Saw these gems while browsing the shapeways.com website: 1/18 scale V2 engine bits. There's a combustion chamber/nozzle and a turbopump.
http://www.shapeways.com/shops/v2rocket
Thought you might be interested, gburch, and the subject relevant to this thread. shapeways is probably the subject for another thread, however.
Cheers!
3D Printing -- Pretty Close to Ready
Re: 3D Printing -- Pretty Close to Ready
Was it for this my life I sought? Maybe so, and maybe not...
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gburch
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Re: 3D Printing -- Pretty Close to Ready
Huh. All I can say to that is ... huh. I signed up for this thing as soon as I saw your link and communicated with the fellow who's made this model.
I'm going to be very curious to see what he has to say when he sees what I've been doing ...
I'm going to be very curious to see what he has to say when he sees what I've been doing ...
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grunt1
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Re: 3D Printing -- Pretty Close to Ready
I think he'll probably say you should upload your stl files. 
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gburch
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Re: 3D Printing -- Pretty Close to Ready
OK, I've been in touch with the fellow who has the two engine parts on Shapeways. Suffice it to say that his project won't deter me from moving forward.
Speaking of moving forward ... I'm now about 90% of the way to convincing myself to offer kits for sale. At some point I'm going to outline what the precise "business model" will be, if I do go forward, but for those who have managed to not fall asleep reading this thread, basically all the elements are in one post or another of mine above.
Re Shapeways: They're using a commercial-level printer which gets resolution better than my Makerbot. On the other hand, something like a product on the order of the full V-2 kit I'm considering offering would likely be way, way more expensive to produce a single example of than I can do on my own, and Shapeways itself could never support any kind of printed kit business: Given print speed, a machine has to be devoted full time to making the parts for even a low-production-rate kit. I'm guesstimating that you'd spend way over $1,000 for all the parts for a full kit for something the size of a 1/18 plane.
Now, for making parts that would serve as mold masters? That seems an appropriate use of a business like Shapeways.
A final note on the distinction between home-level desktop printing like the Makerbot or Mendel and commercial level printing like what Shapeways is using. The major differences are part smoothness and resolution for details. As I've painfully demonstrated in developing the V-2 kit, the trade-off for using a hobbyist-level bot is the printing "striations" and bottom level on fine detail that can be achieved. On the former, there's just no way around the need to engage in a surface finishing process to achieve smooth surfaces. But as I think I've demonstrated to my own satisfaction, at least, this is something that can be addressed with a reasonable amount of effort using techniques that modelers with medium-level skill are familiar with. As for the latter, I'm still struggling with that. It so happens that the V-2 is a project in which that particular issue is not such a big deal. There's just not a lot of fine-level surface detail on the V-2. On other projects I might tackle after the V-2, I'm still thinkin' on how that will be addressed.
Speaking of moving forward ... I'm now about 90% of the way to convincing myself to offer kits for sale. At some point I'm going to outline what the precise "business model" will be, if I do go forward, but for those who have managed to not fall asleep reading this thread, basically all the elements are in one post or another of mine above.
Re Shapeways: They're using a commercial-level printer which gets resolution better than my Makerbot. On the other hand, something like a product on the order of the full V-2 kit I'm considering offering would likely be way, way more expensive to produce a single example of than I can do on my own, and Shapeways itself could never support any kind of printed kit business: Given print speed, a machine has to be devoted full time to making the parts for even a low-production-rate kit. I'm guesstimating that you'd spend way over $1,000 for all the parts for a full kit for something the size of a 1/18 plane.
Now, for making parts that would serve as mold masters? That seems an appropriate use of a business like Shapeways.
A final note on the distinction between home-level desktop printing like the Makerbot or Mendel and commercial level printing like what Shapeways is using. The major differences are part smoothness and resolution for details. As I've painfully demonstrated in developing the V-2 kit, the trade-off for using a hobbyist-level bot is the printing "striations" and bottom level on fine detail that can be achieved. On the former, there's just no way around the need to engage in a surface finishing process to achieve smooth surfaces. But as I think I've demonstrated to my own satisfaction, at least, this is something that can be addressed with a reasonable amount of effort using techniques that modelers with medium-level skill are familiar with. As for the latter, I'm still struggling with that. It so happens that the V-2 is a project in which that particular issue is not such a big deal. There's just not a lot of fine-level surface detail on the V-2. On other projects I might tackle after the V-2, I'm still thinkin' on how that will be addressed.