3D Printed Metal Parts Discussion - Page 2

[Dylan Esmonde]

Hi George - I'm a new member here. Just built my first lap steel myself (pics to come?). Been playing lap steel since my mom's friend Larry left a lovely chrome Rickenbacker at our house for the summer when I was 13 or so back in 99'

The 3D printed benders look fantastic. Are you up for sharing the plans/files? I'd love to give them a whirl on my friends machine.

Dylan
Portland, OR
dylanesmo@gmail.com

[George Piburn]

Hello from GeorgeBoards

We have said repeatedly for a few Years now, on this forum, we No Longer Make or Share these Bender files.

Too many Chinese small parts (now triple the price to get) and too many failures with various polymer materials.

To make something like these benders , requires a high performance 3D printer that can handle Carbon Fiber or Glass Fiber reinforced Nylon Material.
Prusa - Ender - Creality and other lower cost machine won't Cut it.

We do however make and sell the Roller Nuts and Bridges Generic for DIY Builds , SX and Gretsch 5700 upgrades. All have proven to work well and are durable. These work with pretty much all of the currently made metal bender units.

[J D Sauser]

I was recently talking to a Swiss engineer. I showed him some of my designs and he felt my changer parts were too complicated (too expensive) to make traditionally and suggested "3D printing" them. I vented my concerns about these materials and I was informed that now you can 3D-print in metal and that the parts then can be "baked" to become homogenous real metal and gain the strength of normal machined metal parts in aluminum and even like steel.
I might get "access" to have some prototype parts 3D printed on such an advanced system.
I would be a game changer for changer parts and all the repetitive parts like bell cranks.

... JD.

[Dylan Esmonde]

Sorry I missed the part about the files not being shared George.
I've got a friend in the film industry who has access to a heavy duty 3D printer. I was thinking he could print one out.
Look for my order of nut/bridge replacement for my Gretsch soon!

[George Piburn]

Hello from George Mr.Boards

Sorry to everyone about discontinuing these 3D parts, and mechanisms. Several years ago, We spent a lot of time and effort designing them and doing the Development side too. I took JD's earlier comments about Rollers being for high RPM actions, and found some brass bushings with embedded graphite for ever lubricated no oil. Work way better than roller bearings for this application. So all of the photos folks keep reposting are completely obsolete anyway.

There is a lot more to it than just printing with NylonX-G which takes special machinery. there are threaded holes that need to be cleared with taps, and a lot more little details. despite the fact that we purchased a high falutin printer supposed to handle all the infused materials, the long paddle handles , still had some deflection when engaged, I make parts for sale and cannot in good conscience sell something that could break possibly.

When we requested a sticky for Sharing STL files for free there were several other folks who all jumped at the idea, yet have shared absolutely nothing. So after over multiple years of being the only contributor to the sticky, I honestly feel it is a bust and the moderator should just delete the entire thing.

On to JD's simi related comments about the special metal infused PLA that also requires a Farmed-Out baking process to become metal. We also did a lot of R&D with all of that. There is a calculation formula required because this process Shrinks the object while baking. For precision steel guitar parts , we dropped it all right there before investing a huge amount to try to get that material going.

Finally - there are modern 3D printers that print stainless steel, now used in many high performance industries.
For 1 example there are folks printing Gears and Sprockets that can come off of the printer with little other preparation and go directly on to Formula 1 Race autos.

[J D Sauser]

Hello from George Mr.Boards

Thanks George for sharing your Research on this subject. Very insightful!

Thanks!... J-D

[John Hyland]

I was recently talking to a Swiss engineer. I showed him some of my designs and he felt my changer parts were too complicated (too expensive) to make traditionally and suggested "3D printing" them. I vented my concerns about these materials and I was informed that now you can 3D-print in metal and that the parts then can be "baked" to become homogenous real metal and gain the strength of normal machined metal parts in aluminum and even like steel.
I might get "access" to have some prototype parts 3D printed on such an advanced system.
I would be a game changer for changer parts and all the repetitive parts like bell cranks.

... JD.

Hi JD. I think Sintering metal powder is expensive. Both the printer and the oven are expensive but if you have access to this why not try it.
There are other ways to do the same thing with powdered metals by using direct laser to sinter but again out of my reach.

[George Piburn]

We at GeorgeBoards did a lot of send out sintering, the Laser with Powder type. 1st off; we had at that time; some years ago, to send off to Belgium, and the printer is the size of a railroad box car.
At the time I opted out of going for aluminum, as the cost was out of my R&D budget and projected final costs to end users.

We did make some cool stuff from their super Polymers, all heat treated and the full monty. We still have a bunch of parts somewhere that no one will buy due to price.

The Belgium place makes little things like Bulkheads for AirBus aircraft, and NASA space expeditions.
______________________
BASF sells the metal infused materials with the shrinkage formulas for standard FDM printers, they also have a send in service to bake in their super facilities, for a reasonable fee. So R&D is not out of the question, just double or triple the price of NylonX
requires the hardest hot tips , and so on. Then add some hundreds more to have your parts processed and returned.

This might be right down John's Alley, building moving pedal parts and mechanisms. After all in today's world , pedal steels are now running 5000 - 10,000 USD.

In my tiny universe of Lap Steel Parts, it is more cost effective to go with modern CNC metal parts and CNC 3D printed polymers.
Add the Lap Players are notorious bottom feeders and skinflints. Makes me feel good to help them by focusing on cost friendly functional parts for DIY and import upgrades.

[J D Sauser]

We at GeorgeBoards did a lot of send out sintering, the Laser with Powder type. 1st off; we had at that time; some years ago, to send off to Belgium, and the printer is the size of a railroad box car.
At the time I opted out of going for aluminum, as the cost was out of my R&D budget and projected final costs to end users.

We did make some cool stuff from their super Polymers, all heat treated and the full monty. We still have a bunch of parts somewhere that no one will buy due to price.

The Belgium place makes little things like Bulkheads for AirBus aircraft, and NASA space expeditions.
______________________
BASF sells the metal infused materials with the shrinkage formulas for standard FDM printers, they also have a send in service to bake in their super facilities, for a reasonable fee. So R&D is not out of the question, just double or triple the price of NylonX
requires the hardest hot tips , and so on. Then add some hundreds more to have your parts processed and returned.

This might be right down John's Alley, building moving pedal parts and mechanisms. After all in today's world , pedal steels are now running 5000 - 10,000 USD.

In my tiny universe of Lap Steel Parts, it is more cost effective to go with modern CNC metal parts and CNC 3D printed polymers.
Add the Lap Players are notorious bottom feeders and skinflints. Makes me feel good to help them by focusing on cost friendly functional parts for DIY and import upgrades.

Thanks again for the insight, George. I really appreciate. It's a rapidly evolving technology. But I must say that until las months offer from Switzerland, I have long snobbed "3D-Printing" because of the materials initially involved.
My changer will be somewhat more complicated, in the sense that it has smaller parts. I can prototype it on my hand-operated mini-mill, it's how I learned to make precision parts in Switzerland as an apprentice over 40 years ago. I found out last year, I still can. But for a possible production it's too time consuming. There are so many repeat parts in PSG's, it's in today's times silly to "crank'em out" one by one... BY HAND. Evidently, sending machine work out to a CNC shop is still the number one option.
I am also looking at Laser Welding (aluminum) for the frames. I urgently need to visit a trade fair. I believe the last one I went to was in 2000 in Chicago... a quarter Century today is a total new era.


Thanks!... J-D.