Low Cost 3D Printing From Smart Phone

[Nor Cal Mike]

I got this little diddy via one of my model train club homies. I thought you all might be interested in it too.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/ ... martphone/

[HomeRacingWorld]

Pretty slick.

As time goes on, many will all have their own 3D printer and create our own parts/prototypes. Although not at the Shapeways high end of finish, it will allow us to experiment and test our own designs.

I remember standing around the old water cooler (remember those?) and marveling over the "color" printer the office just installed. Why it was AMAZING :)

Same is happening with this medium.

Thanks, very cool. Let us know how you like the end results.

[Nor Cal Mike]

We don't actually have one. We have discussed owning a 3d printer though. This link came as a suggestion that our model train club might want to look at. We have a full 1300 square feet of 1/24 real estate to decorate. For slot car purposes. I see this as being handy to create trackside features such as people, tools, gas pumps, shrubs, small trees, etc.

[DixonJohn]

You and me both Dave :text-goodpost:

[proxieken]

I have a Makerfront 3D printer. If mine is any indication it is a lot harder than it looks on the screen. Sort of like the exercise equipment I see advertised on TV makes it look easy to get in shape. I am visual proof that it is not quite as shown on TV.

3D printers are extremely slow. I can not imagine today's youth being able to part with their cell phone for hours on end to print out a little bobble.

[ccobra]

Agreed, it takes a while to print some of these things. For example the track cleaner that I just did took over twenty hours to print. Some of the first 3d printers needed a bath after printing. These bathes took up to the same length of time as the print and then there was the discharge from the bath. Then comes the part of using the solution to print with. This can be quite messy which makes me wonder why you would want to put it on top of your smart phone. Sorry about the negativity but someday there will be the ideal printer available and hopefully cost effective.

[Cobra]

+1 ccobra, while 3d printing is very cool it is overly hyped.

The best thing about 3d printing is the price keeps coming down and the quality keeps going up and as it is a nacent industry as far as home use is concerned the future is super promising.

[Cobra]

That is why the auto industry (and other industries) uses it so often, the prototyping ability.

For casting it is great, I have some projects in the works that will use 3d printed parts for the casting (not slot car related)

injection mold requires draft and CNC machining to cut the steel (or aluminum or epoxy), don't know how you could make an injection mold tool for a plastic part from an existing 3d printed part.

[proxieken]

I am trying to learn the injection molding process. The 3d printer I picked up was to test fit things and run prototypes, as ShotgunDave suggested.

Overall I am less than impressed by its very slow speed and easy to screw up process. Fiddling with all the settings is a science all to itself. I did manage to make a passable body for the car I want to make someday but it really was painstaking. The pile of rejects was quite disheartening.

If I get a mold made for the injection machine it can make about 3 parts per minute, automatically. Compared to printing one body every 10 hours.

[Nor Cal Mike]

I don't know much about injection molding but I have seen the process from the beginning to end. Bill, the guy who did the HSRR Mclaren M8d lives and has his business not far from where I live. I have visited there a few times to race slot cars on his in shop track. His primary business is manufacturing high end model train rolling stock and accessories. His injection mold tooling uses multiple intricate metal dyes that are hinged to allow the once molded part to be ejected from the mold. The dyes for his injection machines are CNC machined in-house from CAD files drawn by Bill himself. It is quite a process which is a far cry from what we see in this $99 dollar machine.

When I watch this video, T think of the Strombecker Ferrari TR250 tail pipes that are nearly impossible to find intact. I like to play with those cars and the D type Jag that goes with it but have tons of incomplete bodies without parts. Even I could find the before mentioned tailpipes, they are very fragile pieces which makes them impractical to use on toys that one actually plays with. The bendable plastic shown in the video would be ideal for those parts. They also have an opaque material that could be used to make headlight covers for those cars. This is not to mention the people figures, shrubs and trees and bushes that my model train club is interested in producing.

[proxieken]

[Nor Cal Mike]