Printing a motorcycle tank

Hi all,

I was wondering whether it would be possible at all to print a gasoline tank for my motorcycle and then use it to drive around... The idea would be to print the tank, then drill mounting holes, install a cap and go..

From the size and water tightness the right material seems to be steel.. Has anyone tried anything like this before ?

thanks!

--A

Awesomely expensive, think several thousands of $$$$! The material is also very heavy compared to sheet steel or aluminum. Print yourself a trick gas cap maybe? Think about learning how to shape sheet metal and weld. Check out: <www.metalshapers.org>. These techniques are easier to learn than most people think, and a lot more satisfying than sitting in front of a monitor all day.

3D modeling 4 eva!!

Ok no, just kidding. Not in this case at least. Thanks for the tips here, Glen.

@adotl that's a very cool idea, but GlenG right. While Shapeways is working on it, that might not be cost effective option for a little while yet. If you have any other ideas for things you might want to model, let us know -- the community here is always willing to offer feedback.

Hmmm I am not sure I understand why it would be super-expensive...

I thought the price was per cm^3 of material actually used in the fabrication, or am I wrong ?

--A

Yes the material is $10.00 per cubic cm. I found a random tanks dimensions of 16.5"x12"x7" and drew a cube to those dimensions Which yes makes it larger than a tank but will give you an idea. I then gave that .12" wall thickness (about the 3mm required for stainless) and get a volume of 1530 cubic cm. That times $10 per cubic cm is $15,300. The tank I found and got the dimensions from is $159.95

I'll build you a tank, frame & fenders for 15K!

-G

Ha! I bet you would!!
I could probably get Youknowwho4eva's model and have it gold plated

Anyway I guess this means the pricing for prints is for an object's total volume and not just for the materials used... Too bad.. I thought the whole idea of printing was to pay only for the material you actually use...

Michaels rough estimate IS for a hollow tank! Actually, it would still cost well below 15K to print in metal, but still outrageous in cost. Beyond that it would be needlessly heavy, enough to change the balance of a bike. I can think of several other reasons why the SS print media would not be a good idea.
We have printed a set of foot pegs for a custom chopper though. And I still think a gas cap would make an awesome, affordable 3dp project.

The price per cm3 is just a easy way the present the total costs to the custumer. This price includes obviously the cost of the raw material but also the average cost of the machines plus the average cost of the man power needed plus the average cost of shipping divided by one cm3.

It is quite usual. For instance, in my company, we charge by man.month rate. But this man.month rate is not the price we pay our guys (our own raw material ). It includes the taxes, the fix costs like the monthly cost of the computers, the monthly cost of the buildings rent etc. and this for everybody in the company (including those not working on things we actually sell, like administrative people) divided by the number of people actually working on things we sell, and this give us our month.man rate. Then we multiply by the actual number of man and the number of months actually needed to perfomer a task to charge our custumers.

For the same reason the price of a cloth is not only the price of the fabric...

But as Glen said, there are plenty of (smaller) things you can do with 3D printing to personalize your motorcycle.
In my view, personalization/customization is key since generally you only build one copy of your object.

Enjoy 3D printing!