3D Printer

[FZRguy]

Very cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZboxMsSz5Aw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[crypto0793]

Be nice to have for making bike parts if its strong enough

[OUTLAWD]

we had a rapid prototype 3D printer when I was in undergrad, pretty expensive to run, the parts were't strong at all...good for what it was designed for...prototyping

[FZRguy]

They mentioned it could be made stronger by mixing in certain polymers. What if you mixed in carbon fiber?

[OUTLAWD]

if its the same sort of thing, it was kinda like an inkjet printer with plastic, the one we had made very porous, brittle parts, different plastic blends could help, but it still wouldn't be nearly as good as a molded part.

[D_Sp8s]

We have a 3D printer at work that prints wax parts. We then suspend those wax parts in plaster, melt the wax out, and then pour metal (aluminum, stainless steel, zinc, etc.) in to the void. Then we have our metal parts that couldn't be made with traditional casting techniques. It's called lost wax investment casting....Fun huh!

[brennahm]

We had two models of my neck made on a similar machine several years ago that used a corn starch matrix. Pretty cool stuff for sure.