3d printing

[bulleteater]

Has anybody here thought of or tried the 3d printing for things like maybe the headlight doors? I know how hard those are to come by and I had this great idea haha just don't know if I'm thinking in the clouds or wishful thinking or what.. I've seen a few 3d printers online for a couple thousand dollars and I was thinking of investing in one.. I just don't want to waste the money if it won't work..

[held1823]

i've been wondering the same thing about nose cones

[Aero426]

3d printing will allow you to make a prototype or duplicate of something.   But the material will not be suitable as a replacement for an injection molded factory part. 

[E5 Charger]

I agree, but they can be used to make a mold of the part. Also a new 3D printer that uses carbon fibre will be available this summer.

[bulleteater]

Hmmm well I thought it was a good idea lol but.. A carbon fiber material would be a good alternative.. But I'll bet that would be really pricey But possible

[ACUDANUT]

 3d printing ? What does it print ? Do you need 3D glasses ?

[Indygenerallee]

http://youtu.be/G0EJmBoLq-g

[cudaken]

 I first learned about 3 D printing few years ago, pretty amazing stuff. Some of the folks at a model train site I go to have started making there own rolling stock and engine parts.

With the right plastic, I see no reason you could not make a Charger Grill.

Cuda Ken

[hawkeye]

I read an article the other day were they were using 3D printing to make exact pieces of skull bone.  Must be some of it is pretty durable.  http://singularityhub.com/2014/03/30/patients-cranium-replaced-with-custom-3d-printed-implant/

[E5 Charger]

There are different plastics available. One being ABS. Lego is made of ABS and is super durable. The printers have come down in price, I think about $2000 now, but can only be used to print small items. There are a lot of plans that can be downloaded free. Check out this link. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:288322  You can download an app that lets you customize the plans. A few tweaks to the grommet and it can be used on our cars.
If you go to the Explore tab at the top of the site, then Categories, and finally tools, you will see a bunch of cool things.

[Indygenerallee]

You can buy 3D printers off Ebay for around $1000

[Dino]

Does anyone know any actual cost AFTER printer purchase?  I know there is a variety of media to use so lets assume we are trying to replicate a missing interior part or one of those plastic clips that holds the headlight vacuum hoses to the inner fender. 

The very first time I saw a 3D printer at work was when it printed, I believe, a water pump part for one of Leno's early cars.  I'm not sure what type of media to use on that but something tells me it wouldn't be cheap.

[68X426]

I've read that we are still 10 years away from practical and "affordable" production.  The momentum isn't there yet but when it happens it will be rapid.  Mostly tied to the cost of the media (very sophisticated and expensive plastics).  Sorry I don't know which plastics or how costly.

[John_Kunkel]

It's not all plastic anymore, metal 3D printers are now available.

[daveco]

3d printers for $1000 is sorta like saying cars cost $1000.
A "printed" headlight door that would pass as suitably durable and with acceptable aesthetics would cost more than a nice original.

[Indygenerallee]

daveco, better do some research before doing any typing.... Here is a cheaper one for $750.00..

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3D-printer-dual-extruder-New-Extruder-Dual-nozzle-W-2-Abs-or-Pla-Spools-/131116967431?pt=COMP_Printers&hash=item1e872e2607

[daveco]

I understand there are cheap printers out there, the capabilities of those printers are very limited.

[ACUDANUT]

They don't really "print", but produce a part.   You have to agree, 'printing" is misleading. They need a new name for it.    Maybe 3d part maker. 

[green69rt]

Just a few thoughts as I have looked around about 3D printing.

1. Yes, the printer cost is coming down but still pretty high for a printer that will handle a large object.
2. Printer cost is only part of the problem, print time for a complex part is long so that drives the cost up.
3. Finish is important, if you have to spend a lot of manhours to sand the part down it drives up costs.
4. You need a program to input to the printer.  Our grills are very complex and the manhours to generate the program are huge, (means more $$)

Things are getting better but are they there yet?   maybe, maybe not....

[ws23rt]

A proper scanner would bring the cost of generating a program down.  I recall reading about that as being in the infant stage as the printers are.

Surly they will improve together. 

[hatersaurusrex]

You guys have nothing to worry about.  There was a guy on the 'Mopars under $1500' page who said he had a dash guy who could make new dashes for anything for $200.   He also said you could have perfect restore from a stripped roller for 20K on a 69 Charger, and that after 2 years he would have had mine on the road in perfect shape.

I don't know about you guys, but I believe him, and I'm waiting with a pile of money for when he's available again.  Think how long I've been wasting money on this car!!!! Good thing I learned my lesson...

[Old Moparz]

Funny, I remember a similar topic to this a couple of years ago, it had a link to a video showing a wrench being made. I can't find the topic now, or remember if I started it, but I said making car parts was feasible & I think 99% of the people who commented said, "3D Printers will never make car parts or ever be afforable!"  

Build Your Own 3D Printer.


At my kid's high school there was a project in one of the science classes where they built a 3D printer. When I was there during an open house event, it was on display & in the process of actually printing an object.


Keeping it within the automotive topic, Jay Leno reproduces template parts he needs with his own 3D printer....

Jay's Printer.

[held1823]

my $$$ says the day is coming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1zV8JMwrvs

[JB400]

The grille on this Camaro was "printed"

http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=37183&page=36


So, yes, it's possible.  How much coin  

[nihil]

Old thread, but I figure I can offer some input. I've been playing with 3D printers for a couple years now, and making parts for cars was one of the big motivators for me to get into it. It turns out, a 3D printer is something like the worlds most versatile hammer, and suddenly every situation starts looking like a nail. While I haven't yet printed anything for the Charger, I've printed parts for several other cars.

The cheapest method to start out with is FDM/Fused Deposition Modeling (squirting melted plastic in layers). This is the type I have and generally the easiest to get into on a hobby level. If you source your own parts and are adept at building stuff, you can turn out a fully functional printer for as little as $200. I have about 10x that in my machine, but I tend to go overboard on my toys. Print quality depends a lot more on build quality than it does cost. A well built $200 machine will outperform a halfassed $2000 machine any day of the week.

Materials cost has a pretty wide range. The two most common plastic filament types are ABS and PLA, and can be had from $20 to $40 per kilogram(2.2lbs) retail. There are more exotic filaments that can cost upwards $120 a pound. How much you spend for any given part depends on the size of the part and the density of the infill.

If you really want to drop some cash you can get into a SLS/SLM (Selective Laser Sintering/Selective Laser Melting) type machine that uses a high power laser to fuse layers of a powdered substrate to construct the part. You can fuse a wide variety of materials with this method, plastics, ceramics, glass, metal, or any other material that bonds to itself with a suitable application of heat. But the type of material you can work with is almost directionally proportional to how much you spend on your laser and optics. More power is more expensive.

There are other methods of additive manufacturing, but FDM and SL are by far the two most widely used. I'll try not to sound too preach'y, but it really is the proverbial "way of the future". It's not the end-all/be-all of manufacturing techniques, but it will play a huge part in the way consumers obtain goods in the future. My machine has already paid for itself and then some, and I get higher quality objects that were either tailored specifically to my application by designing them myself, or publicly available designs that are a lot more situation specific than the typical commercial "design for the lowest common denominator to maximize profit margin" approach.

If anyone has any questions or would like to know more, just say the word. I'm more than happy to talk about my toys.