3-D parts printing ....viable business opp???

Wondering about the viability of doing 3-d printing of hard to get parts. Thinking of the restoration community. Older American cars and European cars. Any thoughts on the viability or suggestions ?

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It depends on the parts you are trying to replicate and in which materials and printing methods. There are many different processes now-a-days that produce widely varied results for you to research, many of which might shock you with their failings. The costs depend greatly on materials. There are also potentially high costs involved in modeling the objects on the computer for printing purposes; i.e. the labor to create the model plus the machine time to create the part. If your modeling is in-house, there is free software out there that can do it to some degree or you could easily end up spending thousands on applications like Rhino or SolidWorks.

 

The little guys are still largely struggling in the 3D printing world and their prices are higher, leveraging their customized customer attention and high level of technical expertise. The bigger shops like Shapeways and Sculpteo are the big box shops of the printing world that drive prices down and little guys out of business.

I envision a set-up that could replicate any part for any car in any material. Geared towards restorers , DIY or shops, that need a hard to find or NLA part. Would build a database of parts, dimensions and tech diagrams, for as many different makes/models as possible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For some things I'd use printed parts. However, things would have to be very precise. I had thought about doing this myself, my hangup is the precision of a printer that can match stock quality. I wouldn't want some jagged edge part that barely fits. Most of the 3D printers I've seen are pretty good, but due to the layering, would require some finish work to make them actually close to stock as possible. If it could be good quality, it could be very worth it.

Final preparation is where you would separate yourself from your competitors by delivering a part IDENTICAL to the original. Customization to accommodate special applications could also be offered.

Like any computer controlled machine. If It's only a one off. Producing the program to build the part. May take more time than actual CNC

machining.

Also 3D printers that use metal powder may be more expensive than a CNC milling machine.

As stated, powder metal machines are highly expensive for now, ( the price of a Lambo ) and the resolution of the 'net shape' is still not at the point where secondary finishing operations are not required. You still need a fair amount of milling, turning, sanding / polishing as many of these parts have tiny ridges all over them. So they need to be smoothed out or surface finished. Then you need to get plating/coating done ( chrome, or black oxide, priming/painting etc ).

They are also quite slow at this stage and difficult to amortize (ROI)

The plastic fiber machines have all the same issues as above but are much less expensive but they only handle filament style thermoplastics which are not all that strong.

 

Neat technology but years away from the quality of a 3D copier or replicator.

Yeah, I too don't mean to be a party pooper, but 3D printing isn't yet at the magical stage that a lot of people tend to think it is. It's still a very young technology and a young industry. The idea that we can just plug & chug our wildest dreams into machines that dump out perfect physical forms has a long way to go in reality.

Thanks everyone for the input. I'll keep playing with the idea, but now am aware of some of the issues involve.d

Hi Diablo King! I hope all is well. I think 3D printing can be a viable business opportunity for supplemental income if you consider some of the following criteria. First off, where do you live? I live in Hawaii and I'll explain what that means in regard to 3D printing. Not to talk bad about the place, but there is not a strong inventor/creator mentality here. People here could give a crap less about 3D printing, even the people in school here. I get all of my parts 3D printed out of a UPS store in one of the nicer areas here. They publicly advertise that they have a $4,000 3D printer that you can use (after paying of course) but nobody here ever uses it except for me. If you live somewhere where there are a lot of people going to school, you could definitely benefit from their need to have parts created. That makes it easier for them because they don't have to buy a printer and they don't have to contract it out to a company that prints and ships it to them.

 

If you live in an area near a college, you could definitely make a good amount of money printing off CAD/STL files for people who need things printed but don't have hundreds or thousands of dollars to shell out. There are many people that invent, cosplay, create things, etc. that all need a 3D printer. People create casings for electronics, robots, costume parts and pieces, key chains, cogs, etc. You get the idea. If you're not actively designing things and selling them, you can make money while you sleep by printing these parts for people and charging them accordingly. I haven't seen a huge automotive following yet, but I know that will change as the accuracy of these printers increases. As others said above, there's definitely a long way to go before we're able to have auto parts created that we can use without lots of modifications.

 

I would scope out your area first for interest and then consider if it's worth it. Remember, you could always ship to other people in your state or surrounding areas.

 

I hope this helps. I've been designing and 3D printing for two and a half years now, so I have a little experience under my belt. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions!