Need an extra tool....print it!

[TheShrine]

 

[930dreamer]

Jay Leno's garage had a similar item, it scanned the tool in 3d and used plastic filler? to form the part.

 

[ratdoggy]

You know someone there scanned their *** when no one was looking

 

[kartracer55]

Check this out...

 

[Shadowdog500]

If you look closely that is not a copy of that crescent wrench. They must have a similar wrench on file. This also tells me that the scan probably cant do the slide without additional input.

Chris

 

[jkeyser14]

3d printers cost anywhere from $2k-50k depending on the technology used. The plastics/ceramics cost about $10 per square inch for materials and making a part takes hours. Metal costs much more.

We have them at work and I avoid using them whenever possible but sometimes I am forced to at work when I can't get actual parts made quick turn. Having something machined from a block of aluminum or steel is cheaper than the time/material required to 3d print it, unless the part is extremely complicated.

 

[George in Rancho Cordova]

Edelbrock has used this for years.
They can CAD design a cylinder head port, print it & go to the flow bench with it in a few hours.

 

[bosskong]

If you look closely that is not a copy of that crescent wrench. They must have a similar wrench on file.

The only differences I saw were the colors/material and the fact that the writing was missing (probably just to keep from breaking copyright laws). Were there other differences?

 

[Shadowdog500]

The only differences I saw were the colors/material and the fact that the writing was missing (probably just to keep from breaking copyright laws). Were there other differences?

Yes, the tail of the original was large with a hole while the repo was small with a D-ring. The origional had a rounded recess near the neck that stopped an inch or so from the jaw while the reproduction had a squared off design that went all the way to the jaw. The head was also shaped a little different, the reproduction seemed to rise up a little more from the handle.



Chris

 

[lorne]

The 3D model would have needed a lot more work to get the adjustment wheel working than just taking "3d pictures" of the original wrench. It may be a copy of the original wrench, but it took a lot more work than they showed in the video.

Lorne

 

[moonpool145]

I purchased one of these from Z Corp about 4 years ago for the last company I was at. Very cool tech but in the end we did not use it much. Importing files from Solid Works and waiting an eternity for them to print just did not make sense. It looks like the media has changes from the video though. In the one we had, the powder was a real fine ??? somethingorother bound by the ink from the print cartridge (just normal ink I believe) and had no strength when you took it out of the tray. We broke lots of stuff just trying to get it out and cleaned up. Once out it had to be "fixed" with what was basicly SuperGlue in a big bottle. This made those cool movable models they show a real PITA to make as everything stuck together. Even fixed, we could never have used a printed wrench to tighten a nut even a small amount without it breaking.

It must have gotten a great deal better over the last 4 years, Right????

 

[dieselmike]

that wrench looks way different. you would need an x ray scanner of sorts to see inside the steel for the adjusting mechanism.

 

[red92s]

They leave out a lot of steps between laser scanning and printing. The scanner generates a "cloud" of data points. The printer requires solid surfaces and contours. Someone has to go into the point cloud data, and rationalize everything into features and solid surfaces. They also have to build in all the tolerances and clearances for any parts that need to move.

DMLS (Direct Laser Metal Sintering) does essentially the same thing with metallic powders and a laser to fuse one layer together at a time. It's ungodly expensive. I had some DLMS parts quoted and it was bout 10X the cost of standard rapid prototyping medias.