Author Topic: 3D Printing  (Read 8141 times)

dogmush

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #25 on: March 24, 2017, 12:27:02 PM »
Quote from: scout26
Are any of these big enough to print a lower ??

What I would be looking at doing is print a lower and then investment casting it in aluminum.   Then taking those to the periodic "Gun Buy-Backs" hosted by the various do-gooders in Chicago.   I figure we can turn in ten lowers a buyback and making $1000-$2000 per.   (yes, we would carve serial numbers into each mold.  No, we would not sell any, just turn them in.) 


 grin grin grin


An AR-15 Lower is 7.503 +.000/-.006 from the center of the pivot pin hole to the back face of the receiver extension boss. Add .125 for the hole and maybe .0625 for the pin mount and you get 7.6905"

The printer I linked to and asked Rev about in my post prints 7.9x7.9x6.9, so it should spit out a lower pretty easily.  You can probably angle it on the print bed and have a little extra room.

That said, 3D printing is cool, but for your plan, one of these kits and a bunch of resin would have a better return on investment.

Ben

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #26 on: March 24, 2017, 12:28:46 PM »
What features would one look for in a 3D printer?  I'd kinda like to have the capability in my shop, but don't have specific projects in mind.  (Projectiles for my RV-85 would be cool) 

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bedlamite

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #27 on: March 24, 2017, 01:30:52 PM »
Are any of these big enough to print a lower ??

What I would be looking at doing is print a lower and then investment casting it in aluminum.   Then taking those to the periodic "Gun Buy-Backs" hosted by the various do-gooders in Chicago.   I figure we can turn in ten lowers a buyback and making $1000-$2000 per.   (yes, we would carve serial numbers into each mold.  No, we would not sell any, just turn them in.) 


 =D =D =D

Too much work. Silicone mold and cast them in resin. Or just make zip guns like I did last year:





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Scout26

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #28 on: March 24, 2017, 02:33:46 PM »
You all are missing the point.

3D printer to do more than just make AR Lowers.   You know, to play with.

Plus we have a ton of aluminum... and are going to build this foundry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHD10DjxM1g


So it's more then just lowers.  We will probably make other "stuff" with both... 
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RevDisk

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #29 on: March 24, 2017, 04:00:38 PM »
Are any of these big enough to print a lower ??

What I would be looking at doing is print a lower and then investment casting it in aluminum.   Then taking those to the periodic "Gun Buy-Backs" hosted by the various do-gooders in Chicago.   I figure we can turn in ten lowers a buyback and making $1000-$2000 per.   (yes, we would carve serial numbers into each mold.  No, we would not sell any, just turn them in.) 


 =D =D =D

Very easily, actually.  http://www.cncguns.com/downloads.html

Initial estimate from the Solidworks file I looked at was 200 grams of material, 7 hours to print at 'lowest settings'. Mind you, that could wildly change depending on how you want to print it. Completely solid? 3x material and time. Honeycombed interior, 2x.

PLA is $20-60 per kilo. So you could probably safely make two or three castable lowers from one spool of material, then use green sand aluminum pours. I mean, you're not worried about safety or whatnot.



What features would one look for in a 3D printer?  I'd kinda like to have the capability in my shop, but don't have specific projects in mind.  (Projectiles for my RV-85 would be cool) 

Stop putting ideas in my head.

AJ already made the models. I plan on doing some tweaking. They need tweaking, but that's fairly common as 3D printers are not always super accurate. Funny enough, their inaccuracy varies on X, Y and Z independently.
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AJ Dual

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #30 on: March 25, 2017, 01:02:07 AM »
You all are missing the point.

3D printer to do more than just make AR Lowers.   You know, to play with.

Plus we have a ton of aluminum... and are going to build this foundry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHD10DjxM1g


So it's more then just lowers.  We will probably make other "stuff" with both... 

The Chicom Anet a6 could easily churn out a lower. And if you want to cast your own Al ones a 3D printer is the way to go, because you're going to want to make it about 2% oversized for the nominal shrinkage of cast metal.  You can even make it real thin with just minimal honeycomb inside so it prints quicker and uses less filament. You can even just put your mold in a hot fire and burn all the plastic away, and in CAD you can stick whatever kind of sprue funnels and vents you need to right onto the model.

