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3D Printing is taking machining jobs...

yardbird

Titanium
Joined
Jul 3, 2013
Location
Indiana
This 3d printing machine uses a combination of mig welding wire 3d printing and machining to make machining quality 3d prints. Because the piece is machined as it is 3d printed, it requires no repositioning of the work. This means that it is able to print shapes that were previously impossible with machining. It eliminates the need for having a lathe and other machines.

The cost savings from eliminating the machinist are huge. Several of these machines can be put to work in parallel increasing production while money is saved in labor costs by not hiring machinists. The projected cost is $3000 dollars, which is even cheaper than traditional mills.

First a rought shape is 3d printed with mig wire like so:

View attachment 184771

The part is machine as it is being 3d printed to end up with a part like this:

View attachment 184772

Here is a prototype of the machine:

View attachment 184774


Just thought I would let you know so you can start training and equipping your shop with these machines, or looking for another line of work.

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...achinists-obsolete-goodbye-machinists-327747/


That ^^ guy up there caught a rash of shit when he started that thread a couple of yearsago. Well the job I posted at the bottom had a design change. They added internal water line that goes radially around the flange. Those parts will now be 3D printed. We have a whole die cavity being 3D printed.

I don't know much about it but apparently they've came an awfully long way in the 3D printing world. I've heard they can print 15 pounds an hour. They do threads internal and external and the parts I've seen look as good as machined parts. Doesn't sound good for our way of making parts in maybe the not to distant future?

Brent


This may be stupid but I don't know it?

What does the "h9" mean on the 1.079 diameter?

Hopefully you can make out the pictures?

Thank you!

Brent

View attachment 211025

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http://www.practicalmachinist.com/vb/cnc-machining/print-call-out-help-341612/
 
Wing spars for jets were made from riveted up sheet titanium. Dozens of drawings, special tools, thousands of rivets. Then they figured out that they could take a 2000 lb slab of titanium and mill it to shape using a high speed 100 hp spindle from a 3D model to produce a 200 lb spar and 1800 lbs of chips. It was cheaper, stronger, and more accurate. Now Schotky uses an electron beam 3D printer to make the spar from about 300 lbs of titanium that just gets finish milled. It is cheaper, stronger and faster. Can you see where this is going?
 
I'll be machining some Printed 6Al4V Ti in the near future. Not. Looking. Forward. To. It.
LOTS of surfaces, at least only .05" per wall has to be machined...

I'm not sure of the cost but I really don't want to kill one or two :cryin:

We've gotten in some printed Aluminum parts that are almost ±.002" Pretty Impressive.

I'm Not a fan tho, cuz I'm the guy to finish machine these HRSA's
 
If I were a young guy looking for a career shift while staying with metalworking, I'd be all over the metal 3d printing. 3D printing replace machinists? No way in any timeline I can foresee. Become a useful manufacturing process with specific applicability? Absolutely it will/has.
 
Maybe its just me but I find it amazing this part was 3D printed.

Brent

View attachment 211863
View attachment 211864

Just curious -- that part looks to have a weld repair.

Do you know if that was due to lower tensile on the 3D printed material or a failure just as likely to have come from a part cast /machined or machined from solid? I've seen plenty of aluminum pulleys with the flange knocked off in about that position; not so much with steel.
 
Just curious -- that part looks to have a weld repair.

Do you know if that was due to lower tensile on the 3D printed material or a failure just as likely to have come from a part cast /machined or machined from solid? I've seen plenty of aluminum pulleys with the flange knocked off in about that position; not so much with steel.


Yeah that is pretty thin in that area and these part take one hell of a beating where they are located in die. Failure is common in this area we do weld and fix them but it's not like new.

Most all the cavity prints call out between 44 to 46 Rockwell and I assume that is how they are printed? Then they get a nitride coating witch is pretty hard. If you look at that part you'll see some chipping around the groove area because it gets brittle.

To answer your question? I don't know this is the first time we've (me) made them in house. My opinion is both will have a tendency to fail in that thin spot. IMO it's a piss poor design.

