In the wake of Luigi Mangione’s alleged killing of a health care CEO with a partially 3D-printed pistol, we built and tested the exact same model of weapon ourselves. And it was entirely legal.
3D printing isn’t meant for production-level accuracy. It’s a prototyping technology that is good enough for a lot of different applications, but not when sub-millimeter precision is necessary.
Can you make something that works? Of course! Will it work as reliably as something made using better processes? Usually not.
You can definitely reliably get sub-millimeter precision with a consumer-grade 3d printer. Even with a 0.4mm nozzle, once dialed-in, you can make print-in-place models with a clearance of 0.1mm, and the default layer thickness is typically 0.2mm.
While layer adhesion is usually the weakness of 3d-printed parts, some materials like PETG or TPU have very good adhesion, to the point that printing on a glass plate can damage the glass when removing the model.
Material shrinkage is another factor to consider, and there are a myriad of other reasons why there are more accurate ways to mass produce things.
Even assuming a perfect print - no blobs, no zits, and, just for the sake of argument, let’s ignore the Z seam - I disagree that you can reliably get 0.1 mm precision off of a FDM machine in all directions. I’ve been able to get parts to fit each other to within 0.3 mm reliably in the best conditions on a properly-calibrated Prusa MK3S+
3D printing isn’t meant for production-level accuracy. It’s a prototyping technology that is good enough for a lot of different applications, but not when sub-millimeter precision is necessary.
Can you make something that works? Of course! Will it work as reliably as something made using better processes? Usually not.
You can definitely reliably get sub-millimeter precision with a consumer-grade 3d printer. Even with a 0.4mm nozzle, once dialed-in, you can make print-in-place models with a clearance of 0.1mm, and the default layer thickness is typically 0.2mm.
While layer adhesion is usually the weakness of 3d-printed parts, some materials like PETG or TPU have very good adhesion, to the point that printing on a glass plate can damage the glass when removing the model.
Material shrinkage is another factor to consider, and there are a myriad of other reasons why there are more accurate ways to mass produce things.
Even assuming a perfect print - no blobs, no zits, and, just for the sake of argument, let’s ignore the Z seam - I disagree that you can reliably get 0.1 mm precision off of a FDM machine in all directions. I’ve been able to get parts to fit each other to within 0.3 mm reliably in the best conditions on a properly-calibrated Prusa MK3S+
But that’s just my experience.
Are you mad?!? My wife might read this!!
I give you my permission to “attack the source” on my comment since attacking the fact won’t get you far.