hey everybody its norm from Tested and French contesta we're here at Maker
Faire 2017 and got in before the doors open
we're got crazy we're drawn to this booth these are 3d printed car engines
amazing and they're designed by this gentleman here Eric how you doing Eric
tell us how this project got started how long you've been making this and your
whole process of making these engines about three years ago I was rebuilding a
Toyota engine my garage and you know I had a 3d printer and the only thing
available was only like trinkets and knickknacks online for people to
download I figured hey I can model this up in the computer and you know make it
printable and make it you know moving and running and share with everybody so
they can have something to download and see how an engine works on the inside
and you know transition from like 3d printing says automotive the mechanical
it was kind of like a cool version of those model kits you be able to get they
were there clear energy yeah I always wanted one as a kid and that was one of
the inspirations to you know I can just make my own so you have a bunch of
different kinds of engines like is there like a rhyme or reason which well I had
to say own engine in my garage and I was rebuilding that and then my friend had a
Subaru WRX engine just laying around so I took that and reverse engineered it
and then the newer ones were done from some CAD files and drawings and then the
most recent one was done by just specs and pictures and that was that was the
challenging part was doing it from just effects and pictures I'm having no
dimensions or any we chat with people who make replicas
you know items all the time whether they're movie props or mechanical things
when engine is a very fairly complex piece of machinery it what's your design
process like your reference you said it's from real engines the schematics
but how do you start designing this it's not just Sketchup there thank you I just
jump into it and it's I visualize it in my head I can see some of the moving
parts and I can put that in the computer and it's just I don't know how to
explain it that well but this is how I work and because there are parts that
you start with like like the camshaft or I start with the engine block yeah and
then I came from specs and dimensions I can start with the stroke and the bore
and then designs it from there to start to do a crankshaft into the kits and
connecting rods and I built my work my way out and then as building in the
computer it allowed me to do the whole assembly piece by piece and then have a
full almost full functioning model in the computer how much of it are each
engines 3d printed parts versus hardware I see some other hardware you have to
bring in it maybe like two or three percent hardware it's diff metric
fasteners and springs and bearings but it's mostly printed so in tolerances
looks like that's a pretty tight the first ones we're pretty tight but I
designed all my parts to be printed on just the cheapest printer I can find so
anybody can print it you know anybody can download the files and print their
own so to help the tolerances are loose where they can be and they're tight
words they need to be so there's like some people need to do finishing work
and stuff but I've learned through the process that what I can design tolerance
revise wise to make things easier for people that print on their own you're
going to try honing out the cylinders and putting a ring in the piston I
thought about doing more like you know leaving a piston and maybe doing them
like an ethanol engine or something but that's more more work and more time you
could probably get a low temperature I would trying to return the lowest
burning fuel but yeah anything is going to burn in the
got a print in nylon and all that stuff and that's one more project - one more
camel worms open up that I'm not sure if I want to tackle so these dentures all
run off the motor on the outside they actually run them what does this come
and looks like you have a dial here adjust speed it was just a small gear DP
motor hooked up to a pulse width modulation controller to a 12 volt power
supply it allows you to just turn it down and up so you can see me flow down
you see the valves actually moving and in sync with the Pistons are you also
modeling the pathways for the coolest to flow through now no pathways oh okay I
can but it's it's more time you know and then when you get into the cool jackets
and the oil plastic engine you're making thinner walls that some speed repairs
can't sprint and they'll just end up with gaps and you can make it clear and
then you could put coolant through it yeah yeah I mean the possibilities are
endless you can just take it wherever you want to go so I think it's cool
though and you're designing basically a lot of these there's fpm prints oh you
also experiment with different types some companies have taken like the
Subaru engine and they printed it on poly jets and stuff and that really
stayed pretty Molly Jessica like words like this look like a clear acrylic
piece and you can see everything moving but yeah I don't have access to those
printers so but some people have tried it now the transmissions that you have
like transmissions are in my brain like a complicated yet and like one reason
why I kept doing it because I can't explain how a transmission works or
somebody you just can't like verbally verbally explain it yeah it's impossible
so if you download the file then you assemble if your own you will know
exactly how it works how to get the gears and cogs move and lock and
everything it'll make sense have you gotten into an automatic
transmission yet I want to but it's hard to the planetary gearset
and you can do it but then you wouldn't be able to see the planetary gearset
clear and you wouldn't be able to see like the clutch back moving yeah so and
I can't print and clear to where it's you know visible gotcha
I want to it's just and these because they're decisional
files you can put them at any any scale scale you like or what started at about
third scale to that were my printer cable and then that just worked out that
with a good scale so I kept going everything its third about third scale
it's thirty five percent of the real what's the smallest you've gotten an
engine to work in print I haven't scaled it down below 35 per
can because that's where my bearings are I sized them for the bearings and you
know I people have printed smaller but they have gone out and source their own
bearings and modify the file now do you think you could take a classic engine
like this and maybe do like a lost wax kind of cat on you you could lost feel
like ass yeah but you know one more project and one more thing to but to
recreate a classic engine that they don't make those engine block for any re
I mean this would be hardware picking one the flathead because the cores in it
would be perfect in it for lost wax but yeah it's just one more thing if anybody
wants to do it the files will be uploaded and they can you know they can
tackle that on their own awesome well thank you so much here for sharing with
us your 3d printed engine designed and like you said these are all available
online and little bit more on Thingiverse the newer ones aren't online
yet but they will be eventually and what's next for you going on three years
what's the next challenge you're going to keep on making more engines and
traditions I'm trying to find something more complicated rotary engine rotary is
next yeah rotary is like a two rotor engines X 4 engines next um but I'm
trying to find more complicated things to the model in print so engines are so
far the most complex tank engines and transmissions cool awesome thank you so
much let's meet you thank you