Printing star plates

[schroedinger]

Did anybody ever tried to 3d print a star plate?

 

Could be an easy and cheap way to make up one.

 

Does someone know about the stability of such a print?

[Zingy]

I am a little familiar with 3-D Printing or Stereolithography as an investor, in 3-D Systems. as an initial public offering. The UV reactive resins or polymers were not intended to handle a lot of friction, or stresses. of tooling. They were designed for prototyping, modeling, or light production usage; such as the biomedical field. The Big Three US Automakers use it for some non-moving parts, were stress, heat, or friction, are not concerns, like wire harness connectors.

 

There was an initial problem with shrinkage from the Computer Aided Design, when Stereolithography , was first used in industry. I am unsure if the problem continued (or was allowed to continue), with consumer usage of 3-D Printers.

 

I would not even use brass, as it is too soft of a metal, for tooling, of planned extended usage. Stainless Steel is the optimal tooling material.

 

There have been National Security issues of consumer 3-D Printers being used, in non metallic firearms, for single usage, or low usage, of low energy producing handgun ammunition, like the 'Saturday Night Special' calibers, where the resins or polymers failed and injured the user.

 

The idea of using 3-D Printers for display shell inserts, might deserve merit, if it is not cost prohibited. The idea of easily scaling, up or down shell insert's dimensions, according to shell size, is likely already done, for fireworks manufacturing. Please let us know, of your experimentation.

 

Acetone would likely affect the integrity of the solidified resins, or polymers.

Edited February 17, 2014 by Zingy

[Col]

Nylon 6-6 sheet comes in a range of useful thicknesses for making star plates, its easy to drill and resistant to most chemicals.