Vice Metal Casting from 3D Printed Patterns

[Frank S]

C-Bag, on another forum that I frequent there is a couple of guys who have used their 3d printers to make the parts for several wind turbine generators one winds his coils then places the coils in a fixture then prints his stator modules with the coils inside another has actually printed the blade hub with one
Also I have heard of guys embedding chopped carbon fibers in their models as they printed their parts by spraying a fine mist of fibers at the model with pretty good success. I am fairly certain that after the wife and I finally get done moving our stuff an I start setting up a more permanent work shop and get my machine shop trailer fully set up I will be purchasing a 3d printer to experiment with, maybe not the latest and greatest model but like I said previously one that I will feel comfortable to learn on.
I have 100s of homemade projects waiting in the wings that are going to require more time than money to build.
Heck if I were to start with one single special tool folder I have been storing my future tools and machine drawings in that I have been designing over the years it will take me into the next 2 centuries before I can possibly complete all of them.
LOL I guess I'll have to dust off the old plaque one of my mechanical engineer OJT students gave me and set up a special tool makers university and charge just enough tuition to defray the costs of the projects. Maybe I could get 10% of the things I have already designed but have yet to start building, completed in what might be left of my life time. That would probably be as valuable to young people or more so than spending time in some dojo learning karate

[C-Bag]

I don't know about TX, but here in CA and other places there are maker shops going in and you'd be perfect for something like that. If it was set up right. The problem I had in shop classes in high school was after I got the required projects done I didn't have anything else to do. I didn't have enough experience to even know what to use the different machines like the lathe and the mill for. After we got done with the prerequisite hash pipe..on the lathe..now what? If somebody would have told me ok, I have this ongoing project and I need this done it would have given me some reason to learn whatever it took to complete that part of the project.

I wish there were more experienced people offering to help train folks, or retrain those whose jobs have been outsourced. We here are getting too into the virtual(info and finance)and less into the real. They may have bots make things, but somebody has to build them and design them and repair/troubleshoot them.

Toolmaker51 is doing something along these lines. There used to be fed funds for training programs and I know it's probably not easy and might now even be around anymore. But Frank it sounds like you have a bunch of stuff to make and if you sell them or the designs after you and your apprentices make the prototypes that would generate some income, wouldn't it? Instead of a trad static school make it more functional? My neighbor down the street grew up post WWII in Germany and it was standard practice that you came in as a trainee/apprentice and did the jobs that would help train you along with applicable schooling with a wage. That was almost never done here.

Anyway I hope you share your foray into 3D printing with some real world experience and insight with us. That was an interesting process about printing mixed parts for a windmill. We could use some more crosspollenation here

[Frank S]

C-Bag I started out at 11 years old sweeping up and cranking the blower on the forge at a blacksmith shop before long I was grinding the edges of plow shears, cultivator points and other things running the old flat belt drill press and in general helping to do most anything around the shop. Since I lived on my Grandpa's farm, he being a retired carpenter , my dad a mechanic I was exposed to many things but most especially at the blacksmith/ welding shop.
When I had little to do around the shop I was encouraged to work on my own projects as long as I understood work came first.
The coach from my school taught shop as well and often visited the blacksmith shop to have something repaired by the time I was 13 I did most of the welding or forging and other repairs of the things he brought in. One day when I was just about ready to start High school the coach visited the shop and I had just about finished building a tractor that I had been working on he asked me if I was going to take shop. I asked why should I, I already know more than you could possibly teach me?
Because I need someone who can bring some ideas to the table, things that I might not know how to give advice or show the students how to do them.
as a freshman in high school I more or less taught the whole shop class I taught the freshmen through seniors how to thread a brass rod using only a file and a length of 9ga wire the principals of welding & cutting and many more things.
We even built a power hacksaw that could cut threads in a brass rod with a 60°file instead of a blade to advance the rod it had an all thread and nut lead screw attached to it .
Here's something that I bet not many know if you clamp the hacksaw frame so that it can not move up or down you can use it to slice a piece of bar stock or use it as a rough shod lathe by rotating the work piece
My apologies for the hyjack

[Frank S]

For some crosspollenation of 3d printing
please see these links
My 3d printed generator
This one is a really good example of what can be done with the current 3d printers
Printable wind turbine 55W output

[C-Bag]

Frank thanks for the links. Interesting stuff but I notice a lot of senior members resisting what the one guy who was trying to sell his design for the 55w mill claimed. I would think you would be attracted to such a project just because so many were saying it impossible

I wouldn't presume to tell someone with your qualifications what to do. But I do wish if you're not going teach, do like Mr.Pete and make a u tube channel. It seems the best way preserve our fast dissaperaring heritage how things were done. If we're going to be a 3rd world country soon we're going to need this info someplace as its not being passed on in the traditional manner of master and apprentice anymore.

[Jon]

Congratulations MetalDesigner, your Vise Casting Molds are our Tool of the Week!

Please PM me your email address, and we'll send along a $25 gift card, via your choice of PayPal, Amazon.com, GiftRocket, or bitcoin.

And that's the second Tool of the Week win for MetalDesigner!

