With 3D printers finding their way into the workshops of makers the world over, it was bound to happen sooner or later. [Ivan Sentch] is making an Aston Martin DB4 with a 3D printer.
Before we board the hype train, let’s go over what this is project is not: [Ivan] isn’t making any metal parts with his 3D printer, and the chassis and engine will be taken from a donor car. Also, the printed plastic parts won’t actually make their way into the final build; the 3D printed body panels will be used to pull the final panels in fiberglass. That being said, it’s still an impressive undertaking that’s going to cost [Ivan] $2250 NZD in plastic alone.
[Ivan]’s body panels are made by taking a DB4 model in Solidworks, slicing it up into 105mm squares, giving each square extruded sides, and finally securing them to the wooden form after the parts are printed. There’s still an awful lot of work to be done once the 3D printed parts are all glued together, but it’s still an amazingly impressive – and cheap – way to create a replica of a very famous automobile.
lol his site was having problems yesterday… I think we may kill it.
I think we did kill it :)
“The service is unavailable.”
Probably because of a takedown request from the MPAA for being linked to by a site that uses a phrase similar to one they own the copyright for.
The site is back up. get it while you can
I’m surprised he didn’t just use CAD to design the panels, break them into one inch strips, cut them out in foam, then glue all together.
Cut costs, the machine shop time is expensive.
For $2000 NZD he could easily build a 5 axis hot-wire cutter.
HAD the killer of small sites.
Now I am become HackaDay, destroyer of servers.
I think it’s probably other sites that also carried this, like reddit for instance.
I don’t think HaD has the crowd to kill a site by volume.
Probably not, but it definitely has the most suspicious looking referral URL for a server admin looking through the logs of their recently downed host.
what about the weight?
these are just forms that will be used to lay fiberglass on to.
There was a plastic shell car in the 70s called a Bricklin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricklin_SV-1
I’m just saying, old idea.
Not just plastic, Canadian.
Trabis for the win! The East Germans made millions of Trabants. Say what you will about plastic, but it never rusts
How long do they last in a sunny climate, though? (c:
I don’t think that was ever a problem in East Germany. Trabis are quite neat though, the odd mad hobbyist imports them to other countries.
The build is not a plastic shelled car, it is a mold made from a cad file that has been printed on a hobby grade 3d printer. He is using a printerbot. effectively he is downloading a car. putting a lot of time into printing a mold. of the car, pulling the fiberglass from the mold. than attaching said fiber glass to the exterior of a different car.. I am pretty sure that the idea is different.
Also I believe that the Tesla is mostly extruded plastics.
the tesla is stamped sheetmetal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_lfxPI5ObM
Since now making fake Ferraris out of old MR2s will be much easier ;D
Actually he made it with a Solidoodle.
I did some reading, apparently he purchased the model from here http://www.turbosquid.com/3d-models/3d-aston-martin-db4/640063
Ah been fantasising about building a ferrari 250TR using this technique and adapting some readily available chassis designs to fit the body and having one hell of a cool car.
One step closer to Diamond Age’s matter compilers. Still a long way to go, but anything that gets us closer is good.
Any estimates of how much this would cost from Shapeways?