level.

I've read that the camera distance needs to be farther away to reduce curvature of lens effect, or something like that, which would reduce scanning accuracy at the same time.

Can't wait for virtual travel, VR manipulation of CAD with a glove, 3D repair manuals, etc.
(Hey if you ever want to get into the flight sim world, there is a huge need for auto color correction of satellite photo tiles(there are some deep purple wompers next to beautiful landscape and sometimes FL is deep brown while TX is green), autogen that actual lands on the picture correctly, auto recognition of roads so that AI traffic can fill the entire screen, and intelligently replacing cloud cover blemishes with similar believable land cover.)

I do think that some companies like PorscheAG and Disney have a bug in the butt about IP (and reasonably with exchange of money especially) but what they don't realize the free attention/interest/habits/loyalty they are getting is free advertising and brand identification in the bigger picture.
It's part of the reason why I haven't already gone and bought something twice as fast at half the cost.
There is a point at which individual property rights takes over and so yes I would download my car and be able to view how it looks with that aftermarket spoiler or interior kit, or just to learn the parts, etc etc.
The new emerging tech is overwhelmingly cool and I hope the open sourcers win and stinker companies are ignored so that it spreads here and domestic production remains at the top of the world leading the pack.

home gamer stuff is generally plastic


metal printing (or additive mfg as the jargon goes), is still an industrial process at best

Still you can fabricobble a decent plastic setup for super cheap these day

Agree but (for people like me) that's part of the fun / challenge - like having to run your own personal F1 team with R&D, testing, learning from failures, etc.

And still WAY cheaper in the long run than having to buy into the "just buy / replace the whole assembly" mentality being foisted upon us by the automakers.

I'm not a fan of 3D printed metal components... yet.

The 3D printed sand casting molds are really cool though. I was at a sand mold printer a couple years ago and they had a vintage Ferrari head they had just cast. The old days of having to make a wooden pattern to form the sand mold are over.

And you can and should print as many sand molds as will fit in the sand box since it's going to fill the whole box with sand anyway. So you can nest multiple projects in one printing session.

I have some experience with this.

I help mentor a high school robotics team. The school shop has a simple 3-D printer, we have printed parts and used them on the robot. You need to be careful not to overstress those.

At work we use a company called Shapeways to source prototype parts from our models. They are cheap and fast. The modern printers and materials can produce very useful parts.

A co-worker has Gemmy Animatronic Halloween figures. The arm-movement boxes tend to fail and Gemmy doesn't sell replacement parts. He pulled out a failed dual spur gear (appeared to be injection molded from nylon), I modelled it up and sent it to Shapeways. 5 days later he had 15 of them for less than $4. each and he hasn't had one fail yet.

https://www.shapeways.com/model/upload-and-buy/6699586

We have a Faro arm that we use to inspect and reverse engineer complex parts. We have also hired out laser 3-D surveying for complex projects, we haven't done enough of that to buy a unit. The "point cloud" output from that hardware can be very accurate but it takes some computing power to work with it.

Shapeways allows a resource to create and sell your own, "hard to find" parts at reasonable cost, if there is a market.