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View Full Version : A very nice design tool. Free version available!!



Jerry O'Brien
06-15-2007, 9:52 AM
I went to a meeting on Wednesday evening of the Houston Inventors Association. (www.inventors.org (http://www.inventors.org)) and they had a guest from a company that demonstrated a tool for rapid proto typing of small parts and pieces. His website it : www.dserapid.com (http://www.dserapid.com). His name was Scott Vande Vegte. He showed us a number of the things he can make in very short order for very very reasonable pricing, including computer time. He has the advantage of being able to make a small piece and then almost instantly making changes without remaking a mold. He can then remake the part. He uses a machine that is very much like a inkjet printer. It prints in plastic and lays a strip that is .020' wide and .010 wide. It is really unique, at least to me. Look at the site. You never know you may run into someone today that could use this service. I have no affiliation with this person or his company.

Here is the part that this thread was written for. Someone asked what type of software he used. It was 3D and it rotated every which way. He uses a product called ALIBRE (www.alibre.com (http://www.alibre.com)). They have a free version and he mentioned that it should be able to do about 85-90% of what the average inventor needed to get started with their designs. I found it quite fascinating and you may too.

This is such a wonderful forum. I have learned so much. I began using it for infomation on a laser and I found some of the woodworking sites. MY son-in-law wants to build a pergola and we have found no less than 10 spots here referring to that type project.

Thank you again , all of you for you assistance.

Jerry O'Brien

Randal Stevenson
06-15-2007, 11:06 AM
You should visit you tube and do a search of fab@home.

Jeffrey Makiel
06-15-2007, 11:51 AM
3D printing is neat and becoming very popular. Architects use it to build models of their designs now. We've use these services at work to model complex parts.

I was at a national model railroading show last year and there was a vendor that had a website that allows the user to build a small covered bridge. You had choices between style, size and condition (new or old looking). Then they made the bridge on their 3D printer and mailed it to you. Pretty neat.

-Jeff :)

Matt Meiser
06-15-2007, 12:07 PM
There is also a site calle e-MachineShop or something like that. You can download their CAD software, design a part, and get an instant online quote to have the part made in numerous metals and plastics. Very expensive for hobby use, but also very cool.

Jerry O'Brien
06-15-2007, 9:10 PM
I am amazed at what this software will do and even more impressed with what that fellow did the other night at the Houston Inventors meeting. It was so fast and so easy to make change. I have a friend that makes a gun for chopping fiberglass. He calls it a chopper and his dad had a bunch of them made a number of years ago. My friend wanted to make some more because he sells them on E-bay but was having trouble finding parts. This guy make him an exact repleca for under $200.00 inclulding computer time and we just sent it off to Mexico to a foundry there to get some made. That is really very very simple.

I hope someone gained something from this thread. I am so new to this stuff that it all amazes me.

Jerry O'Brien