Hello robotic community, does anyone know where to get custom (prototype) plastic 3D printing? I am designing a custom robot and have some intricate parts I would like to machine. I have found a few places online, but the price seems very steep. Stratasys makes the machines but only gives away their own rapid prototyped parts for free.
The first batch of parts came in (not too cheap either). I will hollow out the more aesthetic parts to reduce weight and cost. I chose Stratasys in the end although Xardas seems very interesting. I’ll include some photos of the parts later (they are not proprietary).
Actually, the part was fairly complex and needed to be structural. I could have tried to vacuum-form it and pour in an epoxy, but again, the part was fairly complex and tolderances were tight. I got the part from Stratasys in the end. What is sculpey?
perhaps I am looking to do something similar. i am looking to scale an existing “exoskeletal” structure in parts. I looked into Xardas and they look nice, but dont know yet if they can upscale my pieces to that size. I will look into it. I found a site called Shenzhen.
You could also sculpt your piece out of Sculpey and vacu-form it yourself.
An artist’s rendering clay… esp good for mold making.
3D Parts Manufacturers tend to advertise online. Most Companies that offer 3D printing expect low volume. The cost of parts is almost entirely dependant on the amount of material being used, so if the quotes you have received are too high, consider redesigning the part, hollowing sections (but not decrease the structural integrity) or consider using a machining process rather than 3D printing.
QuickParts
Print to 3D
Fabjectory
Consider also contacting the manufacturers of the machines to see if they have customers who do custom 3D printing directly to customers.
Certain software like SolidWorks 2006 have built-in features that link to 3D Parts manufacturers directly.