5 Reasons NOT to 3D Print your Design

3D Printing is an incredible technology, but it's not magic. In this video we'll discuss 5 reasons why you might not want to use 3D Printing for the manufacturing of your design or invention.

This video is more aimed at industry and those who don't already have a 3D Printer and are considering using the technology, rather than those who have 3D Printing available at home.

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[QuantumShow]

I am so glad to hear somebody explain this out IN DETAIL why 3D printing, while a great thing, is not necessarily the greatest thing ever for making things. The block of wood was a perfect analogy. I had somebody ask me to quote them on what they described as a pan for holding cheese in a pizza line cooking environment, I was all, how about I GET you a pan that matches the exact dimensions? No need for 3D printing, it's a plastic pan. I hold to the idea if you do NOT have it, can't get it otherwise, then 3D print it. Oddly shaped plastic fittings, great; roller bearings for a replacement part that is already available? Not so great.

Another thing 3D printing is great for is supplementing other processes-- such as that buck for vacuforming. Perfect! Print one, then vacuform that one several times, or for a mold say, made from ABS being high temp, for a plastic that is low temp, like HDPE, again, very suitable! I have done these things specifically!

Great show, love watching, have a good one!

[DavidSciberras]

'You can't 3D print everything'

That's quitter talk my friend LOL

[iGameOvertv]

I don't think this video is negative in any way, it's just realistic. I'm glad that you're introducing some common sense and extra knowledge to the 3D printing community. Thank you!

[wyvern]

It's for prototyping, small scale operations such as drone parts and art pieces, and the biggest one FUN!

[Davedwin]

OMG I'm glad this came up in my feed. I MUST share with the engineer at work that wants me to 3D print between 7 and 20 cable reels at work. Even after I told him my prototype took a total of about 120 hours to print all the pieces. Another winning video Angus.

[EgadsNo]

Automotive clear coat can be used to prevent UV aging of plastics ( yellowing, brittleness ), it's principal job is actually to block UV so the paint and primer does not have to worry about it at all.

[gfhrbqq]

Again, the right tools for the right use.
There is no perfect tools in this world, we just need to understand when suitable to use it and combine with other tools and materials.

[grzegorzucjusz]

I like your videos for not beeing overedited (and cut after every sentence!). This really shows the amount of work you're putting into preparing what you want to say and producing easy to listen, naturally spoken, yet very informative and condensed content.

[stevenrs]

Ceramic shell casting with PLA/polycast investments is fast, easy, and you get great parts. I've done parts in 356 aluminum and C95200 (a high strength aluminum bronze, on par with low alloy steels). Seriously, for a small engineering shop its been a game changer- we can go from 3D model to a finished, solid metal part with less than 1 hour of labor (over 2 days).

That's competitive with CNC for some simpler parts and absolutely destroys CNC if it needs the 5 axis or multiple processes. Not to mention, we HAVE the machines. Upfront cost for CNC centers? 100k+. Total investment for print-to-cast? Less than five thousand dollars, and you could probably do it hobby scale for less than one.

[vaalrus]

Even for jobbing, it’s not always a good choice. Shapeways wanted over 600.oo to metal print a simple double-headed pulley in metal. Local (to me) 3D print houses wanted 200 to 300 for nylon, or carbon fibre infused nylon. My local machine shop charged me 150.oo to lathe the part from stainless steel, and quoted me a CNC price 50.oo a piece if I wanted 10 or more.

[MakersMuse]

if anyone knows where my intro went please let me know. :P

[KimberlyRPeacock]

But you can 3d print the molds for a plastic injection mold, or for using liquid tooling. In addition you can print molds for an investment cast for metal mold.

[joeb]

Printing is good for creating prototypes and molds where such parts are fairly lengthy and expensive to produce such as CNC milled parts. Printing allows you to test certain elements of the design before committing to the demo part.

[learnilluminatedrealitystu]

One thing that has changed is FDM VS SLA - In the caee of MSLA especilly...1 vs 50 small objects take the same time and only Z hight matters. Also use a UV protective clear coat on your objects like createx UVLS which comes in: gloss satin and matte varieties

[richardhobson]

The one case where 3d printing can scale a bit better is with the new projection based SLA printers. You can print as many copies of an item as can be fit on the print bed, in the same amount of time due to the whole bed projection happening simultaneously. That said it's not as mentioned, useful for every type of print!

[calvin]

I battle with this as well... For instance, I had someone supply me with a piece of wood that they had cut and sanded into a very complex shape and they wanted me to 3D print a replica. I don't own a scanner, but even if I had, this was a mechanical part that needed to be exact. Modeling it in CAD would have been a nightmare. In the end, I made a silicone mold using a plastic cup and the original wood piece, and then used that mold to cast it in resin. Job done, and we can make multiples very fast if need be.

