3D Printed Sheet Metal Forming - Will it Survive?

In today's episode, I'm seeing whether 3D Printed PLA dies can hold up to forming various gauges of mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum. This is completely new territory for me but it was a really interesting 3D Printing experiment to do forming sheet metal. Big thank you to Mike OBrien of Roadster Shop for the idea and Kyle Kuhnhausen of Kuhnhausen Metal Concepts for helping guide me as I went through this experiment.

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WARNING: This video is only for entertainment purposes. If you rely on the information portrayed in this video, you assume the responsibility for the results. Have fun, but always think ahead, and remember that every project you try is AT YOUR OWN RISK.

[BuckeyeStormsProductions]

I love how 3D printing is being used by people to cast, mold, etc. The ability to print plastic is cool, but then to move from a plastic printed part to things like metal dies, or concrete casts is amazing.

[jvin]

A couple of notes: cold rolled steel sheets have surface stresses that make for 'anisotropic' stretching resulting in wrinkles outside the die, sometimes changing orientation of the cut blank 90 degrees will change results. Too little or too much die pressure on the outside perimeter (clamping) along with friction high/low can cause wrinkles to not iron out. If you annealed (heated) the sheet to remove residual cold rolling effects and let it cool slowly you can have smoother bending too.

[erikig]

Dont know why the algorithm recommended this to me but kudos on the prototyping success

[DIYers]

That's really impressive, would never expect that from a 3D printed die. Add a lexan guard to the press just as a safety precaution.

[seabreezecoffeeroasters]

Good job for a first go. With your 3D prints add a 'brim' in the settings it will help hold the first layers down. With your resin it is Polyester not Epoxy. Polyester shrinks a lot on cure compared to Epoxy so it is a poor choice for this application also as you found heat is not your friend with Polyester resins. Slow cure Epoxy while more expensive will get you a better result. Keep at it :)

[rpavlik]

That's legitimately impressive. The resin filling was such a smart idea.

[oviwan]

Impressed too! Just a few thoughts; mixing the epoxy with Sand, would try concrete as an even cheaper alternative. And using oil/grease to reduce friction, maybe this will keep the pressure up for forming out the Details. Now let's try a fender!

[thesfreader]

using resin to fill the mold is such a great idea ! I think it adds some flexibility to the rigidity of the PLA, reinforcing the whole mold. Perfect !

[betofukuji]

For simple beverage can, they use more than 20 slightly different presses for precision. Like progressive stages from sheet to a can.

[skyty]

I can 1000% see this becoming common knowledge regarding 3d printing. Thanks for pioneering!

[retelr]

Same effect in the shrinking of steel as i have had on projects, my simple fix was 3-5mm thick rubber, you would be surprised, try add like a small section of 2-3mm thick rubber on those ends & you will notice a big difference! Best of luck

[jackcat]

Just saw this today and I am blown away.
I’m a modeler and and engineer and making something like this for small scale using aluminum from soda cans or roof flashing would work awesomely.
When in cad program making the male part I’d probably go at least 5% or 10% in reduction to give more room. I’ll definitely be looking into this for making RC parts

[bjarnivalur]

Something you might want to try is filling the inside with concrete instead of resin, you can add strands of fiberglass to it if you're afraid of it cracking.
Also: leaving a gap between the dies is not at all silly, you should always take into account the thickness of the material you are forming/pressing, you should also always expect some bounce back, i.e. depending on the material you're using and its thickness, it might not want to hold its new shape and will "bounce back" (you press it to 90° and it goes back to 100°).

[DeadLuckArchives]

Just a heads up fosscad has been using 3d printed jigs to make stamped sheet metal AK receivers for awhile now. No need to fill the plastic with resin epoxy, your thought process was perfect on the infill.

[wingbolt]

Nice work! The resin you used is actually Polyester, not Epoxy. Had you used Epoxy, it would have probably not cracked as easily. Also, if you use a slow curing Epoxy systems, it won’t have that crazy exothermic reaction that the Polyester did, thus not heating and deforming your printed part. Epoxy will get warm, but nothing like the Polyester.

[SuperDukie]

Great video. We just made our own dimple dies (I run a manufacturing company). We started out of PLA then went to steel but during the process we learned you have to design the dies with just enough gap for the material you plan to use. If you don’t, that’s where a lot of your wrinkling is coming from. It sucks but you really need a die for every material size it you want it to form properly and flatten the edges out

Great work tho. Love the shape you did and it was a great video!!!

[dekurvajo]

"i am impressed"
Metal sheet: "you don't say!"

[Robothut]

Good job. I have been watching 3d printed metal forming videos on youtube for over 1 year but I think your results are some of the best. Thank you sharing with us.

[drvnlp]

On 6061T6 might try annealing it first. I think it will go down to T0 at around 600 degrees. It will move like putty and next to zero stress on your dies. You might do that with a torch and temperature pen or cheap laser temp sensor. The 6061 temper will come back to like around T4 on it's own over time. Commercially they uses salts baths to re-temper but probably an expensive process.

[hughatkins]

That’s impressive! I think you may be responsible for me getting a 3-D printer. The thought to make a die set, then to use the epoxy infill is really cool!