3D printing

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Claydart

Claydart

MOPAR to the very bones
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Has anyone else started doing this? I am having the time of my life, being stuck at home, and playing with my recently acquired 3D printer. I have just finished designing and printing a bunch of parts for my car, and anyone else who would be interested, by the way. I have designed a 64 Dart GT emblem for the hood trim and the trunk piece. I have designed and printed a center ring for the 64 tail light, that I will either be painting with chrome paint or sending out to get vacuum metalized. I have designed and printed an offset reducer coupling for modern defrost hose to go on 64 heater box. And I have designed and printed dozens of useful gadgets and hangers for the workshop and home. And as a result of making the trunk piece, I tweaked the design and I am making guitar picks for my kids and grandkids! I think that if anyone that has any sense of squareness and proportion, tried working with one, they would love it. Just sayin
 
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These are some of the parts that I have done.

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Sure, I am using the newest version of CURA Ultimaker 4.6 for the slicing. I am designing on Tinkercad online (free). And my printer is a Anycubic i3 Mega. Hey, you spell your name wrong. lol I spell mine Clay.
 
The 3D printers keep getting cheaper too.
It seems those are only limited by your imagination.
I thought about getting an Ebag CNC Router (6040) to play around with and make some cool aluminum parts that would take forever and a day on my mill.
 
You should, I'm sure you won't be disappointed. Any tool that you can make things on is an amazing thing for the average guy, or girl!
 
Bought a 3D printer when the pandemic started and I never regretted it. A really rewarding hobby with so much to learn from/
 
Richardse said:
Bought a 3D printer when the pandemic started and I never regretted it. A really rewarding hobby with so much to learn from/
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welcome aboard Rich

what kind of parts did you use the printer for, anything car related?
 
I got started in 3D printing a few years ago by building one from scratch. Two years ago bought a Prusa i3 kit. It's an awesome printer, very capable, great support (in my opinion) and a huge following. Used it quite a bit. Fixed our air fryer, made some extensions for a truck bed unloader, made a spartan helmet for my company Christmas party based on our company logo.... Put it the shelf a year ago, haven't touched it since. Needs to be rebuilt/cleaned up and I just cant bring myself to spend the time on it anymore because my cars have been a priority. I'll probably get distracted again when tha squirrel bites my ankle, but if I'm going to do anything like that again, I'll build a new CNC router and make money with it. I know people make money with printers, but typically, they have 10 of them and a steady stream of things to produce. Just not in my wheelhouse anymore. It's a fun hobby though. Kids got a huge kick out of it and it's good for teaching about the end to end process of design/manufacturing.
 
How much does the software cost? And is it a one time cost? Thanks.
 
LO23M8B said:
How much does the software cost? And is it a one time cost? Thanks.
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Short answer, it depends.

Step 1: You have to model an object first. What software you use is completely up to you. The OP referenced Tinkercad, which is an online "buijlding block" style modeling tool which can export STL files. That's the trick. If you modeling software will produce an STL, you're good.

Step 2: You need to "slice" the model into layers that the printer can then lay down one layer at a time. I use the Prusa version of "Slic3r". It's free and has been taylored to the Prusa printer. The original version of "Slic3r" is fine too but you have to figure everything out on your own for your particular printer.

There are slicers that cost money, some people love them, some people hate them, your mileage may vary.
 
Before everyone gets too excited, keep in mind most of the materials used in 3D printing will not stand up the the heat inside of a car during a sunny day, or the UV from the same light. There are some exceptions, but they are going to cost more.

That said, you CAN use it very successfully in what's called "lost pla" casting. Basically the same as "lost wax" but you can recreate the PLA based negative (positive?) with relative ease as compared to wax.
 
Cuda416 said:
Before everyone gets too excited, keep in mind most of the materials used in 3D printing will not stand up the the heat inside of a car during a sunny day, or the UV from the same light. There are some exceptions, but they are going to cost more.

That said, you CAN use it very successfully in what's called "lost pla" casting. Basically the same as "lost wax" but you can recreate the PLA based negative (positive?) with relative ease as compared to wax.
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Can the plastic be coated to be more resilient to the UVs?
 
clementine said:
Can the plastic be coated to be more resilient to the UVs?
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You can certainly paint it, that's what I did with the helmet I made, but there is still the issue if heat.

The FDM process uses heat to melt the plastic so heat is always going to be a concern.
 
There are also a lot of new PLA+ or Pro PLA materials that require higher temps. to melt it and therefor it would take higher temps. to deform it. I printed out a reducer for my defroster hose connection in my Dart last year out of ABS and it holds up very well against the heat. Otherwise I would have to have a hose clamp try and squish down the air hose that originally was 1 7/8" at one end and I think 2 1/2" at the other end. My part that I designed works very well for that. I also printed out some center rings for my 64 tail lights that lost the chrome rings years ago. I am still looking for someplace that does vacuum metalizing chrome for those.
 
Claydart said:
There are also a lot of new PLA+ or Pro PLA materials that require higher temps. to melt it and therefor it would take higher temps. to deform it. I printed out a reducer for my defroster hose connection in my Dart last year out of ABS and it holds up very well against the heat. Otherwise I would have to have a hose clamp try and squish down the air hose that originally was 1 7/8" at one end and I think 2 1/2" at the other end. My part that I designed works very well for that. I also printed out some center rings for my 64 tail lights that lost the chrome rings years ago. I am still looking for someplace that does vacuum metalizing chrome for those.
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ABS is a different beast altogether and the best choice in my opinion besides exotics.

It's biggest problem is it shrinks because it's designed to shrink out of whatever mold it'd used in. So you have to plan for that in the design.
 
I did try printing some of my replacement parts for my car on it without much success yet. I would definitely love to be able to do it myself instead of paying hundreds of dollars on a regular basis for parts. Likewise, it would be great to be able to print my photos of the best cars that I have owned over the years myself. Right now I'm just using Canvas Prints | High End Fine Art Canvas | Frameshop.com.au to print them on a canvas. Until I find a way to do it myself it's my best option here in Australia. They do an amazingly good job I have to say and I have the cars in my living room on the wall.
 
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