Pinball parts and 3D Printing...

[John Robertson]

Anyone have one of these printers? Looks to me as an ideal solution to
replacing obsolete parts.

Was at a Makers Faire a week or so ago and these printers are very cool.
Can print almost strong enough to reproduce drop targets. The art is at
the point where you can print small (3 X 3 X 3 inches) solid or hollow
items that are high resolution copies of original items. Larger items
can be done, but they are not as high resolution yet, this is a factor
of the cables/belts driving the print head assembly and is improving
steadily.

Saw a printer that could handle items 18 X 14 X 12 inches!

Planning on getting at least one of these smaller printers in the next
few months to see what we can do about replacing parts that are NLA...

John :-#)#
--
(Please post followups or tech enquiries to the newsgroup)
John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9
Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, Video Games)
www.flippers.com
"Old pinballers never die, they just flip out."

[ecurtz]

JPop talked about using one for custom posts and spacers at the Seattle show. There are also online places like Shapeways and Ponoko that will print for you from a digital file if you don't want to make the investment in your own printer.

[Timerider]

The June 22nd podcast on Science Friday had an interesting discussion of
the 3D printer technology. (no pinball mentioned)

http://www.sciencefriday.com/audio/scifriaudio.xml

The one I saw at the Midwest Gaming Classic, a couple years ago was
interesting. But seemed rather rough in it's shaping (IMO). But I
assume tech has improved since then already.


Greg


--
Timerider
This USENET post sent from http://rgparchive.com

[L8-Vid]

Here's a mini-Tardis being printed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX968O6wHRI

Looks like a cool but expensive way to fabricate custom toys as UV
resin is about $250 a gallon.

[Frank Furhter]

John Robertson wrote:
> Anyone have one of these printers? Looks to me as an ideal solution to
> replacing obsolete parts.
>
> Was at a Makers Faire a week or so ago and these printers are very cool.
> Can print almost strong enough to reproduce drop targets. The art is at
> the point where you can print small (3 X 3 X 3 inches) solid or hollow
> items that are high resolution copies of original items. Larger items
> can be done, but they are not as high resolution yet, this is a factor
> of the cables/belts driving the print head assembly and is improving
> steadily.
>
> Saw a printer that could handle items 18 X 14 X 12 inches!
>
> Planning on getting at least one of these smaller printers in the next
> few months to see what we can do about replacing parts that are NLA...
>
> John :-#)#

Think putter/pot metal, and you have essentially 3d printing. Until it
becomes the equivalent of milled billet I would not bother really for
anything taking punishment.

[Cliffy]

On 7/6/2012 8:03 AM, John Robertson wrote:
> Anyone have one of these printers? Looks to me as an ideal solution to
> replacing obsolete parts.
>
> Was at a Makers Faire a week or so ago and these printers are very cool.
> Can print almost strong enough to reproduce drop targets. The art is at
> the point where you can print small (3 X 3 X 3 inches) solid or hollow
> items that are high resolution copies of original items. Larger items
> can be done, but they are not as high resolution yet, this is a factor
> of the cables/belts driving the print head assembly and is improving
> steadily.
>
> Saw a printer that could handle items 18 X 14 X 12 inches!
>
> Planning on getting at least one of these smaller printers in the next
> few months to see what we can do about replacing parts that are NLA...
>
> John :-#)#

Chris Enright used a 3D plastic printer about 3 or 4 years ago to make
the center casting on 1934 Rockola World's Series. It was strong enough
to support the parts of the mech underneath and was 100% playable. He
even had one aluminum vacuum deposited to simulate chrome. It had to be
one of the most intricate 3D printed pieces I have ever seen that was
mechanically functional. In the end though I think he was concerned with
long term durability so he ended up machining that piece from billet
aluminum. The printed plastic piece was mighty impressive though!

--
Cliffy -CARGPB2
Home of the world's finest pinball protectors!
http://www.passionforpinball.com

[Cliffy]

Pics of Chris' plastic printed WS center casting here;
http://www.audihere.com/34ws/

Cliff -CARGPB2

[pa...@kiefert.com]

I have several 3D printers. There are some pinball parts on Thingiverse too. At least one type of flipper you can print, etc.

I haven't done too much pinball wise with them yet, but I do plan to do mostly mods type stuff on them.

I have a makerbot Thing-o-matic along with a RepRap Prusa and a couple other smaller ones being built by printing parts on the other 3D printers.