[niklasf]

Hey Angus, keep up the good work. You are my favourite YouTuber when it comes to 3D printing. However, as someone who moved from consumer into industrial 3D printing I have to admit that a lot of your comments in this video and also a lot of viewer comments are bothering me. Mostly because you generalize CURRENT limitations that you most likely experienced on rather LOWER-END 3D printing technologies onto the whole technology itself. If I could rename the video title I would call it:
“5 reasons to not print your design now with a certain technology”

Here are my :)

1. 3D printing does not scale
Summary: Printing an object takes the same amount of time/piece no matter if I print 1 or a million pieces. That’s correct but the real beauty of this limitation lies within the fact that the costs/piece are flat no matter if I print 1 or a million pieces because there are no tooling costs. This benefit decreases the costs in a product test or ramp-up phase significantly and therefore can trigger more innovation. Sure, as it is a layer based process, it will always have its economic limitations the higher the quantity gets, but the limits are being pushed higher and higher (today in some cases a couple of 100k pieces) which makes it suitable for more and more applications. So, while the speed doesn’t scale, the costs neither scale independent from a part’s complexity which is the main reasons why industry is into 3D printing.

2. Part strength and quality
“3D printing will not produce parts as aesthetically clean and accurate as other processes nor it will produce parts as strong as other processes”. Partially correct for some printing technologies but in general I wouldn’t sign that statement (excluding accuracy for now). Resin based technologies create excellent surface quality, great tolerances (up to 10 microns) and with the latest generation of engineering grade materials, also the strength and lifetime is acceptable for end-usage (Carbon).
“Metal printing processes cannot achieve the same amount of strength but they are getting close” I know what you meant to say but I cannot support the statement as it is.
Strength is relative, so it always depends on what process you compare it with.
Currently Selective Laser Melting or Binder Jetting creates stronger parts than casting and is very close to milling. The beauty of 3D printing is that the microstructure of the material itself is created together with the geometry. Already now we can modify the material voxel by voxel by changing the printing parameters so we can basically engineer the material characteristics as we like. This possibility, combined with multi-material printing and the design freedom of AM, will ultimately lead to printed structures which will significantly outperform their traditional counter parts in regards to strength and overall performance.

3. Certification
You are correct when saying that the certification of 3D printed parts is very messy as barely any certification bureau really knows how to do it. However, you get a big NO from me when saying “3D printing isn’t really able to be certified”- Try telling this the medical and aerospace industry which wouldn’t even invest a single dime in 3D printing if it couldn’t be certified. These two industries are by far the front runners. The design of a part isn’t relevant for the certification of a 3D printed part. It is the base material and the process (material storage, material handling, printing process, post-processing, packaging) which needs to be certified. The most difficult part of this value chain is the certification of the printing process as it depends on location, climate and print settings. Typically, in metal or plastic powder bed fusion processes a machine at a certain location is certified with a certain material when using certain printing parameters. Meaning, if you move the printer by just an inch in the same room, you have to re-certify the process e.g the printer. So yes, it is a messy process and currently the biggest hurdle for the industrialization of AM but that is also why so much effort is put into it. When I look at the current development of for example melt pool scanning, I foresee that we will soon be able to receive fully certified parts straight out of a certified machine without further quality control required even for critical components.

4. Is it the right process?
Fully agree with what you are saying and for me this point mostly addresses the maker community which often “over-uses” 3D printers beyond economic reason. For industry it is just another great tool to add value to their products.

5. 3D printing isn’t magic
Correct, and this point is already covered in #4. It is simply another tool in the tool box and not the magic microwave from Star Trek which can do everything. Just use it where it makes sense.

Just my 2 cents but I felt the urge to give a bit wider perspective onto this topic.
Nevertheless, as mentioned in the beginning: Keep up the good work Angus!

[Janovich]

01:20
Resin Printers: "That is where you're wrong boy"

[wernerboden]

I can imagine, not all businesses have a cnc laser cutter in their basement.
In fact, you need quite a machining centre, if you want to do the things he
talked about. And most of these machines are rather expensive.
So you have to outsource the manufacturing of some prototype design
and wait for 3 weeks.
For many prototype designs, a 3d printer is cheaper, it is small enough to fit
next to the copier and you can allways find some practical application for it.
If the appearance of the design has no importance, you can also design the model
so that it can be 3D printed and there are a lot of different materials coming up,
that can meet with requirements.
I am using PETG, which is quite strong, so I printed a working 3D printer.
At least, parts of it, combined with v-slot profiles.
All in all, a 3D printer is allways a great tool to have, I think.
I have created a lot of usefull stuff with it, for myself and others.
Also for some companies: Scale models for presentation, logos and what not.
And it is fun.

[yfellimban]

Thank you for helping me decide if I should buy a 3d printer or buy one more CNC machine.