mk e wrote:
Yeah. I'm right now setting up a printer lab at work and the cheapest unit is $30k I think to do what we need. But for nerf guns and velocity stacks and such, I'm thinking filament unit and true ABS vs laser cured similar to ABS makes some sense.....even if i means sanding and polishing or painting to make it nice. I'm 3/4 ready to buy it I think......
The only reason I have not purchased a unit for home is that I have an account at both Stratasys and Shapeways, the cost of the parts is relatively cheap esp considering they use machines I could never afford for home. Even for one off Nerf bits outsourcing to them makes more cost sense to me. Then again I'm not printing off parts in any volume. I talked with the Stratasys reps a couple yrs ago at SEMA and they were coming out with a filament material that dissolves in water... it allowed for printing CF forms then washing out the core... very slick.
I've had a number of bits made from FMD stainless, very neat and actually a lot stronger then I figured it would be. Could not get some of these done for the cost if I had them machined.
Each piece in the pic was $50.. That's stupid cheap!! FDM stainless.. They still have to post furnace braze with brass to fill voids no matter how I figure it only a large volume facility to offer it that cost effectively. They (Stratasys) are starting to work with foundries too, still a bit pricey but they print the molds and the foundry does the casting. I've tried to get just the sand molds as printed but they won't sell them, has to go thru a foundry.