• billbasher@lemmy.world
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    17 hours ago

    It might not be a joke. There are metal materials and a specialized printer that you need like 370C for. My Ender can only run up to like 260C. Generally you would need to clean them up with a grinder after printing

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      17 hours ago

      It’s a joke.

      But also, there are other, better forms of metal printing. One is to use metal powder and laser-weld it layer by layer. Another is basically using a wire welder essentially the same way you would use an FDM printer.

      • billbasher@lemmy.world
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        16 hours ago

        That is probably what those printers are. I have welded with a wire feed and that cog would be pretty hard to make. I would just drill after for the hole I think

    • Zorcron@piefed.zip
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      14 hours ago

      The image is a poorly executed FDM 3D print stylized version of the image Wikipedia image I posted, and metal 3D printing costs much more than the few cents quoted in the tweet.

      Even if you were to 3D print the nut in metal, it wouldn’t be as strong as the machined original due to porosity and such, and being as that is the nut that holds the helicopter rotors to the helicopter, making it weaker would be very ill advised.