Fly Reel Printed in Metal

[mhackney]

Well, just for grins I used Shapely to print my fly fishing reel in polished bronze steel and their "strong and flexible" plastic. It is a monster weight wise but came out very nice. I was very satisfied that the fit was literally snap together perfect!

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s3/v23 ... 7904-3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s11/v3 ... 2302-3.jpg[/img]

[img]http://mhackney.zenfolio.com/img/s4/v9/ ... 7851-3.jpg[/img]

I'd like to find an affordable aluminum printing service. This reel cost $227.83 to print and ship. Their aluminum process would have been 10X that and is experimental so no guarantees.

[mhackney]

Hmm, this is interesting... I looked at my account on shapeways and the prices to reprint these parts is about 1/4 the original price. About $55 for everything. I didn't realize it worked that way. Anyone have experience with shapeways or other metal printers?

[JFettig]

I would love to have some stuff printed in metal, I priced out one component on shapeways and it was $$$$, big part though(otherwise made as a casting)

There is a local investment casting house that will 3d print investment and cast it but it is pretty cost prohibitive. I think it was actually similar cost to the stainless print but would still have to be post processed to remove runners and machine where necessary.

[mhackney]

Shapeways has several investment casting processes too but I'm more interested in direct to metal printing. I know I could investment cast these parts but then they would not be 3D printed! I'm not trying to produce a commercial product, this was purely for my edification and to have something to show at events I attend.

cheers,
Michael

[Eaglezsoar]

That is a very nice looking reel, I can't tell by looking that it is not actual metal. Good job again!

[mhackney]

Carl, the bronze parts are actually metal - stainless steel impregnated with bronze. The black and white parts are plastic. It weighs 10Oz/280gms!

[Eaglezsoar]

Carl, the bronze parts are actually metal - stainless steel impregnated with bronze. The black and white parts are plastic. It weighs 10Oz/280gms!

That's amazing, now I know why it looks like metal.

[Windshadow]

How about titanium with the inside the look of bird bones as fill... should keep the weight down and the tech is used for things like turbine blades.... price would be through the roof i expect but I bet you would find a market for them if they were light enough and worked well.

[mhackney]

Where can one get Ti printed as a service? I know where to get the bird bones.

[Eaglezsoar]

When you say printed in metal are you talking about the copper, bronze, etc filaments that are available or are you talking about printing with the actual hot metal?
I did not know that such a technology existed at this time. Could someone help fill my peanut sized brain?

[bot]

http://www.shapeways.com offers several varieties of metal 3d printing.

[Eaglezsoar]

http://www.shapeways.com offers several varieties of metal 3d printing.

From looking at their pages it looks like metal embedded filament which is not a true metal. A true metal printing would have to operate in the thousands of degrees to melt the metal.

[bot]

I assure you, it is certainly really metal printing. They explicitly tell you exactly the process when you go to order.

[mhackney]

Carl, this is real metal. Stainless steel in fact. And it prints ports - it is probably a powdered metal sintering technology. The pores are then filled with bronze in my case.

[Windshadow]

The Titanium printing ... sorry I do not know a source but at the East-tech show at the Eastern states expo grounds near Springfield Mass. last year I saw a sintered metal 9laser fused and then oven cured0 printer being demoed and Ti was on the chart as one of the metals that it worked with. I just assumed that a major solid printing service would offer it as one of their metal choices. Don't recall the name as it was obviously way out of reach of anything I would ever aspire to. they had a turbine hot section blade sectioned to show its complex interior

[IMBoring25]

They discuss their processes in the section about how to design parts (since it's relevant). If I recall correctly, and it's been a while, most of the metals are actually lost-wax castings.

[bot]

Yes, most are investment cast but this is steel powder infused with binder then brazed/filled with bronze.

[barry99705]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaWod5tPX6E[/youtube]