Brent
 
I used to visit a company that started as a machine reconditioning business about 50 years ago. All slide way grinders and old blokes meticulously restoring manual machines. Then when business slowed they added a CNC retrofit section to the business. Then about 5 years ago they started importing high end industrial 3D printers. This side of the business has grown so much that they stopped reconditioning older machines, sold all of the slideway grinders, stopped retrofitting CNC machines and now only deal in 3D printers. They are very bullish about the rapid improvements being made, and say the potential for this machines in the future is moving so quickly they can barely keep up.
 
I work in the jewelry industry and 3 d printing destroyed the die industry. The printer will blow machined parts out of the water, I am good friends with a guy who developed a miniature milling machine for cutting wax models for the jewelry industry. His machine was state of the art. It cost 50 grand it had a tool changer. They were bankrupted a few years ago by the 2000 dollar printer. The printer can add material faster than you can remove it therefor it is much faster. If you think this wont happen you are not paying attention. I watched my whole career implode with the invention of the cnc milling machine for jewelry then I watched the mill get destroyed by the printer. Cnc mills and lathes will soon be as cheap as manual mills and lathes.
 
The printer is able to do things we simply cannot. That gives the designer pretty much unlimited ability design whatever he wants. Curved holes, holes in things that resemble an "S". That part I posted that was 3D printed has a +/-.0004 tolerance on it and they hit it because I checked. It is apparent at least at my place they are trying new things that wasn't available not too long ago witch is taking away from shit I used to make.

Brent
 
I've got it all figured out. I'm going into buggy whips, there's an obsolescence-proof industry if I ever saw one. If that doesn't pan out, there's always Bowler hat making.
 
I've got it all figured out. I'm going into buggy whips, there's an obsolescence-proof industry if I ever saw one. If that doesn't pan out, there's always Bowler hat making.

Maybe Wicker furniture? But I love the whip idea. I'm considering my next professional adventure to be a life coach! Yeah that I can do! Or I know what not to do.

Brent
 
I used to think that 3D modelling of threads was amusing but really useless. Now with efficient 3D printers, this ability is actually useful. If you can model it, you can make it.
 
I used to think that 3D modelling of threads was amusing but really useless. Now with efficient 3D printers, this ability is actually useful. If you can model it, you can make it.

That absolutely is correct! It prints the model and the possibilities are unlimited?

Brent
 
More seriously, if that fitting with the thread has no post-printing machining, then yes, that's scary-good. The EOS samples I saw about four years ago were nowhere near that good, and that's better than the MarkForged part I saw about eight months ago.

My grandfather was a fine artist who also did catalogs, back in the day when airbrushing of models pictures was required (pre-Photoshop). He worked just long enough to see computers and foreign production take over, but by then he'd made a very good living for most of his life.

I sort of feel the same way, I'm old enough that if I can keep getting work in for another decade that's likely enough. But who can say how quickly this will take over?

I'd also guess that there's more life to be found in machining primary materials like aluminum and lower-grade steels, I expect the easy subtractive process will make those still attractive for traditional machining. But it could be that changes in pollution control laws may make metal foundries unsustainable, in that case 3D powder production will take over.
 
Even though our newest 3D printer only prints plastics and is 4 times faster than the old one, it has still ran 24/7 for the entire year. The old one made samples only.... with the occasional emergency part that would last a few days until you could get one made traditionally. The new one with different plastics and abilities makes very functional parts that last the same as traditionally made parts and depending on the part - on average - I can have it in roughly the same amount of time as a traditionally made part. (Some parts are quicker traditionally made, some are quicker 3D printed.)

Looks like we may get one for metals next year.

One area where this technology really shines is in mold making, where you can put cooling channels exactly where you need them and in the shape you need, which is just not physically possible with traditional machining.
 
And SLA was going to take all our jobs 30 years ago. This will find it's place and stay there. We will continue to be the back bone of all that gets done in this world.

In 1976 my shop teacher Mr Laroso said to me "Bower everything you use in your daily life has in some way passed through the hands of a machinist"

Recently a customer of mine had this 3D printed in Aluminum. He had two made for $12K I quoted $21K it's a difficult part and the pictures I have don't show some of the complex internal features. I would have had to get some special tools ground up for this job and the time/money was a show stopper. I did do some finish machining on it, a few surfaces and tapped holes. I think this is great technology and it will find it's way into many shops like mine, I welcome it.

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Make Chips Boys !
 








 
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