How to made my CAD models?

I've designing a new type of hotend but I don't have the equipment required to make it. I've looking for fablabs, makerspaces etc in my country (I'm from Spain) but I couldn't find one with the equipment required to metalworks (aluminium CNC machining etc).

I've heard that there Chinese manufacturers on demand that can make any CAD model that you send. (Similar to PCB manufacturers on demand I guess).

Some another idea to bring my hotend design to reality?

Show it here and see if someone is interested. You can get a lot of feedback that way as well.
It took me about a year to finalize the Merlin and i was very thankfull for the huge amount of help i got on the way.

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[www.bonkers.de]
[merlin-hotend.de]
[www.hackerspace-ffm.de]

Quote
Shockley
Some another idea to bring my hotend design to reality?

Rather than go the "machine everything from a single block of metal", if you are using metal, you could design a mould and get it cast. That means melting metal, which is not that difficult with brass or aluminium. and a household blowtorch.

You will still have to do machining to make the nozzle hole if you use metal, or a cut hole for a nozzle to screw into. It is not easy to machine the outside of a piece of metal without the correct equipment, and trying to do a tapered hole on the inside is even more difficult.

So getting a lathe would be one way to do it (even it you just pop the vent in the end of a nozzle with it), and if you are just into designing hotends and nozzles, something like a Unimat One classic can be very useful, and much less dangerous than a full size machine shop lathe.

[www.thecooltool.com]

Don't buy them new, try to get one second hand that needs some parts. Or do something similar with a printer - most of a Unimat One is actually ABS or aluminium frame, there isn't that much steel involved. If you want to use a unimat one to cut steel with, the design will need a lot of extra power - bigger motor, all metal collets, quite a few other bits. But even out of the box it can do small aluminium or brass rounds, up to about an inch across, which is about what an E3D measures.

To give Unimat One a real lathe capability, you have to add a variable chuck, something like this, not a standard part as far as I know (I got an incomplete kit... Unimat One is limited but if you know nothing about machining, it's a starting point).

[www.thecooltool.com]

The same company also does a CNC version, but it is quite expensive for what it is. Understanding the limitations of metal machining is quite a skill in itself.

It's just the same as designing plastic parts - you have to know the material, as well as the tools to form it.

Alternatively see if you have a local Hackspace or Makerspace which has full sized lathes and cutting tools. Much easier to do steel with bigger lathes.

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2016 09:50AM by DragonFire.

Why do you need CNC? Skilled machinists can do everything on a manual machine that can be done on CNC. I'd be surprised if every moderately sized city in Spain didn't have small independent machine shops.

I would be rather reluctant to use a Chinese company given their abuse of copyrights.

That is a good point etfrench, many places have lathes and drills for car repair and similar...

... I was thinking Shockley, if you can make castings of your design, by making moulds and pouring hot metal, it will save you a lot of time than machining the whole design from a solid piece of metal.

Yes, there is risk in such a method, but it is your hotend, you must show it can be made. One way or another.

Good luck in finding some local help for your research and design, I checked, you are right, hackspaces not that common in Spain, they all in Madrid or coastal cities - nothing in between.

[wiki.hackerspaces.org]