Off topic chat. Whats on your mind???????

Have fun...be safe...Peace be with you & yours.

We'll be here....lurking....pinching pennies!
 
Bill - quick question, and if it's a trade secret, just tell me and I won't bug you about it again -- but I'm curious as to how you're doing your forced full patina.
Sulfuric or Muriatic acid followed by baking soda, or a forced surface rust and penetrating oil?
 
Topic of the day...why is it so hot in the southern mid west...AKA Oklahoma? I mean seriously its like the 7th circle of hell here. There hasn't been a single day below 100 Deg F since i got here over a month ago, AND there is no sign of cooler weather in the foreseeable future.
 
I hear ya Alan, it seems every summer is getting worse. We have been lucky lately to have been in the lower 90s and we actually had a night in the low 70s.
 
i can only dream about a night in the 70's...i have to keep my ac set at 80 just to be able to afford the electric bill.
 
Good morning! Or something. I have been studying sokaiya extortion rackets and I have a question that's off topic from that for all you knifemakers...

What do you think of additive manufacturing as a process for prototyping knife models? And would any of you be interested in working with me to produce prototypes on my Huxley eMaker? Just curious...
 
CL, you are going to have to dumb it down for us Souther folk!LMAO. Really, I have no clue what you just said.
 
Personally I think using hard casting wax and a 4 axis CMC mill is more efficient because once you have it dialed in, you can start producing.
with the 3D printer, once you have your prototype sample done, you still have to make a test model.
even using a sintered material or vapor deposition style 3d printer, there will be shrinkage when you heat the material to "set" it, so more fine tuning will be needed.
The technology will be great once the bugs are worked out, but at present it's more efficient and easier to make your test pieces by hand. (gotta love old style tool & die machinists, especially the ones who specialize in experimental tools/pieces)
 
Vic, I can run 3,4, and 5 axis CNC mills, CNC lathes, and a number of manual machines.
But man, I'm still not sure what you 2 are talking about. If I'm close to understanding the topic,
I have to ask; what would be the point of prototyping custom knives in that manner?
After all, these are works of knife art, not production blades. JMO
 
I totally agree!
what Bill & Chris do is functional art and using one of these to make a prototype does nothing for the process other than letting them make a mock-up quicker and easier to check ergos, appearance, etc...
Additive Manufacturing/3d printing is the sort of thing you would do if you want a base blade shape to start with. Say you want to make 25 EDCs that all fit the same pattern kydex sheath. You hire a waterjet or laser cutter, or run your own CMC machine to make a bunch of duplicate blanks - then hand grind, HT, make handles, etc...
3d printers are tech toys trying to become production machines over the past 5 years.
they work best in plastic, but there are versions that use sintered metals that you then bake to "melt" the parts together, or vapor deposition, where the printer is spraying layers of metal to build up a shape.
The driving theory behind the 3d printers is less wasted raw material.
They're the flip side of CNC machines -- where you download a program with all the specs and the machine removes everything that doesn't look like your finished product.

my original reply was mostly to CL telling him why I don't think 3D printing would work for what the guys are doing here.
 
Well the assholes at corporate headquarters in Detroit finely did it. They changed the setting on that
damn Barracuda program. Now I can't get to Blade Forums at work because it's in the "weapons" category.
They've had Barracuda on thier servers for 2 or 3 years. Now somebody decided that it needed tweeked.
So I won't be posting from work any more. Damn it kills me to think of the deals I might miss. Damn it.
 
I think we need more stickies, lol. I think this forum holds the record at 17. :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top