LSA Powered 69 Camaro -"Lou's Change"

[Lous69]

Originally Posted by Rick D

Looks great Lou! Can you explain what you mean by "PRINTED" in ABS plastic??

The video does a nice job of explaining what 3D printing is overall.

To actually print our grille, Dan used a machine that uses a little different technology.
Instead of a powder bed as shown in the video, the machine Dan uses feeds the plastic of his choice, in the form of a monfilament line, into a heated nozzle that melts it and deposits it in very small droplets, one layer at a time.

It literally "builds" the 3 Dimensional part, one very thin layer at a time. Think of it as a lazor printer that deposits solid plastic instead of colored ink. It just keeps deposting one layer at a time as instructed by the design he puts into it.

To create the design itself, he first scanned a stock 69 Camaro grille with a
hand held, 3D scanner similar to the one in the video above. That gave him a computer model of the stock grille.

Next he replaced portions of the stock design with his own design ideas. His new design is then converted to a CAD file that can provide instructions to the 3D printer.

The grille in the picture is what came out of the 3D printer. It is an actual ABS plastic part that will be finished and used on the car.

Fascinating stuff. We plan to post a video of the entire process from start to finish with the grille in the car.