3D Print Automotive center hubs, radio knobs and taillights and injection mold toolin

[Sebastian Finke]

I'm interested in your opinion on what printer can best support my applications.

1. I'm looking to 3D print center hubs. I believe the material that would work best for this is ABS due to the snap/click on features. As you can see from the link for the center hubs I will need to do some post processing. So I'm concerned about appearance if painted/chromed, etc. If anyone has post processed for painting or chroming I'd be interested in understanding your preparation, process, materials used and results.

You will need to use ABS if you intend chroming the parts however the to-be-chromed surface must be super smooth and have a perfect finish otherwise it will look awful.

2. I'm also looking to replace cracked tail lights for my airstream. I haven't been able to find translucent ABS that could be used for something like this. There is a digital ABS from Stratasys but I believe would be a specific printer. Polyjet? I have a budget of around 3-4K and would like to get as many of these items on my hit list covered in that budget.

A word of caution: light emissions for vehicles are very strictly regulated. Driving around with a home made light can get you into serious trouble with the law, not to mention the danger to others if the emissions are too low/high. Buy the replacement part.

3. If I happen to run into a product that others are looking for I'd like to help them out and manufacture it for them. Depending on the demand, instead of printing it every time I would consider 3D printing injection mold tooling for small runs of injection molding (25-100 parts).

I might be better off starting with a printer that can handle #1 and #2 and then as things pick up purchase another printer specifically that can handle #3? I'd like to have access to some application support with the 3D printer for material selection etc. I'm leaning towards a Makerbot Replicator 2X since it seems like there is plenty of support behind this company. I think I could only cover #1 with this selection.

http://store.makerbot.com/replicator2x

I wouldn't bother attempting to 3D print inject moulds on an FDM printer. The quality just isn't there. And there are plenty companies out there that knock out dirt cheap prototype (low-low run) moulds.

My two pennies...