3D printed 1927 Miller 91, Gould Studio's design

[gulfclk]

Originally Posted by georges99

Hi

I really really love this article. I have a question, is it pretty easy to separate all the different elements of the car, from the 3D file from turbosquid ?

How Would you 3-D print a windshield from these 3-D files, and make shire it will fit ?

I would love to see how you separate the different parts of the car, and work these elements in your CAD software.

Are your tires in printed in rubber or resin ?

Finally, I would appreciate more Post of the different steps to completion.

Which cad software are you using ?


This is a very interesting subject of me. This is nice work that you do and I'll be following the future articles.

To separate the parts, I use 2 ways ...

- I downloaded the files from Turbosquid in a technical drawing format, that means that every component is an individual drawing. This way, you can select a component and 'isolate' it. You only have to make sure you buy a technical file.
- To prepare the files for printing, I use 2 software packages. NetFabb is a basic file repair program to repair holes, invert surfaces, ... Most of the time however, I use Magics. I only have a light version as it came with the Envisiontec machines, so it can only do things needed for the DLP printing process, but as this is what I use, I can repair files, add basic shapes, draw supports, ...
Using Magics, you can for instance 'cut' parts in different smaller parts and foresee them with connector pins to make the assembly easy. Magics also allows to make holes, add text, make parts thicker or thinner, ...

So, for a windshield, there are 2 ways. Separate the part in the technical drawing, or make a separate part out of it in Magics. You can then print it, but ... printing optically clear parts is not something very common. I think we're one of the only companies who know how to do it. The part is printed in clear resin and then finished with a special coating which makes it highly transparent, like glass.

The tires are printed in resin. They will be painted black and then the logo's will be tampon printed. After that, a soft touch coating will be applied to simulate the rubber.

The CAD software I use is ZW3D. I bought a 'light' version, which is 800$. This is very cheap for a complete CAD system.

More to follow ...

[cooped70]

Im leaning towards catalatic converter.

[gulfclk]

So, the rims got their black color. After the silver ring, they will be clear coated. The tires have been sent to get the logo's printed on them.



The chassis have also been printed. I managed to find a solution, with the help of Gould Studio's, to print them in one piece.

[F1Tommy]

Amazing quality for 1/43rd scale. I also think in the future printing will take over a larger part of the specialized limited kit market share. If that does not happen resin and limited kits may go away in a few years as they are expensive to produce and sell low amounts. One thing I dont like is the way the printed parts warp when weight is put on them. You might have oval shaped wheels after a few years of sitting on the shelf.


Tom Tanner/Scale Designs/Ferrari Expo 2014-Chicago March 22nd 2014

[gulfclk]

Originally Posted by F1Tommy

One thing I dont like is the way the printed parts warp when weight is put on them. You might have oval shaped wheels after a few years of sitting on the shelf.

It all depends on the material you're using. I know for instance that materials are not always UV resistant. Parts printed on an Objet have very nice quality and detail, but put them in front of a window and after 2 months, they will be completely out of shape.

[gulfclk]

Some more experimenting has been done. I first separated the bonnet from the cockpit to gain some printing time, but this was not the right way as assembly was also more difficult. The whole body is printed in one parts now.
The first 2 bodies are primed and drying.



A dry fit with some experimental chassis and bodies show that everything fits nicely.

[daniel_k]

considering this in 1/43 the quality is amazing !! I really need to contact you about some 1/43 printing ;-)

[gionc]

Being a product designer I well know rapid proto by years, and being a modeler I have extensively used the new hi-quality 3D printers to do parts in my builds: said that I admit I'm astonished by those wire rims..... and I thought they were 1/24..... may you say the thickness of the wire spokes? 0.15 mm? less? Great!

[gulfclk]

Originally Posted by gionc

Being a product designer I well know rapid proto by years, and being a modeler I have extensively used the new hi-quality 3D printers to do parts in my builds: said that I admit I'm astonished by those wire rims..... and I thought they were 1/24..... may you say the thickness of the wire spokes? 0.15 mm? less? Great!

They should have been 0,05, but to make sure they were strong enough, I've made them 0,3mm in a 50 microns layer thickness.
I've made some new ones yesterday in 15 microns thickness and they seem to be much stronger, so I think I could go down to 0,15mm if using 15 microns.

[gulfclk]

I'm very satisfied with the result of the tire lettering!

[gulfclk]

Not much to mention ...

Splitting the chassis in 2 parts seemed to be the right solution to avoid deformation and instability during the build. I've ordered some new material however which should solve the problem, but there will be no time left to try this.



The bodywork has been painted already and will be clear coated later this week.

[mikman42]

great stuff,looks like stereolithography printing using a laser and liquid like the Form 1 from Formlabs.com

[gulfclk]

Originally Posted by mikman42

great stuff,looks like stereolithography printing using a laser and liquid like the Form 1 from Formlabs.com

The technique Envisiontec uses is DLP. It's comparable, but quicker and a lot more accurate.
I have a From1 as well ... cheap printer, but it doesn't even come close to this.

[gulfclk]

Not much to say. The chassis have been painted enemal black and then finished with Alclad Chrome. To be able to touch the chassis without loosing the chrome, I've covered everything with one layer of Johnson Klear. It takes away the chrome effect a bit, but as the chassis on the real car is polished aluminium, this is not an issue.



The wheels have been finished as well. I had one rim and tire on the spare, so I decided to paint that one chrome to see how it looks.



Next is the front drive box and radiator combination. The radiator has been finished with Alclad Chrome as well (no Klear this time) and the drive box has been painted with Duraluminium.



Everything is going quickly now as this is a straight forward build, no difficult parts.

[jaykay640]

Very nice!