From: muratlanne@gmail.com   
      
   "Bob La Londe"  wrote in message news:10h4d93$3jrfc$1@dont-email.me...   
      
   Parts where the raw material cost is.  You need a bronze bushing.   
   Bronze is expensive.  You can usually buy a bronze bushing cheaper than   
   the raw stock to machine one.  If you are setup for it, and have been   
   saving scrap you might be able to cast a bronze blank and then finish to   
   spec, but generally the raw material is expensive.  If a usable bushing   
   is already available its probably cheaper.  How about 3D printed bronze?   
     You might make the argument that, "Sure, that's great if you can stock   
   10 grand worth of bronze powder,and you already have a quarter million   
   dollar laser sintering 3D printer.  The part is cheap, but the barrier   
   to entry is quite high.  No.  There are filaments that can be printed   
   (according to the manufacturer) on the same printers as PLA as easily as   
   PLA.  I can only assume they mean with a hardened steel or carbide   
   nozzle.  At this point I am falling back on sales propaganda, but it   
   might have some potential.   The thing is its not the price of PLA.  A   
   1/2 kg spool of aluminum filament is over two hundred bucks.  Amazingly   
   a 1/2 KG spool of bronze filament is a little less (not much).  Still   
   its expensive, and to finish with a full metal part you have cook it in   
   a furnace after printing to burn off the binder.  It sounds like a   
   compromise part, but maybe there is something there.  I'm leaning   
   towards probably not.  If I already have a furnace (I do) I think it   
   would still be faster and cheaper to cast a blank and machine to spec.   
   There may be something there, but I am sure the nuance escapes me.   
      
   ------------------------   
   Interesting but not yet useful for me.   
   https://thevirtualfoundry.com/debind-sinter/?   
      
   I watch what 3D has made to learn to think in its design terms, as I now   
   think and design in terms of what my lathe and mill can (or can't) do. I was   
   introduced to 3D printing of ABS at Segway 20 years ago and saw that it   
   isn't strong enough for stressed parts of moving machinery, the sort of   
   thing I may have to make or repair. I've seen some impressive recent 3D work   
   at a Maker Space but not enough to tempt me to join.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)