[xJamesX]

Some of you may remember my post about the paintball gun I am making for class.
http://crxcommunity.com/viewtopic.php?t ... ntball+gun
Well we finally got our rapid prototyping machine working and I made my first part today. It is made through the FDM process. Fused deposition modeling. Its pretty much a big printer that lays down molten ABS plastic layers at a time along with a breakaway support material.

CAD drawing..

After it came out the machine..

Now with the support material removed..

and an updated pic of the gun itself.

-James-

 

[Dren]

nice man, those things are cool. don't the rapid prototyping machines cost a bit to run?

should be a pretty sweet gun when you are done

 

[xJamesX]

They don't cost much to run.. The cost of the plastic "ink" cartriges may add up over time. And these machines cost alot to purchase. But in the long run for a company to be able to rapidly prototype a part in a few hours rather then days or weeks. The amount saved in tooling and materials over time they are well worth it.

-James-

 

[SETI20]

P90...yum...

Any pictures of the process?

 

[rex2nr]

They don't cost much to run.. The cost of the plastic "ink" cartriges may add up over time. And these machines cost alot to purchase. But in the long run for a company to be able to rapidly prototype a part in a few hours rather then days or weeks. The amount saved in tooling and materials over time they are well worth it.

-James-

Yea, its a lost art of a guy sitting and carving a new design out of renn foam

 

[fireant]

Is that really ABS? How strong is it? does it come in black?

How much does it cost a guy with a nice DXF or whatever file to get something about the size of, I dont know....a crx climate control done? :lol:

 

[xJamesX]

Looks cool. WIll it be a working prototype? Will the ABS be able to support the pressure from the compressed air?

Thats the plan. I hope... The plastic should be able to handle the pressure. I chose this process more as an experiment. If the plastic parts dont work out I have plans for some aluminum versions that we can cut in our cnc machines.

The whole idea of this is prototyping. Seeing if there are changes that need to be made before the final product. Already I am having second thoughts about this piece so I have some other ideas for the blowback system that I will try out.

I'm not sure what colors are available but we have red, white and black in our machine.

As far as cost of a single part I'm not sure what a company would charge.. Sorry. As far as the file you would have to convert the DXF,DWG or whatever into an STL file. Thats the file most rapid prototyping machines read.

Look for some CRX parts in the future aswell :twisted:

Seti I'll see if I can take some pictures while the machine is on next time..

-James-

 

[SETI20]

....a crx climate control done? :lol:

Now, that's using your noggin!

7PSIcrx has a couple of plates to fix the cracked climate control I believe.

 

[fireant]

....a crx climate control done? :lol:

Now, that's using your noggin!

7PSIcrx has a couple of plates to fix the cracked climate control I believe.

I bought one of the ones from CRXToad, but I didnt like it enough to use it. Anybody want it for $5 paypal'd let me know.

 

[rex2nr]

Is that really ABS? How strong is it? does it come in black?

How much does it cost a guy with a nice DXF or whatever file to get something about the size of, I dont know....a crx climate control done? :lol:

Now why didn't I think of that? hmmm... I need a final project for Solidworks class....

 

[Wasuri]

Don't forget about the selector switch!

GJ man!

 

[Jonny_Black]

Looks cool. WIll it be a working prototype? Will the ABS be able to support the pressure from the compressed air?

As a design note, I have never liked the angle of the grip on an HK P90. I much prefer the HK MP5 grip system. Much more comfortable.

I am not much into guns..but I have alwasy liked the desing of this gun...Heckler und Koch MP-5k, wouldn't mind firing a few rounds with it either. But you see this gun in movies all the time...matrix would be the first one that comes to mind. cool looking gun.

cool looking project you got there james.

just wondering...seeing this brings a couple of disturbing thougts though, I am sure things like this do not show up on xray...and having a barrel made out of somthing that could fire something lethal..like kevlar reinforced plastic or some kind of ceramic...or something else..prolly wouldn't show up either, but I can see the potential here for some really bad things in the hands of some smart idiots could happen.

 

[SETI20]

There have been kevlar weapon delivery systems for a while now.
Only trouble is getting the ammo through the detector, because they haven't developed any reliable non-metallic like ammo yet.

 

[crxsquared]

Hmm, you guys got a glorified inkjet printer, eh? :roll: I bet it was a lot cheaper to buy and run than our 3D Systems SLA system here at work. The systems like yours that I've seen advertised start around $25K to buy. The 3D System Viper 250 that we have was around $250K, and the photopolymer that it hardens with the laser beam is even more dear- about $300 per kilogram of fluid (density is ~1.13 g/cm3 at 25 ° C). Convert the volume of material needed to make your part to cm3 to estimate the consumables cost.

http://www.3dsystems.com/products/sla/viper/index.asp

It'll be interesting to hear what you think of the finished parts. We can get accuracy down around 0.003" on the stuff we make if we run in high-rez mode.

 

[xJamesX]

I think are machine was actually about 10-15K. I'm sure the school got a break on the price. We can get our resolution down to 0.007". The school mainly got it as a classroom tool for the rapid prototyping class. Its really neat to see all the types of RP processes. I came across this while researching the topic.
MMM titanium..

http://www.stratasys.com/about_mediaSup ... 30206.html

This machine uses an electron beam that melts powdered titanium into the required shape.

-James-

 

[ComposiMo]

I had something RP'd lately... can't go into what just yet, but yea, this technology is amazing and fun... lol! It was cool, send the drawing off in the morning via email, and a day later, have a FedEx box sitting there with your part in it... hehe.

good times, good times 8)

 

[xJamesX]

What process was used for your part? Do you know? Soon we'll have replicator machine slike in star trek.

-James-

 

[ComposiMo]

Twas layer on printed layer, like one of the Injet-like things... lol!

Here is a pic of a section of the actual piece that shows the layering really good:

8)

 

[rex2nr]

stop being such a tease!

 

[crxsquared]

Here's the contract house we used to use before we bought our own Viper.

http://www.finelineprototyping.com/

They have a "new" process that allows them to deposit a layer of nickel-plating on the part to make it tougher/conductive.

http://www.finelineprototyping.com/prot ... Armor.html

Gee, I wonder how well an SLArmor'd custom wheel would hold up..... :roll: Guess you could design a custom intake manifold, too. Hmmmm

Note that the "inkjet printer-style" devices are slowly becoming more sophisticated. The companies selling the things are saying in the near future you could have a part made with conductive circuit traces imbedded within the part (pre-wired), with the near term possibility of integral bearings and rotating shafts, gears, etc. also created in situ.

Grow your own alternator!