We'll probably do a segment on them on the next Pins and Vids DVD. http://www.pinsandvids.com

[Dflrm]

There are two main 3d printing technologies Laser Sintering (LS) and Stereolithography (SL). Both 3d printing processes have their place. There are several different materials that can be printed and they are to some extent process dependent. It has been at least three years since I had to spec parts to be 3d printed. Consequently I have forgotten most of what I had learned about the two processes. There is some dimensional/ Geometric shift in the parts as they age, more so with one process over the other. Although one of the processes did have a coarser finish than the other one. The rough finish on the 3d printed parts has more to due with the resolution of the stl file submitted to the printer than the technology itself. I recommend looking at Harvest Technologies Website http://www.harvest-tech.com/ if you are interested in 3d printing. I had a few different customers parts printed by Harvest Technologies at my last job. The site has some good information on the two different 3d printing processes and the materials that can be printed by those processes. Before you rush out and buy a 3d printer I recommend you have someone else print a part for you. Then you can actually test a 3d printed part and decide if it will actually work for your intended use.

Did you know you can 3d print in Stainless Steel? Of course three years ago there were only two machines in the world with the capability of printing 17-7 Stainless Steel? I spent some time talking with the rep from the only company in the US to have one of those machines three years ago. The representative told me that for simple parts it was still cheaper to machine them; however, for complex parts that require a lot of different setups they would be able to print them cheaper than they could be machined. Based on a quick online search I would guess that 3d printing metal has gone down in price and the number of machines has gone up.

Daniel

[dmarston]

Cliffy;1967377 Wrote:
> On 7/6/2012 8:03 AM, John Robertson wrote:
> >> Anyone have one of these printers? Looks to me as an ideal solution
> to
> >> replacing obsolete parts.

> >...
> > John :-#)#
>
> Chris Enright used a 3D plastic printer about 3 or 4 years ago to make
> the center casting on 1934 Rockola World's Series. It was strong enough
>
> to support the parts of the mech underneath and was 100% playable. He
> even had one aluminum vacuum deposited to simulate chrome. It had to be
>
> one of the most intricate 3D printed pieces I have ever seen that was
> mechanically functional. In the end though I think he was concerned with
>
> long term durability so he ended up machining that piece from billet
> aluminum. The printed plastic piece was mighty impressive though!
>
> --
> Cliffy -CARGPB2

How about emulating the way vinyl phonograph records are made? "Print"
a
somewhat flimsy piece to start, and smooth out the roughness (to
address
TimeRider's issue). Then make a mold off that, and mold in a more
durable
material. Repeat the cycle if necessary to step up to even better
material.
................David Marston


--
dmarston

[hukit...@gmail.com]

So I have a 3D printer and I'm looking to print some drop targets for a friend who is restoring a "Jacks Open". I can create the 3D files, but it would be way cooler if more of the basic pinball shapes were already out there to be customized. Also for doing one of a kind play field mods it will be really simple with the 3D printer. Hopefully more people catch onto this and thingiverse gets more pinball files in the future.

[seymour.shabow]

hukit...@gmail.com wrote:
> So I have a 3D printer and I'm looking to print some drop targets for a friend who is restoring a "Jacks Open". I can create the 3D files, but it would be way cooler if more of the basic pinball shapes were already out there to be customized. Also for doing one of a kind play field mods it will be really simple with the 3D printer. Hopefully more people catch onto this and thingiverse gets more pinball files in the future.

You do know that Pinball Resource already sells repro Jacks Open targets?

If you're looking to create custom stuff or just to see if you can do it
that's cool.

[wallybgood]

John, check out this thread on Pinside-"3D Printed Parts for AFM". Wally
http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/3d-printed-parts-for-afm


--
wallybgood

[andysuns...@gmail.com]

the latest is 3d rendered guns all this talk of gun contol is moot

[Dan L.]

I am thinking about trying this to print out a nylon credit wheel that is missing from one of my machines. Has anyone tried this? If so, how is the durability?

Thanks,

Dan L.

[Mike Gervasi]

On Friday, July 6, 2012 11:03:06 AM UTC-4, John Robertson wrote:
> Anyone have one of these printers? Looks to me as an ideal solution to
>
> replacing obsolete parts.

I had a Replicator for about 6 weeks and had thought about doing just that. When it worked it was great but there's tons of adjusting, tweaking, and mods needed to get decent prints out of them. Ended up selling it when I found out they all have a design flaw in the motherboards that cause them to self destruct (seriously). And the customer support was very very poor.

As far as the parts themselves it would be good for printing spacers and things that do not take direct hits. The plastic isn't durable enough even at 100% infill to take that kind of abuse.

[timm...@gmail.com]

I bought a replicator 2 from maker bot and I have 2 ideas for high speed 2. Here is the link for one of them.

http://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/hs2-3d-printed-donut-heaven