On Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:51:01 -0500, "Dave M"
wrote:

I'm starting to get interested in 3D printing. My primary purpose would be
to make parts for obsolete equipment, and other parts that are no longer
available. These parts often have imbedded metal parts, such as a metal
ferrule inside a knob, or an imbedded nut or mounting tab.
Can 3D printers make such parts? If so, is any additional equipment or
unique model of 3D printers required?

Monoprice has a model that appears to be a clone of a Makerbot printer at
about half the price. Reviews seem to indicate that it is an excellent
printer, although not perfect. I guess that 3D printers are relatively new
on the scene, and will improve in time.

Thanks for any insight,
Dave M



I have a RepRap 3D printer. It's a Prusa Mendel that I assembled as a
kit for $800 a few years ago.I can give you some firsthand knowledge:

Check out http://reprap.org/ for designs.

I'm no mechanical engineer, but I was able to assemble it myself. It
did take a lot of patience. There is a lot of instuctions online, but
I found that the first few steps of the assembly were VERY well
documented, but as I progressed through the assembly, the instructions
gradually got a little sloppy and vague. It's almost as if the person
writing the documentation had to pee really bad near the end, and was
rushing through.

There is also a lot of mechanical "tweaking" that needed to be done
in order to get decent build quality. The more precisely calibrated it
is, the better quality of your output. I was able to get my layer
depth down to 100 microns!

The repraps are meant to be easily sourced for parts, so they can be
available to anyone. They are also pretty "improvable", so there is a
lot of things you can do to make it better: Increase build volume,
automated build platforms, auto bed levelling, etc...

All of the software that I use is available for free. You can buy some
if you want, but the free stuff does the job too. This goes for design
and production software.

It's good for plastic models: bust of Yoda, Model spaceships, etc.
It's also great to replace easily broken plastic things, like a latch
for a dishwasher, toilet paper roll holder, etc.

Check out http://thingiverse.com forfiles of almost anything that you
can think of.

Things it CAN'T do well: very small parts that need a lot of
structural stability. Very small load-bearing clips are not
reasonable. Most items that are expected to be under a load or stress
will have an unusual girth to them.

Also, designs have to take into account GRAVITY, so there is often
support material that you would need to remove after the printing is
done.