SFC COVER
- Thread starter sfc vintage
- Start date
sideshow
Hero member
Nice work mate. Looks awesome
I can almost hear our traditional suppliers groaning with excitement....
Dont get me wrong, Im sure this 3d printing has its uses, but do we all now have to go out and buy a 3d printer now?
Just cause we can?
What happens to the businesses that have grown and employ people, and have made the molds, castings etc and are already supplying the rest of us with parts?
Does it just come down to cost? again?
I know those covers are readily available.
Maybe Im just wrong...
3d printers,
every house should have one and we can do away with these pesky parts suppliers.
Ill go now...
Dont get me wrong, Im sure this 3d printing has its uses, but do we all now have to go out and buy a 3d printer now?
Just cause we can?
What happens to the businesses that have grown and employ people, and have made the molds, castings etc and are already supplying the rest of us with parts?
Does it just come down to cost? again?
I know those covers are readily available.
Maybe Im just wrong...
3d printers,
every house should have one and we can do away with these pesky parts suppliers.
Ill go now...
sideshow
Hero member
Interesting comment , but I have to say some of the stuff we get is pretty poor quality. I bought exactly this part from a “usual supplier in Europe”, and when my engine was with Red, I asked him to send it with the rest of my cases to get blasted , it was such poor quality we couldn’t do anything but fill and paint it again. So no wonder we are making our own parts. Just because there are poor quality re manufactured parts out there should we have to buy them ? I’m not saying everything is poor quality at all. But in this case there are some shit covers out there ! Trawling through the Forum( and I mean trawling through years of posts , so I can learn about laverda’s ) it’s not uncommon to see that items bought , don’t fit as they should, from cables to exhausts etc. it seems people warn others of or bemoan the parts they bought that don’t fit as they should. Then there is also the triumph of finding a part destined for another vehicle that fits our bikes, and doesn’t cost a ton eg Clems starter solenoid . From the other side it’s fun to make your own things not only are we learning or using a skill we already have , we do it ourselves. In reality there aren’t many final objects with 3 d printers bought in the sub 6k price range that can print final products. Let alone less than 100K to print metal, so I think suppliers are safe there. But if you are making custom items 3d printers are really helpful, you get to proof what you design before you have something , in this case cast, or in my case machined, this saves a huge amount of money and stuff ups. I’m still using a machinist so someone is still getting paid. I’m already helping in a few classic motorcycle groups to re produce parts no longer available, that we can use as final end use items, with my printer , from switch housings to carb inlets and pipes, no one else is making these , so I don’t feel bad at all about what I do. There are also great posts on how people have made their own fixes on here too, or machined their own parts ... I don’t have a mill or a lathe, yet , but check out Quentins SFQ.., I wish I had half the skill he has which he humbly down plays all the time. But those that do and have made their own parts probably haven’t scared or damaged sales of parts suppliers ... so I wouldn’t worry too much ! It just means there will be people to call on when the Wolfgangs of the world disappear.
I should add , this is a good natured reply,,, not meant to piss off or upset anyone
Last edited:
helicopterjim
Hero member
- Location
- near Lone Butte, BC, Canada
sideshow
Hero member
You could print it in TI, or in Ali or even 316. But you would need a decent metal printer.
this is an entry level one .... and that means over 100k cost for the gear US dollars or euros.
There are print farms where you can upload your drawing to, have it quoted out in your choice of material from cheap PLA to stainless, aluminium, titanium or even gold .... you can print what you want in which ever material, depending on your needs, or how practical it needs to be, to plain bling ... depends on if you are normal, practical , egotistical or just plain stinking rich !
more over it allows for designs that we can’t machine yet, or if we could the time it would take would be too long to be economical or practical.
helicopterjim
Hero member
- Location
- near Lone Butte, BC, Canada
I guess I was under the impression that the 3D printed part would be used for the mould for casting a new cover.
What do I know? Nothing.
Jim
What do I know? Nothing.
Jim
sideshow
Hero member
You could use it to make a sand cast around, the 3 d print I imagine will be the model which the sand is compressed around.
I would be interested in casting a magnesium one, if not that I would Have it machined up on a CNC machine in Ali
sfc vintage
Hero member
Yes the 3D print is for a mould, and is 1,5 % bigger. Now I Will make is ready for casting, the cover is for my Spaceframe.
helicopterjim
Hero member
- Location
- near Lone Butte, BC, Canada
That is what I thought ..... probably cheaper than a CNC version.
Jim
Jim
sfc vintage
Hero member
Yes, and look more like the original.
Yes I have the same cover and when stripped it did have some pitting from the casting, Im just going to fill with weld and polish up, no drama.
I think there is a difference between 3d printing something that is a one off, for example an Ignitech black box holder and a part that is readily available.
Thats just my take on it.
I guess I lament the disappearance of real skills, Pattern Makers,and the like were people with real skill.
Somehow plugging in a computer and watching it spit out a piece of plastic does not get the same respect from me.
They have there place, and there's nothing nicer than well designed CNC piece, but to plastic print a piece that is readily available at a decent price does seem strange.
