34 replies to this topic

[Inferno Falcon]

If so he can make some serious money. I'm especially excited about the printed wyes.

[utahnerf]

What really excites me is that the possibilities are ENDLESS.

[Inferno Falcon]

What really excites me is that the possibilities are ENDLESS.

Literately. How difficult is it to make the design files? I'm unfamiliar with the program. For example, a magstrike clip?

[Inferno Falcon]

Double post due to lag.

Edited by Inferno Falcon, 19 February 2011 - 12:06 PM.

[SorrowX]

Well, i talked it over with my teacher, and i'm cleared to sell. i was allowed to make them for free, but i can no longer do that as my teacher is paying for the material out of her own pocket. that means i can't offer them at my projected price of $20 shipped. as it turns out, to make a basic RPMBNB and the average rate of $15 per cubic inch, it would cost around $250 to print them. Ouch. Luckily for everyone interested, my teacher is only charging me $30 per kit, turret or basic/Wye, so i'm thinking of selling the kits for $50 shipped or $30 shipped with a trade that i'm comfortable with, as well as selling individual parts and the price or shipping and teacher's price. Thats 10-15 for shipping, 30 for the teacher, and 5-10 or if its a trade, just 30 for the teacher and i'll pay shipping. I'll even throw in a few goodies every now and again when i feel like it as well as make custom kits and parts to specifications with no extra charge, unless the teacher says otherwise. What do you guys think, sounds fair?


and given incentive, i might also make custom, possibly rearloading magstrike clips that accept a barrel type of buyer's choice, hehe.

[utahnerf]

It's $15 a cubic inch?!??!!?? Daaaang. Cool teacher you got there. I may be interested, but I think you should try making one with Crossbow-like aesthetics and comfort.

[Doom]

It's good to hear that you're being subsidized by a generous teacher, but for the rest of us, FDM is far too expensive to make an entire blaster from. And this is always what I've claimed.

Also, the possibilities are VERY limited. These machines rarely have very good resolution, so some post-processing (whether machining, sanding, etc.) is necessary for close fits. The parts are directional; they probably are weaker in a direction perpendicular to the layers. Some parts will be distorted for any number of reasons (I had this problem when I used FDM). The material is only some sort of plastic. Most FDM machines use ABS, but some can use PC.

Certainly FDM opens up some possibilities. But these possibilities are available to everyone as there are online businesses that will make RPed parts for people. Of course, you'll have to pay the real rate for those services, as this is the real world.

[boltsniper]

Just noticed this thread. Nicely designed and prototyped gun there.

It's pretty awesome you are allowed to churn out kits at what seems like a reasonable price.

The stereolithography machine I used to manufacture the BS-8 and BS-9 magwells ran about $100 per hour of build time. Those 2 parts took about 8-10 hours a piece to complete so if I didn't have unlimited access to the machine then they would have cost around $1000 each. Far out of the question for a Nerf gun.

My experience with FDM never created parts that were worthy of actual use. The SLA and SLS methods both produced parts that were much more homogeneous and fit for actual use....but they cost much more mainly due to laser time rather than material cost.

[Boot]

I didn't feel this was important earlier, but I had not realized how expensive 3d printing could be. I had understood the laser based 3D printing processes to be more expensive, but I had no idea a single rapid prototyped component could cost upwards of $1000 (I am assuming that is what Boltsniper was referring to, but I have limited experience).

A suggestion I have, for at least non load bearing components (like the handle, and possibly shells), would be to try out a stereo lithography machine. I used one of these during a design challenge I took part in (F1 in schools, if anyone has heard of it), and small components are relatively cheap, on the order of 30RMB, or around $5 a piece. The main drawback is that most stereo lithography processes produce fairly weak components. Also, the 30RMB components we made were fairly small and thin, so prices for bulkier, stronger components probably would cost around $15 or so.

Of course this only applies to those who don't have unlimited access to a 3D printer, but I can see most of a blaster being built out of stereo lithography processes, with only major load bearing parts (like the catch plate) being made of some stronger material, e.g. polycarbonate or aluminum. If your in select parts of Asia (mostly China) a company called Lanxum (I've included their English site) rents out stereo lithography machines for fairly reasonable prices.

[tskaze]

Awesome, glad you actually followed through and printed this. I was reading a blog post someone had written about printed nerf guns which reminded me to check back here. I saw this thread and posted it to makerblock's blog. He posted the files to thingiverse, giving you credit of course. Just thought I'd let you know. You can probably claim the thingiverse entry somehow if you want, or ask for it to be taken down of course (which would be lame).

If you could design slightly smaller parts and used cheap ABS (~$40 per pound) on a hobby printer like the makerbot you could probably make this economical. Maybe not for a kit business, but I'd pay a premium for a custom built nerf gun. The potential for innovation is more important to me though. Sick of having all nerf guns designed in confusing and modder unfriendly ways? This is one cure. There's already people in the comments talking about making it modular or double barreled, so I wouldn't be surprised if a derivative was uploaded soon.