Welcome to the SeeMeCNC Community

I just received a request from MakeXYZ (I love those guys) for a short production run of 125pcs. The parts are for ATM machines, and are originally molded in FRP and polycarbonate. I wish to print replacement parts (the molded parts are no longer available) and make $$$. One part is FRP, about 2x2x10cm, shelled with 3mm walls and many small features. The other is about 2x2x1cm, PC and is fairly simple. Both parts will require support material. $20 per set plus a few hundred dollars for laser scanning/reverse engineering is a pretty nice payday for a (ahem) hobby printer. I figure it will take 3 weeks to a month working two to four hours a day.

The parts have to withstand heat, medium loading and long term abrasion, which is why they are originally made with the aforementioned materials. I saw a Kickstarter for carbon fiber filament, but haven't seen any in the wild. PC filament is available from Ultimachine and others

My plan is to use the project deposit to purchase two E3D hot end kits, so I can print support material, and achieve higher temperatures.

The hard part is finding fiber reinforced filament. I think I could probably print it in regular nylon and achieve the desired properties. Anybody know of any other sources for fiber filled filament? I could purchase a filastruder and fuss around with making my own (maybe?), but that sounds like a project-within-a-project, and I'm not sure how it'll work out. I need to research this option.

The other option is injection molds, but the $4-5K investment doesn't make sense for such a small quantity. I also thought about silicone molding, old-school style but I'm concerned about tolerances and available casting resins.

The project seems worthwhile and totally doable if I can find the right materials. I'm looking for opinions and guidance from the group. I'll continue researching and post my findings below.

Thanks,

Chris
Atlanta, GA

Print a master set and then resin-cast the rest of the parts.

"This is a job for RotoMAAK!"

g.

I have a master set of production parts. I'll look in to the required casting materials.

Thanks,

Chris

This seems like a pretty big job for a hobby printer. Unfortunately 3d printing at the consumer level is seriously lacking in material variety. Almost everyone with a reprap sticks to PLA and ABS. Nylon and polycarbonate are under-documented and expensive. Do the parts have to be polycarbonate and FRP? I don't think anyone has actually printed with FRP with hobby printers, but by this time next year there will probably be more filaments on the market.


Anyway, the E3D hotend will work with polycarbonate and nylon easily. Both should be easy to print at the part sizes you wanted. The 10cm part might have warping or curling going on if the geometry is weird. I don't know how you'll get an acceptable surface finish if the part requires it. Let us know how this turns out.

"lack of materials" I'm sorry but this makes me laugh

So we got the base plastic types:

ABS
PLA
Polycarbonate
PVA
HIPS
PET (T-Glase)
Nylon
Laywood
Laybrick
The multitude of different flexible plastics, ranging from Flexible PLA to complete new materials.

and then I could go into subdivisions of many of these plastics

Nylon can be glass filled (at least some of the 3mm trimmer line I've used has been glass filled) and you can use trimmer line for Nylon, making it pretty cheap
Theres this really cool mix of PLA and some other plastic that makes the PLA more like ABS
Bridge, fancy variation of Nylon
That really cool UV reacting ABS that turns purple in sunlight
Theres a conductive ABS I've heard about
I'm pretty sure there are more but I can't remember them at the moment


Ive screwed with a bunch of Nylon, even some non round stuff I bought at home depot, Cope prints with a TON of Nylon (almost all he prints with from my knowledge), I know several other people on here try some more crazy things like ninjaflex. I would hope McHackney with his coolio bracken would try out some PVA/HIPS support (or just print with them because they're pretty cool plastics).

There are plenty of plastics out there, I wish I had the money to try them all

I have no connection with them, but I recommend because I use it, Smooth-on silicon casting and resin products. They have a product lines for different degrees of effort you want into making both the molds and the resins, as well as some mineral and aluminum filled resins for tougher very low shrinkage parts. I have a few batches of their products sitting on a shelf waiting for hobby time to return for some joint effort projects my mechanical engineering friend (I'm electrical) have planned.