/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>130321
>>suddenly being able to make anything and everything at the press of a button.

>>3d printing is almost exclusively a cosmetic process useful only for mockups and fit testing.
Well if you're referring to the 3d printing™, as in the process used by Z-Corp machines, then I'll agree with you.

There are much better additive manufacturing processes out there for making real parts like laser sintering, selective laser melting, electron beam melting, etc.

>>Subtractive machining has been around for hundreds of years for a reason
It's also quite wasteful of material.
>>Try printing that fuckers.
Challenge accepted, challenge completed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHEGx9Py8vI&feature=player_embedded

Challenge accepted again:
http://www.fraunhofer.de/en/press/research-news/2011/november/high-tech-spider.html


Try CNCing pic related fuckers. It's a stainless steel engine block, and that weird looking organic shape ain't cosmetic, it's to cut down on weight.

>>130459
3d printers can be used to make molds. There are selective laser sintering machines out there that sinter sand together to make molds.

3d printers can also print fugitive materials, like wax, for lost wax casting. Heck, plastic 3d printer can be used to do plastic burn-out casting.


>>131856
>>Current 3D additive printing struggles with structures that have stress bearing parts
Nope, that's what support material is for.

>>mold casting is more structurally sound
not necessarily, electron beam melted titanium properties can exceed that of cast titanium

>>pin/dowel system to create molds
That'd be a recastable die, it's workable, but very complicated.