Grothouse introduces 3D printing to the shop. This printing process permits the crafting of unique prototype of custom items requested by our creative clients.
Grothouse Introduces 3D Printing
Our engineer Steve demonstrates the innovative process to craft a wood record player tonearm prototype.
The 3D printer uses a flexible, strong plastic material through a very small tip and puts it out in a pattern layer by layer. The machine goes back and forth layer by layer printing out exactly what we want before it goes all together.
Once the part is done building, it is removed from the support layer. This particular part is too big for the printer, so we had to build it in two pieces. The parts are built with two separate joints that fit perfectly together to create one solid, functional piece.
A perfect joint is created to join the two pieces.
The customer will get the 3D printed example of the tonearm and try it out to see how well it works. If everything goes well the customer will return the example to us and we will craft the entire piece out of wood.
This allows us to reduce our overall costs to the customer and allows us to make sure that it fits properly and functions properly and the overall form is what the customer wants before making it out of wood.
To watch the video of the 3D printer creating the record player tonearm, click here.
