Quote:
Originally Posted by Electronic M
+1
Most consumer 3D printers I've seen don't make especially smooth or detailed surfaces and the industrial ones that do are expensive...Also, there is the matter of creating and suitably refining a CAD model of the part.
Making a silicone mold is cheap, fast (ignoring mold and epoxy dry times, but you don't sit and watch it dry for a day like you might have to sit and tweak a cad model for hours) and accurate.
You can even make high-temperature silicone models that you can cast lead or pewter in...I've been considering doing that for a reproducing cracked pot metal parts for a Capehart turnover changer that I would like to eventually pair with my E.H Scott FM Philharmonic.
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Look up the AFCA online and look up "switch replicas" on the forum there.
There are people out there that have 3D printed replicas of 110+ Year Old Power Switch Knobs for GE Pancake Fans from 1893-1908, and they turned out just fine, all they do is wet sand and buff out the rough edges and then polish with plastic polish like Novus on a Jewelers Rouge and they have a nicely reproduced plastic knob that looks just like the original.
http://afcaforum.com/view_topic.php?...e+switch+knobs
See link above for what I mean, they completely reproduced an entire ceramic bodied switch from a 100+ year old GE Fan using 3D Printer Technology and the switches look just like the originals, and the 3D Printer they used was NOT an industrial grade one.