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Old 04-09-20 | 12:39 PM
  #563  
ChrisAlbertson
Junior Member
 
Joined: Dec 2019
Posts: 169
Likes: 44
From: Southern California

Bikes: Trek Domane SL5, REI Co-Op ADV1.1, Basic 26" city bike, Antique MTB.

Originally Posted by SethAZ
.... I think the liquid resin prints would be too fragile for functional parts like this, .
No. It is the other way around. I have some parts made in a Formlabs liquid resin printer and I can't break them with a hammer, They can be very seriously tough. The key is to use a non-rigid resin that comes out like solid nylon.

Formlab will send you a sample part printed on one f their printers for free if you ask. The resolution is very good too.

Go here can request samples https://formlabs.com/materials/

That said, for the person who wats just one part for their own bike, you can send the design file to a service and get the part for 1% of the cost of buying a printer. Buying a liquid resin printer that can use this "tough" material is only for the person who intends to make literally hundreds or thousands of parts. For most hobby users buy sub $200 FDM printer and it will do 90% of what you need the hire out the 10% you can't do yourself. FDM is good enough even for me who is right now designing a power steering gearbox for a robot car. I'll likely need to make a half dozen test-fit parts that get tossed in the trash an hour after they are printed. Only the last version needs to be strong enough to work.
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