My son has 3 (yes 3) 3D printers. Resin Printer, higher resolution
resin printer, and filament printer. He primarily prints gaming
miniatures. (He plays two regular D&D games a week (runs one). Once in
a while he has somebody pay him to run a print, but its not common.
Maybe half dozen times a year. He rather enjoys painting the
miniatures, and he's getting good at it. He's won more than a couple
painting contests. He claims being able to create and print his own
fantasy pieces costs less than buying them. I've paid him (bought
materials and made sure there was plenty left over) to run a few jobs
for me. One was to run a filament print of a 1911 receiver. I didn't
plan to use it. I wanted to test a file before using it to machine a
receiver. I still do not know if the file is good or not. Between
shrinkage and distortion it was not great. I know people actual print
and use receivers, but I'll probably fall back on old school measure and
index methods from a sample piece when I get around to that project.
On another project I had him print some master molds. Basically a mold
box, master (1/2 master), sprue, vents, and alignment registers in a
single print. This allowed me to make silicone molds in multiples for
casting resin parts. This actually worked fairly well, but we ran
through a few iterations, to get it right.
I do not know about cost effective, but it does not seem to be time
effective. All of those prints I had him do for me took a while. It
didn't cost ME much, but he spent some time getting them ready to print
after I the CAD files in some cases.
I have one customer who makes accessories for gaming miniatures. I make
injection molds for him. The cost of a mold is fairly high, but the
cost per part is very low.
In conclusion I think:
1. If you are prototyping it "might" be useful by itself, but going
from one process to another accounting for variations int he process
like shrinkage and distortion it might take away from that.
2. It can be useful as part of another process as in my master molds to
make molds to make parts.
3. To make a single part if you can do it within your allowable
tolerances its cheaper than making a mold to make a part.
4. Its not fast, but if you can walk away and work on something else it
might be ok.
5. Those are not the only types of 3D printing. There is a 3D printer
on the International Space Station they use to print tools they didn't
know they were going to need.
6. Like making a part on the lathe or mill to finish a project on
Saturday, printing a part on the printer may allow you finish your
project instead of waiting until Monday to order the part you need.
Overall I am not convinced I need one, but I am convinced that they can
be useful in the broad scope of things.
Just My Not So Humble Opinion
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
--
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
https://www.avg.com