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Another bada$$ reason to buy a 3d printer

A friend of mine needed a gear for his 10 HP lathe to use to do some threading. He had one 3D printed and it worked great. Some 3D printed stuff is tougher than most people think.
 
A friend of mine needed a gear for his 10 HP lathe to use to do some threading. He had one 3D printed and it worked great. Some 3D printed stuff is tougher than most people think.
I printed a whole set of metric gears for my south bend & the transposing gear.

Even when not threading I decided to leave a single 3d printed gear in the system in case of a crash and it also quiets down the geartrain.
 
Cool! I've wanted to try custom printed press tooling ever since I got my press working. I just haven't stumbled into the right project for it, but I'll think of something someday lol.
 
Even when not threading I decided to leave a single 3d printed gear in the system in case of a crash and it also quiets down the geartrain.

What an awesome idea!

But wouldn't you look if the 3D gear survived and a steel one broke... LOL!

My lathe has brass shear pins in the drive system. They work great! Don't ask me how I know....... :rolleyes:

My lathe has an oil bath gear head so it's pretty quiet. But who wouldn't love some noise reduction?
 
What an awesome idea!

But wouldn't you look if the 3D gear survived and a steel one broke... LOL!

My lathe has brass shear pins in the drive system. They work great! Don't ask me how I know....... :rolleyes:

My lathe has an oil bath gear head so it's pretty quiet. But who wouldn't love some noise reduction?
I needed it in there for whatever metric thread I was cutting, then after it worked out for kind of mid range cut/rev so I decided to leave it in and see how it lasts.

You're probably right tho, something more expensive will break lol!
 
You're probably right tho, something more expensive will break lol!

To be clear, I was just joking. I suppose it could happen, but I wouldn't bet on it.

In the meantime, look where we are. A 3D gear that worked! Amazing to me.

I'm still hoping to get a 3D printer someday, but I'm back to being scared. @jcdammeyer & @DavidR8 were talking infill, gyroid, %'s, & technobabble V42.89 as though it was obvious what they meant. My old mind immediately sent an army of defense warriors to the front line of my brain. NO 3D PRINTER FOR YOU OLD SUSQUATCH! I love learning, but I'm not about to go immerse myself in something so complex that I end up hiding in a corner of my dog crate sucking on a giant Soo-Soo learning nothing else let alone failing miserably at getting several thousand dollars of 3D micro parts to work properly.
 
It's not quite that bad Susquatch, infill is the amount material between surfaces and comes in/ printed in different patterns, honeycomb is another of many. Lightens the finished product and doesn't use/waste material/plastic where it not needed, and speeds up the time to make the finished product. Gyroid is an infill pattern/design, % is the amount of infill, thicker walls on/in it and or a smaller honeycomb hole size, eg, more walls, smaller holes, stronger. But longer to print, and uses more material.
The "technobabble" is the hard part, as is any new field to be dropped into, as I think you have an understanding of CAD and maybe? use it a bit, in hand with the automotive background, it maybe easier for you then me. It also seems the lastest, greatest printers are closer to push button. You still need to design/draw what you want, or pick something from a depository, convert that to a file the printer can use, some depositorys can do that/ or have it in the nessicary file. Shoot that to the printer. Decide material to use. Some of these newer printers will program itself for the material you are using, ( not sure what else, maybe coffee, strong too??). And press the start button.
I think mayhaps you already know a bunch of this. My problem is the drawing of things in a program, a very big PITA for me, and not sure of a few changes to be made in the printer programming as I have a new and very different print head on it, it does print, I don't want to make it not print!
Start simple, small steps grasshopper!
Winter is maybe a time to get a printer, learn it and about it. They are in some ways amazing and a pain too. But in hand with laser cutter and welder, anything "maybe" possible.
 
I think I've maybe said this before. Casting isn't about melting, pouring and machining. It's all about pattern making although if you like the crappy finish on the non-machined areas 3D printing has changed that.
But, 3D printing is also not so much about all the parameters as @Bandit stated but unless you only want to print stuff you find on line it's all about CAD.
And unlike 2D CAD for making a drawing of a part or a pattern you build out of wood, the 3D CAD is required to make the files your printer software ultimately slices into thin layers, 0.2mm thick and sends out XY and feed speed G-Code commands.
And there's the rub so to speak. Don't get a 3D printer if you don't want to learn 3D CAD.

For example, last night while partly watching the US debate (if you could call it that) I whipped up a drawing to make a longer version of this plastic RH sensor holder.
1719586779076.png

Here's mine created by measuring the original, drawing and adding length.
1719586412159.png


Each one took about an hour to print. One right side up with support and one upside down without that took only 47 minutes to print.
1719587108246.png


Still need to draw up a base that has a couple of holes to mount the smaller floppy badly designed module.
 
Yup, what @Bandit said. There's a deep and a shallow end to the 3D printing pool. I tread water near the transition. Apologies if my foray into the deeper end was off-putting.
3D printing does open a whole new world of possibilities in the shop and home.
 
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