Here's a saddle I recovered with help from 3D printing:
I designed the graphics in CorelDraw, had the skirt stamps printed in white plastic, and used the stamps to form the leather. The badge on the back was also 3D printed in " aluminide" which is a plastic with aluminum dust in the mix.
I wish they offered the option of printing in aluminum or magnesium! Not an option now, though. Which brings me to the next question: if you have a good model 3D printed in plastic and want to have it manufactured in aluminum or magnesium (or titanium
) how would you go about that?
I'm not certain of this, but I think I read somewhere that the file format that defines the 3D printed object is the same one used for CNC milling, even though the processes themselves are sort of inversions of one another. I'd contact someone who does CNC milling and ask, since that would seem to be the best way to get something like this made from aluminum.