How is it made?

Zach,
How do you make the plastic part of the barrel that the metal tip screws into? Do you mold it, or do you mill it? What type of material is it? Please let me know.

Thanks

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2008 02:05PM by Cheap!.

It's PTFE (Teflon). There's a set of DIY instructions here: [reprap.org]

i actually did not make any of them, i had them made for me.

i believe a lathe was used, and it was tapped to 3/8"

I was thinking something like this for the new part. Sorry I can't draft.

the problem with that is getting it made. i'm not entirely sure how you'd do it, but you'd probably have to start with a sizeable rectangular chunk of PTFE, lathe it down to the right size, drill it, tap it, and then cut the holes. that takes the relatively cheap part to being an expensive part.

it would work if it was just you making 1 part, but what we need to consider is that eventually hundreds (or thousands) of these parts will need to be made. thats a whole new design challenge.

order a hundred of them from an injection moulding company. I'm sure that would work.

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Jay

Injection moulds typically cost $10000 - $100000, so you need to make a lot more than 100 of something to make it economical and you have to be sure your design is correct. That is why RP techinques like FDM exist.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

O ok, yea that makes sense.

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Jay