3D printed parts

[QUOTE="toolmanmike, post: 1972874659, member: 2106" New technology![/QUOTE]

Yeah, except in 1994 I sent a 3D file of 2 parts to a company in Michigan I saw advertised in a trade magazine.
And by sent, I mean I MAILED a 3-1-2" floppy through the U.S. Mail. I had SLA prototype parts in my hands 4-5 days later. Drilled and tapped them and used for product testing before committing to die cast aluminum parts.

Been doing it ever since with in-house printers that run practically around the clock. First one we bought in 2003 was about 45K. 20 years ago I used to dream about using our 3D roamer arm to digitize the bottom of my Barracuda and then develop suspension parts in 3D CAD. I was at a seminar about 15 yrs ago where one of the Rahal Racing team engineers showed us how they would be testing at a track, make changes to a part on a laptop, send the file to their shop, and have a new part delivered 48 hrs later.
The concept isn't new, but the cost has always been prohibitive. I see some of the high end Hot Rod shops are finally doing stuff today that I used to imagine doing. I think it was XV Motorsports that finally digitized an E body and used FEA to develop their chassis parts.
Recently, I worked for a NASA contractor that had a million dollar printer that printed really nice stainless steel parts. It sat there idling for the most part because when the customer is NASA, well, they don't do high production.