Stirlingengineforum.com

Hi,

Been busy, have some reading to do here...

Just read this from an older post :

Re: stirling engines and education
There are one or two teachers who contribute to this forum, who use the Stirling Engine in their teaching, one is Chriske who teaches 14 to 18 year olds in a Technical School at Duffel in Belgium, look him up in the members section.
The loss of practical engineering education seems to be world wide, if this keeps spreading, we'll be living in caves, and hunting animals for food, and eating fruit from the jungle.
Ian S C

Ian,

Just a few thoughts.
I think in a few decades engineering as we know it today will completely disappear. Most of the readers on this forum will think I'm absolutely nuts, sorry guys...
Technology as it every day changes very fast will end up using 3D-printers to make us mechanical parts. I think the use of all machines we have in our workshop, milling, lathe, drilling,saw, you name it will be out of a job. I think we are the last generations to use these machines. Most of the smaller parts will be printed. These 3D-printers use the same technology and almost the same software as mechanical CNC machines do. At this point metal 3D-printing is very slow, but hey..! every new invention was supposed to end up in the waste-bucket, not...?

I hope not to be kicked from this forum...

Chris

PS, just bought me a large second hand milling machine. I hope this will give some credit...

Hi Chris, good news on the milling machine, those and lathes will be around for a few years yet, engineering is evolving, how many thousands of years since stone tools were over taken by copper then bronze, and later iron. 3D engineering is, and will run parallel with hands on machining, and hand work. The Blacksmith still has work to do. Best wishes Ian S C

Conjecture for me is frustrating regarding 3D Printing and Metal 3D Printing. I would much rather have possession of one or more 3D Printers to experiment with. I want to develop the 3D Modeling skills needed to design the files to use to 3D Print but alas, like a starving artist financing the purchase of 3D Printers and paying for the education of 3D Modeling is, at the moment beyond my means. This will change. I have studied intently for the last 3 years the advances made in 3D Printing and 3D Scanning and starting 3 years ago I started registering .com domains related to 3D Printing and 3D Scanning. I own roughly 600 domains including Metal3DPrinting.com. I have some excellent domain names and hope to sell a few on my way to building the finances to purchase a few 3D Printers.

I must say that in my experience in taking the opportunity of commenting on forums like this regarding 3d printing and my aspirations, and I have made comment on hundreds of such sites, there is a pervading climate of hostility and almost criminal attacks that result. I know full well that those that read this comment experience the same thing. The level of nastiness, vitriol, mean spirited jealousy has made it almost impossible for open debate. My sense is that the predators and haters have all but taken over the internet.

I have worked tirelessly over the last three years researching and studying 3d printing and have reached out countless times to owners of sites such as this and made comment to those possibly reading such posts for engagement , partnership, help etc. regarding development of a business in the 3D Printing Technology field and the hate and on many occasions, criminal attacks made against me are ridiculous.

In forums such as these, the ill informed comment on things they know very little about and very often the self-same hostile, ill informed haters make projects out of destroying the initiatives and reputations of people like me.

3D Printing is destined to change the world as we know in countless ways. Ways in which have not been conceived of yet. In medicine alone, the potential for innovation and change is immeasurable. I have read countless account of different people purporting coming revolution and innovation resulting from 3D Printing but in my opinion few grasp the immensity of the pending changes. There are developments in molecular manipulation using 3D-Bio Printing that have the potential of making new elements, changing the basic building blocks of life on a microscopic level, unreported yet to the general public. The acceleration of technological advances at the hands of the internet, as the greatest information gathering tool yet invented my man is exploding exponentially. Knowledge and information is increasing exponentially and the revolution of the 3D Printing Technologies will follow the same hyper trajectory.

All predictions as the direction and effect of 3D Printing, including mine here, are frightfully ill-informed and conservative.

Buckle your seat belts people. What is to follow in the next decade regarding 3D Printing Technological advances and innovation in earth changing.

Robert McLean
The3DPrinter.com

Robert & Chris, the arguments against 3D engineering is similar, although not with the same violence to the Luddites of the industrial revolution, 200 years ago, when there were riots, and the machinery(weaving/ textile) was broken up. Ian S C

I wonder if 3D printing could be used to make every Stirling Engine part out of Tungsten. That would allow for operation at extremely high temperatures and the 3D printing may provide extremely good tolerances.

I think that the development 3D printing might be compared to the development of the humble lap top.(I'll use New Zealand $, about $NZ1= $US00.80). My old Toshiba, mid 1990s, Windows 95, floppy disc drive, $NZ5000, today you can get a basic computer/lap top for around $NZ500, it's fairly modest, but on Windows 8.1, and far greater capacity than the old one. I think the evolution of 3D printing will be faster than the Lap Top, driven by industry. Mean while mechanical machinery will work alongside the digital for most, if not all of our lives, and who knows what's to come. Ian S C

3Dsavvy wrote:Conjecture for me is frustrating regarding 3D Printing and Metal 3D Printing. I would much rather have possession of one or more 3D Printers to experiment with. I want to develop the 3D Modeling skills needed to design the files to use to 3D Print but alas, like a starving artist financing the purchase of 3D Printers and paying for the education of 3D Modeling is, at the moment beyond my means. This will change. I have studied intently for the last 3 years the advances made in 3D Printing and 3D Scanning and starting 3 years ago I started registering .com domains related to 3D Printing and 3D Scanning. I own roughly 600 domains including Metal3DPrinting.com. I have some excellent domain names and hope to sell a few on my way to building the finances to purchase a few 3D Printers.


Robert McLean
The3DPrinter.com

Hi I have a few suggestions for you regarding getting started printing. You can build very decent machines on a shoestring budget http://www.reprap.org.
Google sketchup is a great free tool that is an excellent introduction to 3D modelling. I've printed parts I created with sketchup.