A couple of 3D-printed pieces

[Chief Joseph]

Mods-- feel free to move this as I didn't know whether it belonged in resin & aftermarket or not. These pieces may or may not be offered for sale at some point, and Shapeways could sort of be construed as an aftermarket supplier, so I put it here.

Here are a couple of pieces I received from Shapeways today:

This is a 1/25 steering wheel for the 2011 & up Dodge Challenger and a 1/25 20" tire to fit some wheels I made for the same model. I am working on the AMT version of the car, so the steering wheel has a socket on the back to specifically fit the column from the kit.

These parts were printed in Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) and I have made a round of sanding & primer on them. They need some more sanding & priming before they'll be ready for molding. Details came out pretty well, including the button clusters in the spokes of the steering wheel.

Tread pattern on the tire came out well:

The texture on the tire's sidewalls is a little more than I would want, but for the price (roughly 1/4 the price of some of the other printing services), it's decent. I have some raised white letter tire models I want to print next, and the details on the sidewall lettering should come through in the print.

[martinfan5]

Nice looking pieces

[azers]

Looks nice

[Sixx]

WOW!!!!! Nice stuff Chief!!!!!!

[Lownslow]

very nice what size did you make the steering rim ive had 2 steering wheels rejected over thickness my steering rims are 1.5mm in diameter.

[Chief Joseph]

very nice what size did you make the steering rim ive had 2 steering wheels rejected over thickness my steering rims are 1.5mm in diameter.

I drew it at 1.6mm, but the actual print measures at 1.66mm. The extra thickness could be the primer I put on it.

[iBorg]

Wow......the quality is really getting "there."

Soon I'll have to add cad/cam drawing as a skill for model building.

[Lownslow]

I drew it at 1.6mm, but the actual print measures at 1.66mm. The extra thickness could be the primer I put on it.

thanks

[Mooneyzs]

Nice work. These parts look great!

[raildogg]

O.K. So I want to know how you did the tread pattern. I have Solidworks 2007, not the student version, and I just can't seem to get the treads to circular pattern. I have a slew of tire ideas rolling around my mind, but, am stymied by the treads. Want to maybe offer them for sale one day if I can ever get the whole thing drawn out. PM me please, and lets talk about tread patterning.

Edited May 5, 2013 by raildogg

[Lownslow]

O.K. So I want to know how you did the tread pattern. I have Solidworks 2007, not the student version, and I just can't seem to get the treads to circular pattern. I have a slew of tire ideas rolling around my mind, but, am stymied by the treads. Want to maybe offer them for sale one day if I can ever get the whole thing drawn out. PM me please, and lets talk about tread patterning.

you dont have a Array or pattern window? what i do is draw them as rectacles(oversized) them extrude cut to whatever diameter the tire is gonna be (OD first) then i revolve the solid then pattern the threads around the solid tire. Sidewall detail is a pain for me im still working on it.

[Chief Joseph]

Raildogg, I sent you a PM.

Frank, I use Inventor also and I emboss a small section of the tread pattern onto the tire casing and then do a circle pattern of the emboss around the circumference of the tire casing. For the sidewall lettering, I created TrueType fonts with CorelDraw that I use to emboss the lettering with the geometry text tool. The actual modeling is pretty quick, but getting all the measurements ready to build the model is what takes a lot of effort and time.

[Lownslow]

Raildogg, I sent you a PM.

Frank, I use Inventor also and I emboss a small section of the tread pattern onto the tire casing and then do a circle pattern of the emboss around the circumference of the tire casing. For the sidewall lettering, I created TrueType fonts with CorelDraw that I use to emboss the lettering with the geometry text tool. The actual modeling is pretty quick, but getting all the measurements ready to build the model is what takes a lot of effort and time.

i should try that i havent gotten too familier with Emboss been trying loft,shell, and bend more. but someone said it is possible to do organic shapes using the surface command, whats the file type to use corel draw text in Inventor?

Edited May 5, 2013 by Lownslow

[Chief Joseph]

i should try that i havent gotten too familier with Emboss been trying loft,shell, and bend more. but someone said it is possible to do organic shapes using the surface command, whats the file type to use corel draw text in Inventor?

I draw the lettering in CorelDraw and then export the individual letter drawings into a TrueType Font (TTF) file. Add that TTF file to the system and then it's available for use in any program, just like Arial or Courier or any other font.

[mikemodeler]

Nice stuff Joseph, can't wait to see what you have next!

On a side note, I was reading Smithsonian magazine and they have a great article on 3D printers in it and how they are becoming more common and will be changing the world as a result.