From Fred:
I was real skeptical at first sight but the “laser cusing” process used to build the lugs isn’t your usual 3d printing BS that puts out goopy plastic or foamy metal — it’s actually melting pure stainless powder at full density, not sinterizing some coated particulate crap.
Must be fantastically expensive, I’d bet he’s a student somewhere that has access to the machine and he’s getting to the parts for nearly-free instead of something in the mid 5 digits
I’m not a big fan of the bike itself, but I see tremendous potential with this technology.
You could conceivably throw your favorite Pacenti designed lugs into Rhino or AutoCad, adjust the angles the way you want and then have custom geo lugs kicked out on an as-needed basis – possibly for a fraction of the price (or at least time) it’d take to have custom lugs cast. They don’t necessarily have to look like the lugs this guy built – I think he was just proving a point. Theoretically there’s no reason these lugs couldn’t look like normal lugs – with your custom geometry dialed in.
Casting takes a long time and a good deal of effort. If this can replace that… Man. Shit just got real.
Could this could be used for more finite stuff too? Stuff like portal reinforcements, brazons, light mounts. 1inch quill stems with 31.8 clamps? Who knows.
Admittedly it’s new and expensive now. It won’t always be though. That this exists at all is pretty remarkable.
The Diamond Age is upon us ladies and gentlemen.
Onward
—
Further reading
http://www.shapeways.com/materials/stainless_steel
—
Small update – here’s a link to a woman who’s benefiting from 3d printing technology by having a titanium mandible printed IN A MATTER OF HOURS to replace her badly infected jaw.
http://www.3ders.org/articles/20120203-83-year-old-woman-got-3d-printed-mandible.html
This stuff isn’t just good for bikes.
