3D printing cost

builder22

builder22

builder22

Soldato
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14 Dec 2005
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hoping someone could give a rough idea....

Want to get a washing machine door glass/bowl made, it’s for a commercial machine so a bit bigger than normal. Although not far off some household machines.

Any idea on cost?

Would need to be pretty exact so...I take it there’s places that can just ‘3D scan’ objects then print them?
 
I'm guessing more expensive than a new machine. Seeing as even small items where you provide an STL file and in non waterproof plastic can be around £100
 
This will cost you much more than you think.

Best course would be to take it to a machinist and get them to cut a disk to fit the hole.
 
Basically depends on size, what material it's being printed in and time.

Bigger the object, longer it takes obviously. Then need to think about if it needs to be 100% filled or can it be honeycombed inside it etc.

If you can design it yourself you can check how much it costs,otherwise you'll be laying for the scan to, which imo is usually naff anyway
 
you can't print glass, can you? :-/
aside from that if it's for a commercial machine won't you have to have all sorts of health and safety issues covered? if the door fails and the place ifs flooded/people hurt i don't think you want to be standing in court telling them oyu just printed up a door window yourself. why is an official part for the machine not an option?
 
Cheers all....I'm aware that you can't print glass!

Spares are readily available but the whole point is to get a plastic door made as the glass ones keep setting damaged.

And yes have thought about why its getting damaged
 
A replacement door will by likely 10x cheaper than a 3D printed one. and the 3D printed one will have to have a lot of special design work so withstand the loads and maintain watertight seal.

Sounds like you have a much more serious problem if something is repeatedly breaking the glass door.
 
wolfie138 said:
you can't print glass, can you? :-/
Click to expand...

Obviously not glass but there are some higher end possibilities beyond what most people print with at home. I've got some polycarbonate stuff that is used for making bullet-proof transparent panels, etc. that is pretty tough and glass like except when printed at home stuff tends to be fairly brittle and I doubt at all suited for something like a panel in a washing machine.

I dunno about the high end printing stuff but I just can't see it being upto the loads and impacts involved in this application.

EDIT: That said having a quick play with something I printed earlier it seems fairly comparable in robustness to the door in our washing machine - though getting the same integrity on a larger and more complex (even just slightly complex as in the shape of a washing machine window) shape is another matter.
 
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actually there are glass printer, after all it acts like melted plastic, just much higher temps.

just buy the replacement it'll be multiple times cheaper or if it keeps getting damaged is it not worth buying a different machine.

forming polycarbonate would be much cheaper. 3d printing isn't ideal for every situation. I bet that would still be expensive though.
 
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