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If you need parts 3D scanned you can find a number of inexpensive sources on 3dhub. 3dhub is an international organizer of individual 3d printers that are very well organized as a one stop place to find 3d printers locally or worldwide. Many offer 3d scan services as well as CAD modeling.
They have an automated system that you can upload you STL file and immediately get quotes from a large number of vendors, and pay via credit card via 3dhub without dealing directly with the vendor on the payment side. I have had a number of very nice parts made very inexpensively by a local engineering student entrepreneur recently for an evaporative cooler project – water sprayers, ducts, etc.
These guys are mostly all in plastic, so it would probably be for making casting molds rather than directly making metal parts suitable for plating. Although 3dprinting in metals is a rapidly expanding field I don’t know if it has reached the point of being inexpensive enough to make metal parts directly on a hobby level. GE just bought the premier metal 3d printing company and certified metal parts are now being produced for aircraft.
That is 100% of what I know, perhaps others on the site have more knowledge of the status of 3d printing metal parts for restoration.
Jim
Jim C,
I found a company on the net that does 3D SS printing and the samples they showed were not outrageous for comparable size pieces and they even had a location here in Tucson so I emailed thinking I was getting Tucson but got an eastern state(not that there is anything wrong with that) and was told to send the part to Chatsworth CA to get the part scanned into STL then send them the file and they would quote and print. That would be fine if there wasn’t a need to talk to and show what I need to happen to a real person.
I have the part getting scanned and printed in plastic this weekend and if all goes well I’ll find out Monday if it works in plastic, then maybe it will work in SS. Jim L
Jim L, that’s really interesting, keep us posted how it works out. Obviously this could be a big deal for restoration and I understand your comments about the desirability for the Foundation to have a 3D scanner. Lots of art deco intricate detail parts on Pierce-Arrows to try and reproduce!
Jim C.
Jim C,
Well while waiting for the first guy to get a good scan I went to a Stratasys branch here in Tucson and was able to talk to the dist. mgr. He said they don’t do scanning because they do a lot of work for graphic designers and that would be competing with their customers, I got the # of a GD that they send people to and I am waiting for him to call back.
I can’t get a price until I get the STL’s then it would be a quote not an estimate. From what he said or I understood, the machine that they would use to print the handles has a 9″x9″ bed or plate and if I only wanted one handle and it was the only thing on the plate it would cost $1000 for example but if there were 20 handles on the plate then the cost is shared among all the pieces and it would come down to $50 a piece plus the extra metal powder involved. I am thinking of making 3 sets of handles, pulls and window/seat/windshield cranks and both dash levers, 16 pieces per set. The window/seat and windshield cranks would have the rotating knobs printed all as one item. The material would be stainless steel and the surface finish can be as it comes off the printer or any state up to highly polished. I would choose the matte finish since my labor is going to be cheaper than theirs and whoever buys the spare sets labor would be cheaper than mine. But I can get the exact price after the STL programs are produced.
This is only for the 1930 Mod B with the art deco lines at the end of the handles, to do the handles that have the floral looking pattern it would require another set of STL programs, But the cost of printing should be about the same. It sounds like they don’t get modified in the STL format.
There are a lot of 30 Mod B cars listed in the directory so there must be some demand. Anybody that is interested let me know so I can try to get an idea of how many of what is wanted. I was told that if we are talking about full plates the time frame is a week to 10 days. The STL charges are a one time cost and I’ll add some for all the hassle but it’s not enough to change my retirement plans.
Any other questions let me know and I’ll try to get answers. Jim L
Jim we are restoring a 30 Model B and would be interested in door handles (inside and out. Window cranks too. What ever you have available. Thanks
Dave
Jim should have mentioned its a 7 passenger.
David,
I don’t have plans to do outside handles mainly since I had mine chromed and the chrome shop polished off the edge detail, that’s why I going to look into this route since both chrome shops in town don’t seem to care when polishing. Do you need all 16 inside handles and dash levers? If this is a viable option I’m going to see about the brackets and arms for the blanket rail behind the front seat. Jim
Jim I have 4 good door pull loops i bought from Dave Murray(I think that’s what they are called). I have handles etc but they are in need of re-chroming. This seems like great alternative to look at. The rest I could use.If you could give me a call at 920-716-1706 and we can talk about it. Thanks in advance for your help.
