hello community what do I have to expect from a stainless Steel 3D printed Tool? will it have nearly the material properties? what can I not expect from a stainless Steel printed 3D tool? any answer is very much appreciated
The Stainless Steel printed by Shapeways has roughly the properties of Cast Iron. Light use screwdriver? No big problem. Heavy duty bolt wrench.. not going to work.
Stony is right. Practically speaking, the material is probably a bit stronger than plain cast iron, closer to ductile iron. The ss print material is a composite of stainless alloy 420 and bronze and this is the major limiting factor in the material properties. In reality a printed part is a matrix of relatively hard ss and soft ductile bronze. So it behaves much differently than pure alloy steel. It will not hold a good cutting edge, so forget about making truly useful knives, chisels, scissors etc. Much will depend on the design of the tool itself. -G