3D printing propellers and parts
Ok so some guy can make a AR-15 lower assembly and some other guy can print a human ear. Why are we as boaters not printing the parts that dreams are made of? I just got a look at the maker bot home 3d printer and if this advance in technology is not the best thing since fuel injection I don't know what is. Has anyone on here made anything yet? This is gonna be great!!!!
Can you say EXPENSIVE.. I knew you could...
One word sums up 3D printing of metals.... expensive...
Making metal parts by 3d printing is very expensive. To make a 75H tower would cost you $10,000. Just because you can doesn't mean it makes sense. You could make a casting pattern by gluing together 3D printed plastic pieces and then cast the part, but the investment casting pattern would cost you cost you over $5k, and then you have to cast the part and if the casting ends up with holes or porosity in it, it is junk and you have to start over.
For making one-off research parts it makes sense and we have done parts that way, but it would be less expensive to hog something like a lower unit out of billet than it would to make it from a 3D printed metal model. Bigger stuff is tougher because you make so much of it into chips, but I would guess that making a 75H tower from a billet is about as expensive as making it from 3D printing.
We have done it in both aluminum and nickel base alloys, the nickel base alloy part was a 8 inch diameter piece that was very intricate, but it cost more than $25k!
The process pays off if you are trying to make something that you can't easily machine, or need features that you can't machine into the part because you can't get a tool in there to do it.
For instance, if you wanted to make a prop with a hollow blade, or something that you simply can't make any other way, then go for it.
For parts that are more commonly made by conventional processes, those processes are much less expensive and therefore the printed parts don't make sense.