Is Jay Leno the only guy out there running a prototype parts/pattern printer? For antique parts....
Was thinking about adding one to CNC machine center and hope someone in the club could give a review.
Even if it was Jay himself....

Was also looking at the printer that works with ceramic in addition to plastic....

An update on the 3d printer Quickparts has a printer that can shoot with .001 accuracy with both scanned and CAD parts.In most metals and ceramic...
And one of the few that used lasers to get the heat....so they can go to structural ceramics among other things.Used mostly in aerospace design work...
Wondering the club would mind having access to one up repair and replacement parts
for something that you can't find.
Me I was needing something that can shoot turbine parts with design changes in 2-4 hours.Instead of that many weeks...roughly.

For folks that wanted to line combustion section on the boiler. Still have to paint it on the walls then heat in a kiln for the bulky items.And the stuff Jay
Leno was doing on a Vanerbilt combustion chamber needs more heat than a artistian
Kiln.

Rapid prototyping machines using lasers to set liquid into solid (monomers converted to polymers) or powder fused to solid have been around for about 20 years.
The current wave of 3D printers are getting attention as they are cheap, but extruding plastic drool is not as strong or near as accurate. They are being confused with the better and MUCH more expensive machines. Currently the cheap 3D printers approx $2000 are mostly a great solution looking for a problem they can solve.
The ceramic and metal rapid prototyping machines with a decent product size area are in the $100,000 range.

Cheers
Mark

Mark,named very machine & price tag I was looking at ...Because of three auto racing teams am racing & talking to because of my own half hearted attempts at that sport.They are running both the plastic for dashboards,etc. plastic parts up to 5ft long.And the 100,000 dollar laser "thag" is for 1.5ft long parts...
In the back of my mind am thinking of doing for myself prototyping and casting parts.With about $250,000 shop after everthing is say and done.
With emergence of Elio three wheel autocycle,I am still trying to cut a deal for my custom motorcycle shop to do steam/turbine hobby machine.sort like the brits were doing with likamobile and H5 replica.
So far everything is about as clear as sand,while I am cutting the deals...
Pipedreams at this time runs like reverve turbine powered trike with standard power windows and doorlock,AC/heat,cruise control,modern car electronic package,Lamont boiler,gas engine speed(107mph topend)(hoping to perfect at least 1/3 of the fuel economy of gas engine...85mpg on highway with 900cc engine) With a final sale of between 10,000 and 15,000. Well..like I said until
the deals are lined out,it is a pipedream.

I forgot to detail to turbine that my custom motorcycle shop would be trying to add in both steam and gas turbine configuration...the Garrett 40hp APU engine.Everything else is factory Elio autocycle except for the powerplant.A british hobbist was nice enough to do body wrap in all the factory colors,except black,silver, and white.

Well,got the turbine price from the suppliers and steamtrike just jumped about 10,000dollar to use garrett.
At the same time it does not look good with Cyclone for a piston engine....which was as expensive as the turbine....if I can get one.( Alot of head scraching on that one.)
If I did run a steam piston it would probably be turbo compound to something like Mike brown's 20hp engine about half the price(5000 roughly).Which is about 200 ftlbs torque and 10% effeciency compounding into 40hp turbine getting 240ftpounds and upwards of 60% ...for gross total of 40%+ like most utility steam plants.(Brown cutoff is already fixed for the backpressure of 30(normal working) to 47pounds(pressure bypass opens in wastegate fashion) needed at full load)
The steambike would still be price competive with Harley trike at $32,000 and get upwards of 100mpg.And don't remember building a harley custom bike that could get 440ftpounds even with turbochargers and nitro injection....

Arnold
There’s a lot of old turbines around I just got rid of a duel wheel 16 inch and a nine inch.
You can build your own housing like the Brits did.
Or you could install a nice compound engine. Real hot rod.
Rolly

Finally got the measurements on the space I need to work with for the boiler on the steambike. Retangle box 5ft longX2ft width and about 3to4 inch thick mounted like
a muffler under the bike needing to develop 20hp+ piston power rating....probably monotube or LaMonte.
Looks really tight under there....probably hung with rubber muffler hangers and flexible hoses for steam plumbing connections.So that you can drop/ maintence the boiler and coils on a work bench if needed.Still looks like I can have enorgh space for a Lamonte steam separater like showed on Nuts article under the hood running turbines at least.
I want something clean enough design that I can sell these things at a Rod shop on consignment ...even if the steam crowd wasn't interested in buying it.
The bike pictured is front wheel drive using Chevy Geo 5speed transmission computer controlled.Using a M mark on console instead of paddles on the steering wheel.(What Elio is marketing as an automatic transmission)
The bike comes standard with power windows/door lock,AC/heat,and electronic dash setup that looks like it come out of a Cadillic.Including blackbox readout on maintence issues while you are rolling down the road, in aviation/commerical trucking fashion downloadable on shop computer by cellphone(vehicle uses cell data hotpoint instead of phone as many most folks talk on)....along with gps position of where you are driving that thing.

I biult a steam bike also. I would,nt put door locks on. I locked myself out twice. And it overheated. It would have been ok If I would had air condition. Bill
[www.youtube.com]

I like what you have done....the only thing is maybe making it condensing extend water range.
Got around that using condensing turbines,but there is more than one way to skin a catfish and you may have better condenser idea as well.My turbine have about 40% effiecency, so a 24hp. turbine would compound off of 3hp piston,roughly.(while holding a 30psi boost pressure on the powerwheel using a complete Garrett GT15 turbocharger for the compressor shaft,then you have a seperate shaft with powerwheel working like a torque convertor turning the gearbox. ).

Getting a little long winded,should have said I like what you got and left it at that...