leothegreat

iTrader: (3)

Looks cool and sounds cool but not practicle

snoopyrc

iTrader: (2)

You may be right. But a couple of guys on here seem confident that wheels can be printed as strong as a molded piece. If that is possible, and I believe them that say it is, then it shouldn't be long until it can be done with a maker bot. The day that happens I will be getting into the 1 off VTA and USGT wheel market. Yippie ki yay. Even if I don't someone will. I think the time for this is soon. I am excited to see what people can come up with who are in it for the love.

jeff jenkins

iTrader: (84)

I have a 3d printer at home that i have been printing a ton of parts on that are usable but the problem is the time it takes to print parts is only good for doing parts for your self. They are getting to the point of speeding things up and with the software i use for slicing simplify 3d i can shave hrs off of a print with strategy but its not quite there yet for production products unless i want to just print to order and take on only certain limited orders at a time . Cool thing is i can have it print while playing call of duty haha.

Shiloh

I've printed some RC wheels with my Makerbot Replicator 2 using PLA. The wheels were too brittle to use. One wheel busted when I removed it from the printer bed. The thing to remember is that 3D printers are awesome at slowly creating weak and somewhat sloppy parts. For prototyping purposes, 3D printers are ideal. For producing a usable part, 3D printers are horrible. Injection molding is the best solution for producing wheels.

jeff jenkins

iTrader: (84)

True but it will get there tho. I print using nylon and abs mostly and only use pla for non mechanical things.

snoopyrc

iTrader: (2)

For production parts I can clearly see to agree with you that injection molding is the best way to make a wheel. What I am hoping for is a way to make custom one-off wheels that will be strong enough for VTA and USGT. Hopeful also that the bulky design of VTA wheels will make them easier to reproduce with some durability. They just aren't as thin and light as a TC wheel.

Yeah it will get there. I think it almost is here.

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