Hey guys, couple of questions inspired by the picture included. I thought at first it was being produced, but looks like it's a set of plans to 3D print the thing. I know nothing about 3D printing, so I'd thought I'd ask since I've seen some pretty cool things made that way.
First, is there printers that do it in metal? What are the limitations on them? Can they do tracks or other parts? You'll have to pardon the ignorance on the subject, but I'm curious. If there's any resources to answer these questions, please put the link so I can enlighten myself. Any help is appreciated.

Be careful of what you see or are promised regarding 3D printing. More often than not, it's renderings you are seeing, not actually prints.

Don't get me wrong, there are amazing things that can be done with 3D printers, even affordable units, I use mine almost daily, but you'll need to spend a good amount of cash and a lot of time before you'd get results that would rival a styrene kit. A lot of post printing cleanup, etc. I have friends who use high end machines and they get great results, but the prints also take a long time. I'm talking 20 hours for something the size of a 1/16 figure with good resolution.

In terms of metal, yes, but it's not forged metal and it's not something you can do at home. They also have ceramic, rubber, etc, but those all need to be processed after. It's not a machine dispensing molten steel, think of it more like metal dust in resin. Go on Shapeways and look around, you can get an idea of prices of things.

You could do tracks in PLA or ABS, based on the design, they'd probably hold up as good as nylon ones, but it would take a long time.

One of my future projects will be a Kettenkrad hybrid type of thing, I'll be using the 3D printer a lot, but mainly to make masters to be cast in resin. Casting is still way more economical for production. There's no way to speed up the printing process, you are still dealing with layers and layers of melting material built up. the higher the resolution, the more the layers, the longer it takes.

Perfect example: I always wanted a model of the Discovery from 2001. I scratch built one out of cardstock when I was a kid. There are many free files of them for 3D printing one on your home printer. I downloaded a set and shrunk it so the head was 3 inches across. Cutting it in half (because printers don't do well with unsupported areas) and printing the two pieces of just the head ran about 8 hours. And it still was basically just a Discovery shaped sphere that would require a lot of cleanup and detailing. Moebius just announced they are releasing a Discovery model kit at the end of the year. 500 plus pieces, over 4 feet long and will retail around $150. That's far and beyond a bargain compared to the cost of printing one out and will be light years ahead of it in quality too.

Printers are great, but don't believe any claims of amazing results. We are far from pushing a button and getting a Tamiya kit.

Thank you for the reply. I've messed with lathes and mills in the past (Sherline) and have been considering getting another with cnc, then saw the printers. I agree on casting for speed and economical reason on a lot of parts for tanks. I'm not so worried about the time, since making parts from nothing, like printing, or whittling down a piece of metal or plastic into a part is going to take some time.
Sounds like the mill and lathe would be better for my needs and dabble in a printer for things too awkward for the machines...

Thanks again ausf.

You'll get much more out of a mill or lathe in this hobby than a 3D printer.

Again, I use mine almost daily, but never for finished products. Where it shines is it's ability to be precise and consistent. I had to make a master for a 1/8 Japanese Diving Helmet. The shell, broken in half, the window grating, the lip and socket for the mask plate, it's outstanding. It would take me a long time to scratch build that with raw materials and in the case of the grating, it'll be very hard to get a perfect pattern. Printer? No problem. But for shell, while it's precise, the finish needs an extraordinary amount of attention and finishing and that's printed at 50 microns.

I've printed out end caps and ballast tanks for RC subs. It works like a charm, placing O ring grooves, etc. Before the printer, I did it with Styrene blanks and a lathe. Very time consuming. The printer, 20 minutes in design and print. If I need 50 of them, I make 50, hands off. But again, it's not a finished piece, but a functional piece. The lathed blank will bet much prettier.

Honestly I couldn't disagree more here. Yes they are helpful but in no way do I use them more than my 3D printer now. I think you are right on with the rest of your assessment and need to post process parts. Plus there is no real way to get a mill or lathe for the $350 that a printer costs unless you go to Harbor Freight or something.

As with all things, It is just another tool in the tool chest. For instance If I was making a road wheel, I would print it. If it needed additional cleanup I might true it up on a lathe but at that point I could just chuck it up in a drill.

As far as metal printing, that is a ways off. Don't get sucked into that just quite yet. THe variety of plastics available now are strong and durable.

Perry

3D printing is not perfect, but is does make creating tanks easier. I never would have scratch built this myself. I purposely did not fill any of the surfaces to show the 3D printing (its a feature!). Sheet styrene or filler could have cleaned it up for the rivet counters. I am already thinking of adapting some of the techniques from this model to existing tanks - 3D printed internal frame for rigtity and mounting of components.

Hi Kev,

What speaker did you use for your FV 101? Working on the wife's and need a speaker.

J.