One more and you'll join our 3-Time Tool of the Week award winners, and the bronze wrench-on-pedestal icon will be added to your postbit in the trophy case underneath your avatar:



Here are both winning tools:

Lathe Radius Cutter by MetalDesigner

tags: machining, lathe, radius, QCTP, cutter

Vise Casting Molds by MetalDesigner

tags: casting, 3D printing, molds

[Frank S]

C-Bag, I have given some thought to setting up just the sort of thing you are talking about.
As far as teaching goes , been there done that more times than I care to remember. I do love to share my life long experiences.
Over the years I have had the pleasure of hiring many persons that were eager to learn as much as they could absorb. the thing is though until I reached my mid 40's which is now quite a long time ago I didn't realize how much I actually had learned over the years. Heck I was in my 50's before I started to think of myself as some kind of an engineer even though at the age of 23 almost fresh out of the military I one time had 300 rig welders and 50 oilfield engineers treating me as the go to guy while we were manufacturing rigs.
I have a little thing about utube that is just a personal thing. I hardly ever watch them and if a web site is comprosed of videos that ramble on like an infomercial I tune them out. Far too boring for me to watch let alone listen to. Show me a few dozen pictures give a few dimensions with some dialog and move on
I don't have the patience to set up or run a web site even though I have dabbled at trying to build some they always seam to turn out either too restrictive for my tastes to way too much bother to fool with this is probably why I haunt these well run forums even they don't always fit well with my ideas of what I would like to post. Mostly just like this thread I wind up Hi-jacking it even though I know I am doing wrong by the OP
Again I apologize to the OP for this rambling hi-jack

[PJs]

Congratulations MetalDesigner for your Tool of the Week Award. You put up quite a thread here and passed on a lot of valuable insights from your real world experiences, experimenting and builds. I learned a lot and got a lot of ideas and tips, plus enjoyed the cross pollination going on because of it! Thank You very much!

One of the best things about this thread to me was the relaying of the possibilities with 3D printing. From basic casting molds to long run molds to manifolds to a 55w VAWT and more (CAD Programs). Even better that it allows the use of recycled material. Like Frank S, I have a big bag of ideas I've dumped into many folders over the decades and find myself wanting to choose the right project for time/budget, experience/skill level and my continuous education. A tool like a 3D printer is definitely an investment of time (learning & headbanging) and $$$, but it represents a/the future in the making, that I think we all enjoy. For me it's about rapid prototyping, because the real world cost of R&D to manufacture are outrages to say the least. However these machines offer a "proof of concept" within a few hours of design, then enabling a move on to a manufacturability phase, then production if warranted and a decent ROI.

For a sometimes cranky old geezer like myself the investments are a bit steep but the value in being able to bring some things from those bags forward would be a blessing in keeping my mind fresh, learning every day (as I try to) and maybe pass on some experience/inklings to others may not be on the ROI curve...but it's "Always fun" to me! Choosing a proper tool for time/budget hasn't changed much over the years for me. If I'm using it to make money I buy the best that I can for the $$. If not, what's adequate to get the job done...or if lack the bucks, make it better, or just make one. Top of the line Desktops still cost $3k and good workstations ~$5K-$7K, a decent mill costs $40k, but then I have a $5K, $500 peanut lathe...because I put the time and love into it for ME and what I want to do with it. Next year/minute models will always be better, faster and likely pricier to begin with but then like HD flat screens went from $6k to $600 in just a few years. I doubt if 3D printers will be any different. I just hope they don't become the next i-Toy and fill the waste stream...although there would be some good salvage in those. . For me it's about committing (jump in both feet) and keeping cost under control and headaches to a minimum...I'd hate it to be the next treadmill on the curb...but salvageable!

Thanks again MetalDesigner and all that have chimed in here. Way Fun! ~PJ

[C-Bag]

Congratulations MetalDesigner, and well deserved.

As you can see you've started storm of interest here and I hope you have the time to continue sharing your exploits in 3D land and help guide others to join in the fun!

[Frank S]

First off cudos to a fellow 2 time tool of the week winner I have an idea that when I finally get around to doing the jumping in with both feet 3 d printer thing I will no doubt find a whole new world of things to do with it.
I used to do contract R&D for a couple of companies as well as my own line of products When I got my first desk top PC a few friends asked me what in the world do you want with one of those things? you're a #4 pencil type of guy. I said well I think in time this pc will replace most of my pencil work and probably save me some time and headaches when trying to design the next thing that comes down the pike.
Sure enough it wasn't long before I could completely design in 3d the parts or whole machines right on my computer.It was however a long time before the cad programs were able to catch up with my needs so far as material strengths analysis but that never bothered me because throughout my years of working with such a wide field of materials I could just look at a design and see where I wanted to add or would be able to remove materials. This is where I have to pay my respects to my many mentors all now long gone, for the knowledge that just seemed to flow from them like sweat from the brow hit this , then young guy like a ton of bricks on his head.
Another thanks to Metal-designer for re reminding me about a long forgotten aspect of SW the centroid scale feature it had been so long since I had used that I had forgotten how to even find it so had to search around until I found it in the menu now it sits right out where I can see it
When it comes to casting metals I haven't had the need to do very much over the years but I have had to make various positive and negative models some out of wax, clay, or wood to send to a foundry then spend time machining those castings into usable sometimes replacement parts for things that haven't been manufactured in many years.
I think that one day when I buy my 3d printer or decide to just build one while learning the logic of how to program the thing , that too will become as irreplaceable tool as my pc is now and the great thing is it will be an extension to what my PC is capable of doing today.