American 3D Printing Cruiser Parts

[Rzeppa]

Here's an emblem I made for C-Dan's BJ74. I think he's going to have me make some quantity of them for him to sell on Mud. He is planning on painting the red on himself. Personally, I'd be inclined to make the letters separate, print them in red and glue them on.

 

[AxleIke]

Oh, way cool!

 

[MDH33]

Awesome Jeff!

Do you recall the picture of the 60 with the home made "prius-toric" emblem? How much to make a batch of those?

 

[wesintl]

I ended up just buying the chrome one from toyota. How much does it cost to produce one?

 

[Rzeppa]

Awesome Jeff!

Do you recall the picture of the 60 with the home made "prius-toric" emblem? How much to make a batch of those?

No I don't, but I charge $40/hr design time (start-up cheap - try getting a shop to work on your rig for that).

Dan's emblems will cost anywhere from $10-$15 each, depending on his choice of materials and build details. Builds go for $20/hr (1/2 off that for Rising Sun members).

 

[Rzeppa]

Even though he was planning on painting the lettering red, I went ahead and split the letters out from the base of the 3D model and printed them separately with red PLA just to see what it would look like. Once I had assembled it I could see that the radii on the lower left corner of the "T", the right two corners of the"B" and all 4 corners of the "O" were too sharp, so I increased their radii from 2mm to 4mm. It looks a lot more true to the original now.

 

[PabloCruise]

Those look very nice!

 

[rover67]

looking good!

can you print in material that can be burned out in a burnout oven?

I have done it with the photocurable polymers (for Objet and stuff) but was wondering if you had stuff that was specifically for burning out in an oven (low ash).

 

[cruiserdan]

This is very cool. Thanks Jeff!

 

[cruiserdan]

Here's the truck the prototypes are going on:

 

[MDH33]

Here's the truck the prototypes are going on:

That's a beauty!

 

[Rzeppa]

Here's the truck the prototypes are going on:

Sweet! I want one!

Inside joke for RS members who follow my posts and Steve H's reply - I went shopping for a Sienna and came home with a BJ74

 

[Rzeppa]

looking good!

can you print in material that can be burned out in a burnout oven?

I have done it with the photocurable polymers (for Objet and stuff) but was wondering if you had stuff that was specifically for burning out in an oven (low ash).

The quick answer is no, not a material that is intended for that, that I know of. Any plastic can be burned out with sufficient heat, I have no idea what's left behind, I suppose it would depend on the temperature and ventilation of the cavity.

3D printers are available (I don't have any at the store, but a local jeweler does) that print in wax for lost wax castings. They also make 3D printers that print in sand for sand castings. According to 3D printing news sources, these sand printers are widely used by the auto industry and machinery manufacturers.

Objet (a subsidiary of Stratasys, who also owns Makerbot, my go-to printer) makes some really nice machines. I had my eye on a Connex 260 which uses their patented "polyjet" process, much like an inkjet it expels tiny droplets of vaporized polymer in up to 17 different heads with a wide variety of colors and materials. I asked my reseller for a quote and it came back at $170k. If I could justify the ROI I'd have one, but for now I am still navigating uncharted waters with this retail 3D store concept. So far I am really, really busy and am looking forward to hiring my first employee within the next few weeks.

I currently have 9 different materials to choose from in nearly 40 colors, including engineering grade nylon, PET and HIPS, in addition to the common PLA and ABS that everyone is using.

 

[Inukshuk]

Here's the truck the prototypes are going on:

 

[nakman]

Those emblems look great! I love this stuff.

 

[Rzeppa]

FJ55 Glovebox door handles. Former Rising Sun member and current Horsetooth member TJ Scholand has sold about 15 of these on Mud.

 

[Rzeppa]

We now have Ninjaflex! This is a rubber-like thermoplastic urethane. It is about as rubbery as real rubber or Buna-N. It should be chemically compatible with anything that Urethane is. The durometer seems to feel like around 70 or so, very similar to o-ring rubber.

This customer brought in his shower diverter cartridge, with disintegrated rubber seal. We designed and built him a replacement seal - for $15.08.

 

[mcgaskins]

Super cool stuff Jeff!

 

[nuclearlemon]

will that work to make the diaphrams for transfer cases? i think terry gave you my old one

 

[Rzeppa]

will that work to make the diaphrams for transfer cases? i think terry gave you my old one

Yes, I have one Terry gave me to model. I am sure the material will work - the build geometry for that particular part might be tricky. If it were flat instead of bowl (dish?) shaped it would be a snap.