Softop installation no Holes

[skorpioskorpio]

Originally Posted by AHowe88

Great idea and execution. Have you considered looking into 3D printing them instead? There are a bunch of places that will do custom 3D printing, and I have heard it isn't terribly expensive.

I'd say that piece would be about $400-500 in material, easy, in 3D print medium, it's nearly 6 feet long, beside I've never seen a 3D printer that can print much larger than a 3 foot cube. Also 3D print material is not what you'd consider rugged. It's basically a prototyping material not a finished product material. It's essentially a sort of rigid foam made to take a fraction of the space in the cartridge as it does when printed. I plan on doing 3D prints to make a casting master for my intake manifold, which it works well for, but I can't honestly think of a single place I would use a 3D print as a finished piece in an automotive application, at least any piece I've ever seen.

[AHowe88]

Originally Posted by skorpioskorpio

I'd say that piece would be about $400-500 in material, easy, in 3D print medium, it's nearly 6 feet long, beside I've never seen a 3D printer that can print much larger than a 3 foot cube. Also 3D print material is not what you'd consider rugged. It's basically a prototyping material not a finished product material. It's essentially a sort of rigid foam made to take a fraction of the space in the cartridge as it does when printed. I plan on doing 3D prints to make a casting master for my intake manifold, which it works well for, but I can't honestly think of a single place I would use a 3D print as a finished piece in an automotive application, at least any piece I've ever seen.

Honestly I have no experience with 3D printing, but I read recently that there are over a 1000 different materials they can use in printing with different strengths. Given that they have printing guns (with varying degrees of success), there must be some strong enough. Interestingly enough, Leno uses one regularly: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras...y-old-parts-1/

That said, I think you are definitely right about the size, that would probably be a deal killer.

[skorpioskorpio]

Originally Posted by AHowe88

Honestly I have no experience with 3D printing, but I read recently that there are over a 1000 different materials they can use in printing with different strengths. Given that they have printing guns (with varying degrees of success), there must be some strong enough. Interestingly enough, Leno uses one regularly: http://www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras...y-old-parts-1/

That said, I think you are definitely right about the size, that would probably be a deal killer.

Maybe things have changed, but the printer in the Leno article looks exactly like the one I've printed on before, and the one I'll be printing my manifold casting master on. As far as I know it only prints in 2 materials, a white material that looks like the material that the part Leno is posing with, and a dark brown material that is solvent soluble that is used to print part supports while the print is in process or to print captive elements. One of the demos on the machine is a salt/pepper shaker which has about a 3/32" to 1/8" thick wall and is maybe 1 1/4" diameter and 1" tall, the completed piece can be easily crushed to dust in your hand and takes about 45 min to print the pair.