3D Printing Potential

I was wondering the same thing. The company I work at was looking at maybe purchasing one. Really doubt it though. Either way it looks very cool though.
 
I was just thinking that today, we have people replicating the vinyl art, the exact wood/melamine shapes, etc of the arcades of the 80s and 90s, but what's going to happen when we need some oddly shaped plastic part of some of the newer machines?

Oh yeah, 3D printers!

But then I also remembered that some 80s games also had some odd parts too.
 
Any diy or entry level 3d printer does not have the resolution required for restoration parts. Machines in the sub $10k price range usually are 0.2-0.5mm resolution, which means the parts are not smooth.

3d printing is still for the prototyping market, not for producing production parts -- unless you buy a zcorp half million dollar printer.

I had my brother in law print some steering gears for my chase hq machine with abs, it was *almost* good enough with sanding and shaping , but the quality wasn't there. Ended up machining the parts on a Hass milling center, making a negative mold, and casting the parts.
 
That would be awesome... 3D printed textured ball tops! No more expensive molding to get texture.
 
Any diy or entry level 3d printer does not have the resolution required for restoration parts. Machines in the sub $10k price range usually are 0.2-0.5mm resolution, which means the parts are not smooth.

Well, I was thinking maybe people could eventually submit their 3D models to a site like Shapeways, thus eliminating the need for a home printer. They can actually print metal parts:

http://www.shapeways.com/model/1813...ker-dispenser-latch.html?li=productBox-search

http://www.shapeways.com/model/657824/head-turner.html?li=productBox-search

As this gets better, I could see small plastic and metal parts being replaced for really cheap in the future.
 
3d printing

I have unlimted access to one - I'm in the process of seeing how it will do reproducing a WICO leaf joystick, certainly can look at repro other items but its certainly not for large reproduction runs - more like one-off projects - the rerap.org group is an excellent resource for beginners.

The tougher issue with the items is drawing and designing them in CAD, what really is also needed is a 3d laser scanner, which would save 100's of hours of design time, but the cheapest hobby set-up is about $3k.

If you have anything currently in CAD - let me know - I certianly have no issue printing a prototype to see how it comes out.

Thanks
Greg
 
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