Dave
Hi Jim, you state that the material is Stainless Steel, yet this metal is ‘printed’ into the complex shapes such as the door and window handles. It is beyond me that this ‘printed’ metal has the integrity of cast or poured Stainless Steel.
Particularly with the door handles, the ’30 shares the same design as the later cars I think: A male splined shaft with a captive male threaded retainer. The handle has female splines and female threads that the retainer is turned into to keep the handle on the shaft..
The typical problem is that the pot metal female splines in the handle strip our, leaving the handle to spin on the shaft.
Have you had an opportunity to handle, work with and strength-test one of the SS ‘printed’ parts yet?
If the SS has the same strength and integrity of ‘normal’ Stainless Steel, and the ‘machining’ is printed in the
process, then this technology will definitely be a huge help with restoring our cars.
Greg Long
Greg,
They are printing the SS turbine blades for jet engines. The finished product has more density than cast but slightly less than a billet. They can also print Titanium and I forget if it was Monel or Inconel. They call it printing but it’s a 400w laser welding the powder layers together pass by pass.
I handled some samples of the SS & Titanium and the details that they can do are amazing. They can print a gear case with the gears in it that is enclosed, except for the lube access, and it’s done in one unit.
My window cranks fit onto a .375″ square shaft with a cross pin holding it on. I don’t know when P-A started and stopped the design I have. Jim”
I forgot they also can print aluminum and then several kinds of plastics and carbon fiber material, on different machines. Jim
Greg,
Here is the site for the Co. They have several locations in the country but only the 2 in TX do the metal printing. https://www.stratasysdirect.com/contact/tucson-arizona/
Hi Jim, Thanks for all the information ! Having the layers of powder being fused with a 400wt Laser explains how the SS ‘printing’ can be strong.
I can’t wait until the price of this type of parts reproduction becomes common and much less expensive.
Greg Long
Interesting that the setup charge is the big cost and price per piece for multiple pieces becomes fairly small – much like tooling for casting or forging. The cheaper plastic 3D printing is almost the opposite where the setup charge is quite small and the total charge is based on volume of material laid down so a single one-off piece can be done quite reasonably. Hopefully the 3D printing in metal will start heading that direction.
Some of us may live long enough to see the possibility of a complete antique Pierce Arrow Model 66 with patina being 3d printed cheaply!!!
Cheers
I can find scanners in town but none of them can do a detailed enough scan for what we need. The art deco lines on the face of the handle get washed out and the scanners don’t see deep enough to make the square hole to mount to the shaft
SO.
I had a graphic designer mock up a handle since the printer doesn’t really care about detail just the amount of metal powder and time. Now that I have a STL file the quote came back at $750.00 to do 1 sample handle and $480.00 each to do a full plate of 17 handles. $8160.00 for 17 handles. It would be cheaper to have them cast in SS in Australia but when I researched that nobody was interested in any. So it was $400.00 to find out that the price is unreasonable.
Anybody in Southern CA there is a Westec show at the LA Convention Center in a week or so and Stratys the printer people and Faro the Scanner people will be there I would like to go but I’ve spent enough time and money on this issue already.
Dave Murray is supposed to be getting some more inside door handles and door pull loops, but the window and windshield/seat handles I think I’ll just cast in brass. Jim
Hi Jim,
A big thanks to you for exploring and reporting on this. We seem to be whisper away from many of these tantalizing technology solutions. But as a result of your effort, you do have a usable digital file, that is the biggest expense and problem in this type of printing.
In the past I have been able to use plastic 3 d printed models as the molds for simple brass and aluminum sand casting – sort of marrying tradition and technology.
Good luck in your quest and thanks for sharing it !!!!!
oh, one other tech solution for the engraving, is to cast them smooth, and find a laser cutter that will do metal and then let the laser engrave them. The detail will fall of slightly if the edges are rounded too much, but the quality would still be high. Of course, the expense in that is getting the file drawn for the engraving – although you can do it with any line drawing program – COREL, Adobe, etc. I have had good success with this in doing custom watch and gauge faces on a laser.