Viability of 3D printing for replacement parts

[theheirophant]

_​I refurbish and repair laptops, tablets, and other electronics on a regular basis. I was wondering if an AIO 3D printer would have the resolution to scan and print things such as: back replacement covers, small plastic bezels, etc. Also what would the cost of 3d printing versus purchasing covers on ebay ($3-10 usually) be? The covers are thin and small so would not use much plastic i imagine. Just looking for a general opinion on the viability of it. thanks to anyone who can help

[awerby]

The short answer would be "no". While I don't have one of those scanner/printers, it does sound like an interesting idea. But looking at the results in this review http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/11/the...e-3d-printers/ the resolution of the scanner isn't close to what would be required to produce a snap-fit part like you're contemplating, even if the printer were up to the task (which is questionable).

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[curious aardvark]

prints nice - but the scans are pretty lo-res.

The other issue you might have with 3d printing parts is simply that they don't look like injection moulded parts.
They have the same strength and flexibility - material dependant - but you don't get quite the same or feel.

That's not to say they wouldn't work just as well as an original part - they most likely would. But there is a very noticeable difference.

[richardphat]

We have dealt with creaform scanner in our campus (those 25 000$ industrial grade scanner for reverse engineering), and I can tell you forget it. You will spend much more trouble, you have to repair the mesh yourself and even then, the accuracy is off enough to turn a tight fit into a not able to assemble with ease.

[theheirophant]

Thank you all for the answers, I truly appreciate your insights and defer to your experience.

The AIO I was considering was the ZEUS which seems to have a decent scanner. I can definitely imagine the headaches trying to get parts to snap fit correctly though. I thought that with such simple objects it might be possible.

If I were to endeavor to do something like this anyways (because part of me just wants to write off a 3D printer as a business expense LOL)... how much time would be involved in fine tuning an object? I spend something like $600+ a month on buying these covers, so to put some time into this is worth it

[LambdaFF]

In my opinion it will be a good viable option when manufacturers make such models available online (for free) or if postage + cost are over 50$.

Say you break a cover, download it and get it printed locally.

As said by others, the scan is way too useless as of today : too much model handling time.

Depending on the shape, designing your own version might be an option... if it's REALLY simple. Because, for a couple $, it's not efficient if you spend hours designing it.

[MercedesStolp]

No, I don't think it will work well. A good one is available at $5 to $10. May be there where some issue with it.

[Marm]

You need pretty high tolerances in that type of application, and as mentioned, most scanners can't do it.

Look up a few of the products you are thinking about replicating, see if the schematics are posted somewhere. If not, get yourself a a good set of digital calipers, you can find decent quality ones on amazon (and other sites) for <$30 (The set I use is http://www.amazon.com/Inch-Digital-C...gital+calipers I recommend it, not a high end set, but it has good resolution (.01mm) and hasn't failed me yet, and for $12, i wouldn't complain if it did) . That and a couple stainless steel rules, and you'll have most of the tools you'll need. You can probably reverse engineer most of what you are trying to replace with a just a bit of work. But the beauty is, once you have it, you save it and can print it on demand later. Initial startup cost and labor time may be high, but it will pay off in the long run as you will reduce your purchasing costs.