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3D printing airplane parts at Shapeways

Posted by Chris Anderson on December 2, 2010 at 10:00am

If you're at all handy with 3D drafting tools, you can have the most amazing objects printed for you at Shapeways. Above is just one example, a cockpit for a P-51 Mustang.

You can print in a wide range of materials, from flexible plastic to stainless steel. And it's remarkably cheap, usually around $2-$3 per cubic centimeter.

Shapeways can accept output from many 3D authoring tools, but I prefer Alibre, which is designed for physical objects and is affordable ($99). Lots of people use the free Sketchup, too, although because it's designed for virtual objects it can be a little tricky to ensure that your design will print properly. Others use everything from Blender (open source, crazy hard to use) to Solidworks ($5,000!).

Here's another example: an EasyStar FPV cockpit mount that Jason Short designed and 3D printed. Pretty cool, huh?

Coming out of the 3D printer:

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Comments

Lew Payne December 3, 2010 at 10:41am

@Eli - It would be great if the machine could "air infuse" that plastic, except for the outer layers. This would make the cartridge last longer, as well as make the actual part lighter. Just as they "air infuse" some chocolate bars (in particular, ChocoLite) and similar solids, to save money (or calories).

in the 70s, Food of the Seventies, Choco-lite Candy Bar

70s Nostalgia page devoted to food of the Seventies
Paul Marsh December 3, 2010 at 8:11am

@Chris--Your MakerBot link got a little funky (includes DIYDrones). This one should work -- MAKERBOT.
Paul Marsh December 3, 2010 at 7:53am

@Chris--I thought you had posted something a while ago about 3D printing. Here's an open source project I found--HERE
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson December 3, 2010 at 7:25am

I have and use a MakerBot, which is just $649:
John Owen December 3, 2010 at 6:50am

Jason, if you do not mind me asking, how much did your mount cost you to have printed?
Eli Cohen December 3, 2010 at 6:13am

if you shell out for that printer (a dimension elite?), itll actually only cost 25 cents per cc. a cartridge holds 1000 cc's and costs 250 bucks. there is a small amount of support material used as well, but way less than a 1:1 ratio, most of the time. if they're charging ~2.50/cc, theyll recoup their loss on the machine (ignoring electricity usage) after about 12 cartridges of plastic (= a verrrrry long print job)
Developer

Sandro Benigno December 2, 2010 at 7:41pm

I wanna try it someday. Very cool.
Even more, after read the specific weight of some materials.
E.g. "White, Strong & Flexible" have 0.98g/cc against 1.19g/cc of acrylic.
Michael Zaffuto December 2, 2010 at 6:04pm

golf ball diameter of 1.68 inches yields volume of 40.7 cm3
Developer

Jason Short December 2, 2010 at 4:46pm

These parts are built in layers and can de-lanimate in a crash. You can use acrylic solvent to fuse the layers for more strength. Thin Cyano will work as well when it soaks in.

My canopy came in at maybe 35 grams.
Developer

John Arne Birkeland December 2, 2010 at 12:28pm

$2-3 per cm3 might sound cheap but it quickly adds up. The size a golf ball is 77 cm3.