Jul.31, 2013
Aston Martin DB4 is rare - only 1,200 DB4 cars were made back in the years between 1958 and 1963. But Ivan Sentch of Auckland, New Zealand is making his own Aston Martin DB4 using a Solidoodle 2 3D printer.
Sentch is building replica of a 1961 series II Aston Martin DB4 from scratch, with a fiberglass body, a space-frame chassis using mechanical parts from a Nissan Skyline GTS25T, and an engine from his own 250 GTO replica.
Sentch noted that he needed to first make the plug, then take a mold from that plug and cast the body from that mold. He investigated a couple of options for the plug but to get a foam CNC cut from the local CNC cutting shop would cost about $12,000 to $15,000 NZD.
So the $499 USD printer from solidoodle and $35 NZD per 1Kg spool of plastic seems to be a better option. After researching it he found it was only going to cost him $2K in plastic and the cost of the printer. As a programmer, Sentch has no prior experience in the world of 3D printing. He learned himself from scratch and started printing since last Christmas. He is using 3D printer to print out roughly 2,500 pieces to use as plugs, and at this stage has printed out 72% of the parts.
Sentch said "this is just the printing, and there will be endless months of work once it's all assembled". He told Solidoodle that "the printing itself isn't very time-consuming (click a few buttons to kick one off before I go to work and another one off before I go to bed) and preparing the next prints only takes a couple of hours a week – it's just really the sanding of the printed parts before I glue them together that is time-consuming (and dreadfully boring)."
You can follow his progress on his blog here and check out more pics of this DIY 3D-printed Aston Martin.
Posted in 3D Printing Applications
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This is truely awesome! Looks like i'm able to build my own '69 Ford Mustang fastback in a while.