Thats my 2 cents
Cheers
Tom
helicopterjim
Hero member
- Location
- near Lone Butte, BC, Canada
sideshow
Hero member
I dig what you say about a loss of skills. They are quickly disappearing in every old school trade all round the world. Try finding someone in my industry that can build worm parcel and serve rigging, or do Liverpool splices in wire I’m the only one on the island I know of who can do this , proper tall ship riggers are far and few in between, let alone finding a pattern maker.on the island.
piranha-bro2
Hero member
- Location
- Melbourne
And isn't a CNC part pretty much produced by a machine using digital coordinates? Not that far removed from a 3D printer. Certainly a long way from me on the little Emco, turning stuff up by hand and then bolting on makeshift milling attachments and vices to force it to do stuff it wasn't designed for! I can see that there will be quality differences b/w 3D, cast and CNC billet products; noone will dispute that billet is king of the heap in terms of structural integrity.
Your praise of my machining skills is appreciated, but not really warranted, Todd! Self-taught and lacking in loads of the skills that a real fitter and turner possesses - I struggle even sharpening and profiling tool steel. I make stuff cos I like learning and creating - and cos I'm a chiseller who can't afford to pay someone to make what I visualise!!
Your praise of my machining skills is appreciated, but not really warranted, Todd! Self-taught and lacking in loads of the skills that a real fitter and turner possesses - I struggle even sharpening and profiling tool steel. I make stuff cos I like learning and creating - and cos I'm a chiseller who can't afford to pay someone to make what I visualise!!
motoddrob
Hero member
- Location
- S/W Australia
With all this 3d printing and CNC stuff I'm no longer qualified to do a job I've been doing for 35 years.
I'm someone that has made shit all my life and as a model maker have made some bizaar stuff for clients over the years.
Glad I retired from that job 15 years ago
I'm someone that has made shit all my life and as a model maker have made some bizaar stuff for clients over the years.
Glad I retired from that job 15 years ago
helicopterjim
Hero member
- Location
- near Lone Butte, BC, Canada
I'm still more interested in the castings that will be produced ........ I doubt that CNC machining or 3D printing can make that happen.
Jim
Jim
sideshow
Hero member
I think you guys are missing the point of my post
1) I don’t think just because something exists that somebody else can’t have a go at making it ... I use what I have available to me. I’m not a pattern maker nor a machinist , I can however use modern tech to get a similar out come to what some of you guys can do.
2) I don’t agree to having to pay hard earned money on poor quality products , I mean why would you knowingly buy a poor cast product, like the side covers that are of low quality ( I didn’t know this or I would have not have bought one ) when you can probably do something better if you have access to doing it. What’s the problem there .... if we said why make a part that already exists , then there would be no development nor competition nor would anything get any better ( not everything gets better with development I know )
3) 3 d printers aren’t the end all and he all. But they are a great tool. In the future they will be better , but they won’t be able to do everything . But be prepared for them having almost the same effect as computers have had on people’s lives , almost everyone of you has a computer or access to one , if you didn’t you wouldn’t be on this forum.
it’s a sad fate that tech takes over skills that will be lost once people stop doing the work that trades people and artisans do, with or without 3 d printers it’s slowly heading that way , I don’t like it because I work with my hands and my job will go by the by too, probably before I reach retirement age
4) I thought it was great that a printer was being used to create the mould which will have the sand cast mould built around it to cast a part .... I mean that’s cool making your own part is awesome. It’s also definitely not going to put the parts suppliers out of work, nor is using a cnc machine, and you have to have a pretty good skill set to know all the tool paths to program one of those .
I think it’s praise worthy, and I think given the average age of the people in this forum it’s cool to see , respectfully said here, some old dogs learning some new tricks , I think that’s ‘Ken awesome.
1) I don’t think just because something exists that somebody else can’t have a go at making it ... I use what I have available to me. I’m not a pattern maker nor a machinist , I can however use modern tech to get a similar out come to what some of you guys can do.
2) I don’t agree to having to pay hard earned money on poor quality products , I mean why would you knowingly buy a poor cast product, like the side covers that are of low quality ( I didn’t know this or I would have not have bought one ) when you can probably do something better if you have access to doing it. What’s the problem there .... if we said why make a part that already exists , then there would be no development nor competition nor would anything get any better ( not everything gets better with development I know )
3) 3 d printers aren’t the end all and he all. But they are a great tool. In the future they will be better , but they won’t be able to do everything . But be prepared for them having almost the same effect as computers have had on people’s lives , almost everyone of you has a computer or access to one , if you didn’t you wouldn’t be on this forum.
it’s a sad fate that tech takes over skills that will be lost once people stop doing the work that trades people and artisans do, with or without 3 d printers it’s slowly heading that way , I don’t like it because I work with my hands and my job will go by the by too, probably before I reach retirement age
4) I thought it was great that a printer was being used to create the mould which will have the sand cast mould built around it to cast a part .... I mean that’s cool making your own part is awesome. It’s also definitely not going to put the parts suppliers out of work, nor is using a cnc machine, and you have to have a pretty good skill set to know all the tool paths to program one of those .
I think it’s praise worthy, and I think given the average age of the people in this forum it’s cool to see , respectfully said here, some old dogs learning some new tricks , I think that’s ‘Ken awesome.
Last edited: