This is why 3D printing is getting popular

[canuck750]

At $249.00 for an original Le Mans switch getting the parts made in a 3D printer makes a lot of sense. I just need to take one apart and measure it and transfer to AutoCAD and have my son spit one out. I don't think the wiring connections are very complex.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/NOS-THUMB-SWITCH-MOTO-GUZZI-850-T3-CALIFORNIA-LAPD-TONTI-LEMANS-B-G-7503-/322017226914?hash=item4af9b8f0a2:i:322017226914&vxp=mtr

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Just because he's asking $249, doesn't mean he'll get it.  I gave away one of those switches that still functioned, but had new (wrong color) wires spliced on.

[boatdetective]

Maybe I'm wrong- but all the 3D stuff I've seen has been "prototype" pieces in a very brittle plastic with a finish that leaves something to be desired. I don't quite get it.  It's certainly not anything you could use in the field.

[Triple Jim]

Maybe I'm wrong- but all the 3D stuff I've seen has been "prototype" pieces in a very brittle plastic with a finish that leaves something to be desired. I don't quite get it.  It's certainly not anything you could use in the field.

There are several choices of plastic for the extrusion type printers, including ABS and Nylon, so parts can be quite durable.  I'm using parts printed from ABS to make housings for a couple of the CDI units and regulators I sell, and it allows me to keep the price lower than if I had to hand fabricate them.  Higher volume production, even so called "low volume molding" is out of the question when I'm selling maybe 25 of a particular product per year.  You can see the layers in the surface finish, but with ABS you can use acetone to "solvent polish" the surfaces to smooth them out.  It also takes paint very well.

[nobleswood]

At my local Microcenter on Saturday the salesman was showing me some of the 3D scanners he had. That even takes away having to draw a switch up in AutoCad. Just need to find someone, who has a scanner to rent the time from, and then have the file sent over to a Printer.

Amazing stuff!

[canuck750]

My son made me up some CEV headlight plastic plugs for the V7 Sport headlight, they are very nice reproductions and the plastic is not brittle. There are layering lines but this was on an earlier machine he had, the new one is a much finer resolution.

[canuck750]

This is the future, full size 3D printed bodywork

[Triple Jim]

And of course printed parts can be used in lost wax type casting, so things that used to be very labor intensive to prototype, like boat propellers, can be printed and used as the casting pattern.

[mtiberio]

they 3-D print the "iron man" suit parts for the Iron Man movies. Those parts look shiney enough...

[Chuck in Indiana]

When I first saw a computer hooked to a milling machine, I thought, "That *is* the future of machining." Old timers he hawed about it, but it was true.
3D printing is at about the same stage as CNC machines when they first became available. They're not there, yet.. but they will be, eventually.

[tris]

I went to this place a while back. http://www.the-mtc.org/technologies

The ball you can see is 3D printed titanium and ... bounces like a ball. They also had some 3D printed chain mail

Re size, they're gearing up to hang 2 robots from a gantry that's big enough to 3D print something a big as a car

I agree with Chuck, additive manufacturing is going to be the next big manufacturing technology without a shadow of doubt

PS
When I first saw a CNC lathe screw cutting a 3" thread at full turning speed and the carriage go hurtling off towards the chuck I thought ..... there's going to be an almighty crash in a moment