|
General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc. |
|
Thread Tools |
27th Mar 2014, 12:14 am | #1 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,801
|
What to print
THere's been some talk on here about 3-D printers.
Wouldn't a core for an HT battery rebuild be a great thing to print? Something to hold 80 or so AA cells. Just stuff, connect up and add the card outer. David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
27th Mar 2014, 1:42 am | #2 |
Moderator
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: Oxford, UK
Posts: 27,787
|
Re: What to print
Probably OTT. Consumer 3D printers just assemble things from tiny bits of HDPE. You'd still need to provide the external graphics with a conventional printer, so you might as well build the repros from sheets of plywood or plastic.
I suppose you could make lots of battery holders this way, but you'd still need to do all the wiring. |
27th Mar 2014, 3:53 am | #3 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,637
|
Re: What to print
And the plastic would need to be rigid and stable enough not to lose tension with age.
Maybe future printers will be able to overprint wiring and contacts, who knows? |
27th Mar 2014, 8:55 am | #4 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,801
|
Re: What to print
At work at the moment we have some 3-D prints of candidate designs for large diecastings which will be the chassis of a radio transceiver. which integrates all the screening boxes and heatsinking needed for several PCBs and mounts the connectors. They are about the size of car radios. The plastic is stiff, it feels similar to Nylon 66 in hardness.
What I'd imagined was a matrix core to keep all the cells safely apart, then they could be wired up with soldered wires, or contact strips could be added, and then a card outer put on with all the required "Winner" graphics. If 3-D printing at decent quality becomes affordable, then all sorts of things are going to be made. A battery box design as two clamshells with metal connection springs inside could be unscrewed, separated and a new set of cells fitted when needed. I wonder when the first faked round Ekco will be sighted? David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
27th Mar 2014, 10:10 am | #5 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Norwich, Norfolk, UK.
Posts: 2,543
|
Re: What to print
Quote:
David
__________________
http://www.youtube.com/ My Nixie Clocks |
|
27th Mar 2014, 2:31 pm | #6 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,801
|
Re: What to print
I wonder what size cells the original 120v HT battery had? I once took a dead one apart, but that would have been about 1963.
David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
27th Mar 2014, 4:57 pm | #7 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Surrey, UK.
Posts: 4,385
|
Re: What to print
I like the idea of a rigid cellular plastic core, something like a honeycomb, to neatly keep AA cells (etc) mechanically together but electrically apart. A wobbly stack of alkalines sort of kept apart by cardboard or paper sounds worryingly like an incendiary device.
|
27th Mar 2014, 5:06 pm | #8 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 13,953
|
Re: What to print
I wonder what the RF dielectric properties of the plastics used in 3D-printed parts are like? I'm thinking replacement formers for IF transformers and RF coils that have been ruined by the "Phantom Core-Twiddler".
It seems that there are plastics for 3D-printers that must be quite tough: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...D-printer.html |
27th Mar 2014, 6:18 pm | #9 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,801
|
Re: What to print
I travel to work past Rosyth dockyard and there is this huge gantry crane there. Its travelling blocks slew left to right and the whole structure rolls fore-aft on railway lines.
Just add a laser sintering head and print an aircraft carrier? Well it looks like a huge 3D printer David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |