Quote:
Originally Posted by g35gabby
With the large printer doing a 9x9x19.... you might be able to make a grill or fog light bezel... but not a bumper.
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If you know what you're doing, it's actually not all that hard to do something significantly larger than the build volume. The Machine I worked with from ~2008 to ~2012 had a 10x10x12 build volume and it was used to make a handful of parts that were ~18" - 24" long, give or take. Usually, we'd split the part along a logical seam (somewhere that had an existing geometric transition) add some sort of registration feature, and then print two halves, or whatever made sense, and then glue them together. Not idea, but within the realm of usefulness.
When we upgraded printers in the middle of last year, we had an option to get a machine capable of printing up to 24x36x24 if we were willing to drop something like $250k on a machine. The handful of those that I know of (last I checked there was only one in the NJ/E. PA/NYC area, but a bunch in the midwest) are most often used for production tooling, or making low-medium volume production parts. (Specifically Half Fenders for Trucks)
TLDR, it'd be tricky to make a bumper, but if the operator knows what they're doing and has the appropriate CAD software, it's difficultly will more often than not be determined by the consistency of the machine, rather than the size of the part(s). In the specific case of a bumper, where the part thickness is rarely going to exceed 1/4", I'd probably project the geometry into some rectangular volume of known size (est 24"D X 24"T X 66"-72"W) to get a good negative (or positive) of the finished part I'm shooting for, and then break that rectangular volume into a series of 'puzzle pieces' that can be printed with whatever machine I'm working with. That sort of method might use a bit more material, but the odds of the final assembly being right the first time is probably 10-15X what it would be with another method. (It also gives you the ability to make a series of modular molds that utilize constant geometry for certain parts (lights, license plates, etc) and then change out the 'aesthetic' bits.