3D Printing Clear Overflow Tanks/Lids

OK,
Looks like I had that backwards, but you can certainly see that the two lids were definitely different parts.
Duane

 

It was like $100,000 and take 10 years to sell a 6 month ish produced part .

 

I have some knowledge and experience with 3D printing.

Many of them work by placing a bead of molten plastic down to form a single bottom layer of the part, and then build up the layers till you have a complete part. You can see the trace pattern of the nozzle on the finished part so it will definitely not look like a molded part even from a few feet away. Will look more like a canvas made out of plastic. If there is molded in text that probably won't look right either.

I don't recall on those overflow tanks how the lid is sealed but if it is a snap fit then it is critical that the part have a low dimensional tolerance, which may be beyond the capability of certain lower end printers.

If you can get someone to recreate an accurate 3D cad file of it one option for molding is a company called Protolabs. They make injection molds out of aluminum for prototype/low quantity orders that are good for up to a couple thousand parts. You can probably have them make a mold, ballpark estimate off the top of my head would be under $15K. Certainly not inexpensive but better than the $100,000 I saw above.

 

Dam so you can wisper your google box from hella far away, but can you hear what it says ?

 

DL,
If Frank spent that kind of money then he made match metal dies. That is the way you make really nice parts for volume orders. That was probably the only option out there at the time except for our method, which made inexpensive molds for short runs. But then the price of the material used to make the parts is high.
Duane

 

Frank used the same top for the for the "Mold", when he did both, but used different colors. The Costs were prohibitive to do 2 different tops, especially since the "Clear" top, was a very limited item. (Partial 1 year only) The "Black" top was a more salable & wanted item, so everything was based on them.
Like was said earlier, the problem with Any reproduction is getting the commitment on the parts. Frank had various parts manufactured (Tanks, Steering wheels, Throttle cables, & others) & the "Want was there, But not the parting of the $ to Buy the part. (Believe me, Frank was Not getting Rich off the parts.)
JR