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Posted by Sherman in Idaho [72.47.9.37] on Monday, November 26, 2012 at 21:02:26 :
In Reply to: Re: 230 dodge 2 barrel manifold take 2 posted by Kaegi [24.16.253.154] on Monday, November 26, 2012 at 20:48:20 :
The cheap 3D printers print plastic using a spool of plastic "wire". It would certainly seem reasonable to make a casting pattern out of plastic rather than wood, though of course you'd have to make sure the sand was good and cold when you used it, and you'd still have to set up the cores. But what would be even neater is laser-sintering the whole thing. You could get nice smooth easy-flowing walls all the way through, you could make the carburetor mount any shape and size you want, you would not have to experiment and account for casting shrinkage, and you could put whatever bosses and ports you wanted on it for attaching various things.
I predict that once 3D printing in metal becomes a widely-available process, it will revolutionize the antique auto parts business. Everything that used to be cast iron or die cast zinc or aluminum could be reproduced to order with no on-the-shelf inventory. The "inventory" would consist of a library of CAD files, and the vendor would simply print each part as ordered. Printing a custom manifold might be expensive, but when original cast ones are unavailable the alternative is to fabricate something by bending and welding pipe and plate, which is also expensive.
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