3D Printing Metal Parts

Turbo Manifold 3D Printed from Inconel Powder
PapadakisRacing

This video packs a whole bunch of sophisticated high technology into this short story. Parts of the video sound like an ad for SolidWorks. That's okay, you're going to need some kind of CAD software if you want to attempt any kind of 3D printing. SolidWorks is one of the more sophisticated packages. Carries a pretty sophisticated price tag as well. There's also the FARO digitizer that I ran into last month. Then there's the 3D printer. The last time I ran into a 3D printer that printed metal, they were using a different technique. This method looks like it should work better, but you have to wait until it's done to see if it really delivered what you want. Minor screwups can result in a useless print, and since the printing process is slow, this can mean delays in getting what you want.

I kind of imagined that 3D printing would be useful for resurrecting old machines that you could no longer get parts for, but as this video shows, it takes a lot of very expensive equipment to make these parts. You could no doubt hire people who have these expensive machines to make a water pump for your antique Goober-Snorter, but it's still going to cost you a pretty penny. Building new stuff that couldn't have been built before is a more likely application.