Subject:
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Re: making your own LEGO parts
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.general
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Date:
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Thu, 16 Dec 1999 16:06:39 GMT
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Viewed:
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613 times
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Michael Horvath wrote in message ...
> A while ago I was watching the Discovery channel and saw a program in which
> some scientists somewhere were building plastic models using a computer. • From
> what I understood, there's a big vat of molten plastic which cools and • hardens
> as it rises out of the heated tub. A laser then trims the cooling plastic • to
> the desired shape and dimension. I was wondering if this process could be
> used to build your own LEGO parts? It would be like having a printer • attached
> to your computer that builds objects instead of just displaying them.
> Mike
The process is called Stereo Lithography. At least one of the processes...
It is a laser-hardened low grade plastic that acts as a 3-D plotter for CAD
files. It is used for prototyping plastic parts.
Problem is cost of the equipment $175,000-and up (way up!). Also, the
tolerances of the prototyped part are typically less than desirable for
small Lego-type parts.
Hope this helps
Eric
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Message has 3 Replies:
 | | Re: making your own LEGO parts
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| (...) I believe he process uses an ultraviolet laser that cures a liquid resin into a solid form. I know LEGO uses this to prototype parts - in last year's catalog the first images of Darth Vader's helmet you could see the horizontal lines from the (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
| | | Re: making your own LEGO parts
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| (...) I am at art school and we have just won a grant to purchase one of these units at around the $200,000 mark (Australian) Previously we had to send our files away for production at a cost of around $1000 (Aus) per item depending on size. The (...) (25 years ago, 17-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | making your own LEGO parts
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| A while ago I was watching the Discovery channel and saw a program in which some scientists somewhere were building plastic models using a computer. From what I understood, there's a big vat of molten plastic which cools and hardens as it rises out (...) (25 years ago, 16-Dec-99, to lugnet.general)
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