I just moved mine from the dining room table and to it's more or less permanent home in the workshop battlestation. The only space I had for it was one of those crappy plastic shelves which had some sag to it. So today I bought a 1/8" sheet of masonite so there was a solid surface covering the grid of plastic slats. Then I put a heavy 3/4" thick board of MDF over that, but first I put several felt pad screw feet into it so I could level it, then checked with a little machinists bullseye bubble level and a stick level.  If you've got a good level place to put it, that much effort isn't required, but it will make the printer a bit quieter, because all the whining of the stepper motors tends to make a table act like a sounding board...

Now I can go back to controlling the printer from my PC in realtime when I want to, instead of having to stick files on the micro SD card. Although I eventually want to set up a Raspberry Pi WiFi webserver for the printer that can watch it through a webcam so I can at least kill a print from my phone if it starts going wrong from wherever I am.

I also need to print off a bunch of clips and edges so I can make a plexiglass box for the printer so I can keep it clean, and keep the air inside at a stable warm temperature so larger prints in ABS don't warp on me.



The leveling feet.



Checking for level and adjusting.



Printer set up, and checking it's print bed for level. On the money..
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AJ Dual

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #31 on: March 27, 2017, 10:11:04 PM »
Modicum of success tonight. Everything fit at least. And I can cycle the bolt, and dry fire it.







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cordex

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #32 on: March 28, 2017, 08:49:17 AM »
I think you have to at least put a CB cap or Colibri through it.

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #33 on: June 10, 2017, 06:40:54 PM »
Too many projects and hobbies. I really don't need another machine in my garage...

AJ, where'd you order yours from....? :)
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sumpnz

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #34 on: June 11, 2017, 12:18:56 AM »
Where I work we have 3 3D printers in our Rapid Prototype lab.  One is an older, but still excellent SLA.  I think they've had that one for 12 years or so.  We also have an FDM based printer that can do several different plastics, including high-temp tolerant plastics.  The new one we just got maybe 4 months ago is pretty trick.  I'll have to look up the details on it, but it can do multiple materials (including rubber) in the same part, and an almost infinite range of colors.

They tried to get funding for a metallic printer but that wasn't approved for this year.  There's lots of expectations that we'll get that one next year.  Most likely they'll get rid of the SLA to make room.

AJ Dual

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #35 on: June 11, 2017, 12:44:59 AM »
Too many projects and hobbies. I really don't need another machine in my garage...

AJ, where'd you order yours from....? :)

I got the Anet A6 from Gearbest.
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just Warren

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Re: 3D Printing (Arise dead thread! Arise!)
« Reply #36 on: February 04, 2020, 10:05:10 PM »
Member in Good Standing of the Spontaneous Order of the Invisible Hand.

AJ Dual

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Re: 3D Printing (Arise dead thread! Arise!)
« Reply #37 on: February 05, 2020, 10:40:33 AM »
Thread necro so as to present the newest frontier in 3D printing:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/forget-everything-you-know-about-3-d-printing-mdash-the-replicator-is-here/

I saw this a year or two ago. It's a big step forward for SLA (Sterolithography) printing, although there's some downsides, you need a much bigger tank of the resin so the image can be projected into it. Regular SLA printers that use light and resin can pull from a much shallower tank. There's even ones that use a phone or a tablet for the image/light source to polymerize the resin. And I imagine that getting it all bubble free is probably a bit of a PITA. But the "printing something around something" ability is probably the biggest boon I see.

How about this for 3D printing?

https://liberator12k.com/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFEojfcL5tU
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dogmush

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #38 on: February 05, 2020, 11:57:38 AM »
Interesting to see where I was in this thread vs. where I am with two printers at home now.

I've made gun that shot (once), a mag that works repeatedly, I have the files for both AR and Glock lowers, as well as designing and making non firearm things.  I really like the idea of that shotgun, and am going to bookmark his page.

Cool stuff there.

AJ Dual

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Re: 3D Printing
« Reply #39 on: February 05, 2020, 12:45:50 PM »
Yeah, I've printed Glock magazines that work fine in my G26. I cheated and bought actual Glock OEM springs as they're cheaper
than Wolf, but I could have wound my own if I really wanted to I guess.

And I've got that entire AR 9mm lower that takes Glock magazines too. I really need to buy an upper for it one of these days and figure out how to put the ejector into it.
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