Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] REPRAP COST EFFECTIVE?

556RECON wrote:

> I love gadgets and stuff like this machine. and I want one. but I have
> to know how much I would use it an if it would be cost effective.
>
> An example: A part I make for a company is a spacer. It is 0.500"
> thick, 1.625" by 2.500". there is 1.125" hole centered on the piece and
> 2 0.1875" holes one on each end. They cannot be wood or metal so that
> means plastic.
>
> Can any one give me an idea of what the cost of materials and time to
> make the parts.
>

This is not a logical part for a filament fabricator. They are best on
thin parts
that are like shells or boxes, ie. lots of exterior but mostly hollow.
The typical
makerbot sort of machine might take 2 HOURS to make one of these parts.
Also, in most cases these machines cannot make precise parts due to
shrinkage,
and the parts are nowhere near solid. They are made of layers of thin
plastic
filament laid down layer by layer, but have air spaces between the strands.
If you can imagine building something by squeezing toothpaste out of a tube
and building up a structure, that's what it looks like, only on a much
smaller scale.

Cost of the material is not zero, but it is not real high, either. Most
people use PLA
or ABS for these machines. They are quite conservative with material,
there is a little
wastage in some cases to make a "foot" for the part on the build table,
but otherwise
all the material ends up in the part. I would doubt your part would use
more than
$2 - 4 of material. That is still probably a lot more than the cost of
Nylon or Delrin
in bars. But, the real difference is in time. I imagine you could make
these
parts in production on a mill in a couple minutes each, especially with some
fixtures to hold several in a row.

Jon