Ace-Garageguy

Is that as happy as a clam? Asking for a friend.

Pretty much always the case when anyone works as a hired-gun consultant, engineer, fabricator, machinist, etc. etc.

The ROI depends primarily on charging enough to not have to work 24/7 to keep the lights on. High quality resin parts can command high prices, and as the competition "ages out", opportunities open up. I've done enough old-school mastering, mold-making, and casting of non-scale-model parts (real-world product development and patent models primarily) to know that though it is a somewhat "fiddly" business requiring focus and care at every step, in a clean well-organized dedicated workspace, it's not that hard. This is one of the better tutorials I've seen to date. There's one one I like more, but I've apparently misfiled the address. ONE CAVEAT: A printed master will have to be tough enough to withstand the mechanical stresses of demolding. Careful analysis of the physical characteristics of the fully-cured printing resin will need to be done, and section thicknesses adjusted as necessary.

"Ages rapidly" is what occurs when an elder elects to sit on his tail, accomplishing little, reading and learning and exercising even less.

3D printing is wonderful technology. Wonderful. I'm not disputing that. The absolute no-holds-barred BEST parts I have are 3D prints, and the single highest quality model I've ever seen in 1/24 scale, Bill Cunningham's Birdcage Maserati, is also primarily built of 3D prints. These benefitted hugely from the high resolution possible from reasonably "affordable" liquid printers, and because of undercuts and extremely fine detail, could not have been made any other way. But offerings like repops of '50s and '60s promos, truck cabs, some wheels and tires and engine parts, etc. simply do not require that resolution, and the old methods are entirely appropriate for those. Yes, setting up to do GOOD resin casting has costs, but pressure pots and the like are one-time purchases. Molding and casting materials are hardly cost-prohibitive, and I'm pretty familiar with all of them. Yes, silicone molds do have a finite life span, and will need to be replaced periodically, but so do printers. And yes, masters for casting can be made by traditional methods that require extreme physical skills, but are ideal candidates for 3D printing themselves. Print the master, make a mold set, turn out copies in much less time than printing takes. ALL the technologies have their place, and arguing against the continued viability of ANY of them is, in a word, stupid.

Midwits.

Road blocks in any endeavor are inevitable, whether coming from outside sources or one's own internal demons; the trick is to identify and overcome them quickly.

I know exactly what you mean, but I derive the ultimate satisfaction from anything I do when I look back on it and think "Holy cow...did I do that? I'd really be impressed if I saw that and it was someone else's work. Good job, self."

Amen.

No doubt that's entirely true, but both you and Rob are apparently fairly high-income earners. You can afford to get into "home 3D printing". As can I. But the truth is that very many car modelers are retired, on fixed incomes, and simply don't have the resources to adapt..will never have...and as Charlie rightly points out, there's often a rather high cost disparity between cast resin and 3D printed stuff. Of course, also overlooked in your response, buying 3D printed goods from online suppliers STILL leaves a purchaser subject to the same possible quality, timeliness, and shipping issues that often arise when buying traditional resin. No improvement there. On the other hand, 3D printing makes possible very short run, or one-off, manufacturing a viable possibility...and a significant cost penalty for being able to get a one-of-one of anything is entirely understandable. 3D printing also makes production or parts that simply can NOT be made with any other method...like scale-accurate wire wheels. But what's unfortunate is the notion that 3D printing is a replacement for more traditional production methods. The fact is that apps or smartphones or laptops make very poor hammers and shovels. See if you can figure out what that means.

"Die" is not an option for me; I have WAY too much stuff still to do to be bothered with that.

First Modelhaus went away, more recently AITM, then Scenes Unlimited, and many aftermarket websites selling high quality resin stuff are marking a very high percentage of their offerings as perpetually "OUT OF STOCK". Nobody's really picking up the slack, either. Though Scenes Unlimited's line was bought out by another company, many of the products in that line aren't being offered by the new guys. Sure, a lot of the great casters are getting old and hanging up their spurs, but where's the influx of new blood? 3D printing, though an option for some, is kinda like the whole EV thing: not everyone has the money to get into it. Nor does everyone have the time or desire to learn an entirely new skillset. And yes, there are some high-quality resin makers still plying their trade, and every now and then a new one appears on the scene...but it would probably be a good idea to buy any resin you want...and can afford...NOW.

Parts this fragile should come with a "no return" policy like many electrical and electronic parts do. Idiots who hook things up wrong and burn them out don't get a refund for their stupidity. Idiots who can't grasp the obvious fact you can't put any pressure on those tiny spokes shouldn't be catered to either, and just to make sure, the parts should be labeled with BIG RED LETTERS explaining just that...and nobody will read the warning, but at least the manufacturer is covered in advance.

Well, you tried to help, and that's appreciated. Those parts might come back, and if they do, I'll be buying several sets.

Just more evidence that "stupid" and "mindless rude thoughtlessness" should be crimes. If they were, the idiot who blocked the other guy in would have most likely already been in prison for life, and this incident never would have happened.

Those are a great improvement over most of the kit tires, but unfortunately they're out-of-stock. Thanks anyway...and I'll be watching that site in case they're ever available again.

Hot-rodders would also mount two carbs to a variety of Y-looking adaptors that bolted to the stock manifold. This was flow-limited by the size of the stock hole in the manifold, of course.

It's pretty easy to convert a stock flathead manifold to a "good enough" multi-carb setup, and only really involves filing the top flat, then making appropriate carb flanges from styrene sheet. If you want to get fancy, you can mold the flanges in with a catalyzed filler, and maybe carve some runners. Stock '32 manifold 2-carb manifold 3-carb manifold

Maybe after management decides there's no ongoing "threat", they'll open up back-editing again.

Is it the Lotus 29 from 1963 or the 1965 winner Lotus 38? They're very different tires. 1963 1965

"Retired", to me, means continuing to do the work I've done most of my life because I love it, but entirely for myself.

Icing polyester glazing putty from USC is by far my favorite of the 2-part catalyzed fillers, both for models and surface finishing on full scale work.

To eat or not to eat; that is the question at the moment.

"Think" is a concept that can inspire terror.

"Street beef" is what we called the dog meat a local restaurant had been suspected of serving (a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away); "sewer chicken" was rat, "yard lamb" was cat.