Quote Originally Posted by tonyfoale View Post
Thinking about additive manufacturing it just occurred to me that it is nothing new. Welded up structures have been around for a long time and are a prime example of additive manufacturing. Maybe not as news worthy as the various forms of 3D printing but just as valid an example.
Tony we have a tendency to view 3d printing as a relatively new concept in serious manufacturing and most tend to think of plastics when talking about the process. some even view 3d metal printing as being almost science fiction. But in truth the concept and practice has been around on a much more primitive scale for a 1000 years or more. Think glass blowing where the craftsman would create an object then add to it bit by bit until he had the desired shape and thickness True no computer aided deposit was used but the process is identical a heat source is applied then material is deposited where needed over and over the computer is the craftsman doing the sculpturing.Thew same holds true with metal a blacksmith would add super heated metal in his forge to the item he was making then he had to pound it to achieve proper fusion. advance a 1000 years and take my apprenticeship years for example we did much the same thing only as the apprentice often it was my job to stick weld an area until it was built up enough to be heated up then pounded into shape sometimes I would sit for hours on end welding up worn areas on plow share tips then they would be heated and beat smooth. Later after I bought my little lathe we would build up sfafts or other things with weld then I would turn them back to original shape Advance a few more years to when I got my first wire welder now I could build up areas even more precise flat areas could be pad welded to near perfection requiring very little if any further processing. shafts could be rotated while being built up requiring very little turning in the lathe my brain serving as the computer, my eyes the optical sensors, my hands the manipulators for the nozzle.things still had to be turned in the lathe upon completion though.
Advance to my years in Kuwait I made a welding grinding lathe a stub was chucked the wire gun was mounted and traveled following a template pattern a grinder followed cleaning and finishing behind the welding process once the part in this case an ornamental ball was complete it was removed from the chuck and quenched completely finished still no computer but the next step would have merely needed the addition of a few servo motors and a computer with "G" code programmed into it So yes additive manufacturing could become and is becoming DIY. In some cases I would venture to say it is already here we just don't have Picard's replicator to make a cup of tea El Gray hot yet. But even that it almost a reality since scientists in the med field are growing synthetic cartilage using actual human cells in labs.