Jay Leno's new toy

wilkes community college has a 3d modeler for the engineering classes....VERY VERY cool stuff. they have some of the projects on display....WORKING tools made by it..is jsut amazing they have on of those adjustable wrenches they made as well
 
The guys at work have been after me to get one of those Dimension printers. They are awesome! I keep getting turned down by corporate come budget prep time.
 
This is cool technology, but to be able to produce a working part that is within tolerance of being able to work, is a far cry.
 
My uncle was explaining these printers to me a little over 2 years ago. He has a high position with Xerox. Its amazing the kinds of things they're doing with them, especially from an architectural view.
 
Gmachine said:
This is cool technology, but to be able to produce a working part that is within tolerance of being able to work, is a far cry.
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Really the magic is the 3d scanner and getting a good model, once you have that yo ucoudl use any machine to "print" it.
This one is eye catching b/c it's kind of an all-in-one machine, but the material it's forming won't be real usable.

In most cases they make the first out of some plastic material, then use that to create a model, then form teh "real" part from a usable substance like aluminum.
 
My dad works for the big boys, I've been in their shop.. They have SLA (stereo lithography equipment) as well as any machine to fabricate you can think of. Amazing resolutions on the SLA, like I think it was down to 1/100 thousandth of an inch. Of course they take that epoxy plastic material and make a mold and cast whatever they want in whatever material they want (or mill it, whatever), but of course they are only spending our money =P
 
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627621.200-rise-of-the-replicators.html

Excerpt:
Over the next few minutes, this "MakerBot" will do something I can only dream of doing: it will create a spare part of itself as an insurance against future mishaps. Staring at the Heath Robinson-style kit before me, it is hard to believe that it - and a few hundred other devices - are paving the way to an era of desktop machines that can make just about anything, including copies of themselves.

It could be a revolutionary age. MakerBot is one of a range of desktop manufacturing plants being developed by researchers and hobbyists around the world. Their goal is to create a machine that is able to fix itself and, ultimately, to replicate.
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shawn that sounds like terminator stuff !

Very cool. It will be amazing to see what the next 20 years bring.. When anyone with an idea can make it reality (even if just plastic) in short order and relatively low cost.
 
Mitchell Community College in Statesville has that same exact setup. I got to watch someone model and print some engine parts, and a toy they called a "brain gear", last spring.
 
GONOVRIT said:
My uncle was explaining these printers to me a little over 2 years ago. He has a high position with Xerox. Its amazing the kinds of things they're doing with them, especially from an architectural view.
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yeah...the ability to fax over to someone an entire working 3d model! cool as hell.
 
These have been around for years, and are very cool. I know Charlotte had one in the engineering department when I was still doing that program years ago. I know many of you feel these "models" aren't usable but it really depends on the quality of "printer" being used. The ones featured in the video are on the lower end scale, you may need to search "Rapid Prototyping" to yield more results. As for the usable part, if i'm not mistaken, an engineering professor of mine made a bearing and actually ran it in a crank for X amount of hours to prove that the plastic bearing kept tolerances and could be used in the motor. I don't quite remember all the details but I do remember them having some pretty good success with it.
 
Maybe I need to order one of these to make the dogs faster and they would be all alike! But I guess they would taste like plastic.
 
Your Hot Dog Guy! said:
Maybe I need to order one of these to make the dogs faster and they would be all alike! But I guess they would taste like plastic.
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You should be able to CNC a hotdog out of a giant slab of balogne.
 
Your Hot Dog Guy! said:
Maybe I need to order one of these to make the dogs faster and they would be all alike! But I guess they would taste like plastic.
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Nah, no need to do that, just use the scanner to make working replicas of Dylan to help you sling some dogs. Shouldn't be any size/height problems for the printer! :p
 
Can't beleive you went there! LMAO! Git him Dylan!
 
Figures Jay would be all over that. I have a gear from my sons nylint I need made... anyone?
 
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