Source for cad files to 3d print various parts

[Jon Heron]

Cheers,
Jon

[Bented]

We make a thousand or more of these parts per order several times a year from off white ABS tubing, this is tedious at best.
Can your printer make 150+ per shift and hold the +.002 - .000" numbers?

[garyhlucas]

Can you make a rocket engine with internal passages in one piece from an alloy like hastelloy? 3D printers can, in less time for a fraction of the cost. So what was your question?

[Bented]

Can you make a rocket engine with internal passages in one piece from an alloy like hastelloy? 3D printers can, in less time for a fraction of the cost. So what was your question?

That is excellent, what does such a machine cost at the entry level?
I know nothing about 3d printing, my question is can a common consumer plastic machine make the above parts whilst holding the numbers.
Where exactly did I mention aerospace components?

[BCRider]

....my question is can a common consumer plastic machine make the above parts whilst holding the numbers.

So why didn't you politely ask that in your first post instead of the rather aggressive reading attack that your first reply came across as to at least two of us? You did ask I grant you. But read your post again. It was asked with the appearance of a shovel slap to the side of the head manner to it.

I've done the same thing at times. I write stuff that comes across all wrong in any number of ways. It's hard to get the right sort of meaning into a typed message. And when I inevitably get called on it I read what I wrote and come back with an apology.

[gda]

The short answer is no. And for that part and making thousands the answer is that conventional cnc will be the best method because it is a very simple part that a CNC with a bar feed (provided spindle is big enough) would just eat up.

By "common consumer" I believe you are referring to FFF (fused filament fabrication) and the machines in the $300-$7,000 range. The tolerance is not there. There are a few other main methods - binder jetting (glue and dust), and stereolithograhy (UV cured resins like the formlabs or carbon machines), and laser sintering ($100K machines like EOS). Again tolerance is not there and would need a secondary operation - which for such a simple part made out of a relatively inexpensive material - there is also no advantage. If your part had features that could not be made by subtractive methods, or was made of a very high cost material then your would start to gain some justification.

Also - a few years ago there was a shift to calling this "additive manufacturing" rather than "printing". This was an acknowledgement that these machines may not provide a finished part - they will need secondary operations - making this just another option for making parts.

Now - for each of these methods you will also get different material properties than subtractive machining from regular stock. The sintering - as you would guess - is also porous. So you can't just automatically make an interchange and need to have discussions with the customer.

Before I retired I was deep in this and knew many of the vendors personally, went to the conferences, trade shows, and users groups, and am still friends with many of the professors that are still in this field. The old adage of the more I learn the less I know is true - especially in this constantly developing field. (a few years ago users of some of the metal laser sintering machines reported different material properties from their parts after firmware upgrades, or location of the identical part on the build platform)

[Bented]

These parts would ideally be injection molded but the volume is to low for the customer to invest in the molds.
If the groove dimensions could be held a slow process could be run 24/7 unattended and lights out.