Make Your Own Early 911 Parts

[Herr Softie]

I have a friend who designs high end door hardware and fixtures. He said the phrase "3-D Printer" the other day, and when I asked what he meant, he described a truly amazing piece of technology, IMO. Read about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing

basically you scan something, then when you send it to the 3-D Printer, the printer deposits material until you either have

A. A duplicate of the thing you started with, as is the case with something plastic, or

B. A duplicate of the thing you started with from which to make a mold, like what he does when he is going to cast a fixture.

I can't get it out of my mind that we will one day be able to scan plastic parts for our cars and duplicate them, and also scan metal parts and make molds from which to cast metal parts. Truly Amazing! Just thought I would share

Cheers - Brad

[davep]

I use Solidworks to design 3-D parts, and a Dimension printer to make them. Loads of fun.

[lkadams]

Check out this video of 3D scanning and printing on Jay Leno's garage:
http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/video/...tml?vid=944641

[tfmcmahon]

When I was still in practice in the 90`s,Coors Brewing Co. had a division called Coors Porcelein. They were experimenting with a concept using CAD/CAM for crowns using the same principles you mentioned.They were ahead of the times.Bill Coors,who I have had the pleasure of knowing,is a very forsighted man.This newer version sounds intriguing. Thanks for the link! Tom

[boba]

This technology is used for rapid prototyping, we first used it to develop race parts in 1999. It had been used earlier and had finally trickeled down to our level so I do not know when it first started. Someone with the areospace industry would be likely to know when it started.

Here are some photos to show what can be done.

[304065]

Our man Hayden at WEVO has this capability and I believe has used it in the design of his many go-fast goodies.