3D Printed Sheet Metal Forming - Will it Survive? 

I love how 3D printing is being used by people to cast, mold, etc. The ability to print plastic is cool, but then to move from a plastic printed part to things like metal dies, or concrete casts is amazing.

Dont know why the algorithm recommended this to me but kudos on the prototyping success

A couple of notes: cold rolled steel sheets have surface stresses that make for 'anisotropic' stretching resulting in wrinkles outside the die, sometimes changing orientation of the cut blank 90 degrees will change results. Too little or too much die pressure on the outside perimeter (clamping) along with friction high/low can cause wrinkles to not iron out. If you annealed (heated) the sheet to remove residual cold rolling effects and let it cool slowly you can have smoother bending too.

That's really impressive, would never expect that from a 3D printed die. Add a lexan guard to the press just as a safety precaution.

Good job for a first go. With your 3D prints add a 'brim' in the settings it will help hold the first layers down. With your resin it is Polyester not Epoxy. Polyester shrinks a lot on cure compared to Epoxy so it is a poor choice for this application also as you found heat is not your friend with Polyester resins. Slow cure Epoxy while more expensive will get you a better result. Keep at it :)

That's legitimately impressive. The resin filling was such a smart idea.

For simple beverage can, they use more than 20 slightly different presses for precision. Like progressive stages from sheet to a can.

Impressed too! Just a few thoughts; mixing the epoxy with Sand, would try concrete as an even cheaper alternative. And using oil/grease to reduce friction, maybe this will keep the pressure up for forming out the Details. Now let's try a fender!

using resin to fill the mold is such a great idea ! I think it adds some flexibility to the rigidity of the PLA, reinforcing the whole mold. Perfect !

Good job. I have been watching 3d printed metal forming videos on youtube for over 1 year but I think your results are some of the best. Thank you sharing with us.

Would love to see a continuation on this idea, really interesting.

Same effect in the shrinking of steel as i have had on projects, my simple fix was 3-5mm thick rubber, you would be surprised, try add like a small section of 2-3mm thick rubber on those ends & you will notice a big difference! Best of luck

Nice work! The resin you used is actually Polyester, not Epoxy. Had you used Epoxy, it would have probably not cracked as easily. Also, if you use a slow curing Epoxy systems, it won’t have that crazy exothermic reaction that the Polyester did, thus not heating and deforming your printed part. Epoxy will get warm, but nothing like the Polyester.

I can 1000% see this becoming common knowledge regarding 3d printing. Thanks for pioneering!

This is the era we are so late to catch up on! Technology advancements only make our lives easier sharing this information even more detrimental! Thank you for sharing your experience as it serves as a template to get started on 3D printed parts

Thank you for sharing. This is an great application for the old 3D printer.

Something you might want to try is filling the inside with concrete instead of resin, you can add strands of fiberglass to it if you're afraid of it cracking. Also: leaving a gap between the dies is not at all silly, you should always take into account the thickness of the material you are forming/pressing, you should also always expect some bounce back, i.e. depending on the material you're using and its thickness, it might not want to hold its new shape and will "bounce back" (you press it to 90° and it goes back to 100°).

This is incredible. I've been 3D printing non-stop for the last 6 months, and dreaming of translating my designs into metal parts. This looks like the way.

Great vid. The flex in your press as you unloaded (on the second to last piece)was unreal. Great vid again thanks.

I've been taking a weekly foundry night class at a local high school shop through a community college. The high school amazingly still operates a metal melting furnace that they melt aluminum and brass in order to make castings in sand molds (like how they've cast aluminum, brass, iron, etc. for 200+ years). If you wanted a harder die set and therefore theoretically more accurate finished stamping, the 3d printed dies could be rammed up in casting sand to create a sand mold of the die set in order to make an aluminum or brass die set. It's also possible to cast it in iron as well if you had a hot enough operating furnace. There's also a long-used casting technique called lost wax casting where the work piece is made of wax and is one-time use sacrificial. You ram the wax casting up in the sand mold and rather than removing the workpiece before casting you heat the sand mold, some use a hot plate, in order to melt the wax, creating a void where the wax once was. In recent years with the use of 3D printing becoming more common, this same technique has been used but with 3D printed items. This is referred to as lost PLA casting.

I like your resin filled approach!

I’ve also watched ppl 3D print an image and then make a cast for exactly what you are doing. Nice video 👍

This mold thing starts to get me crazy!! I have to try it!!! Good job!!!

Brilliant workflows!

This is a fantastic idea! I'm restoring a car soon and this could definitely come in handy when replicating old parts - who knew plastic and printers could be so versatile?

On 6061T6 might try annealing it first. I think it will go down to T0 at around 600 degrees. It will move like putty and next to zero stress on your dies. You might do that with a torch and temperature pen or cheap laser temp sensor. The 6061 temper will come back to like around T4 on it's own over time. Commercially they uses salts baths to re-temper but probably an expensive process.

great project, thanks for sharing. i used it at work, for 3d printing casting moulds, very, very pleased.

Nice video. It's a good demonstration and gives me some confidence going forward in my own 3dp metal forming project. Thanks!

Impressive 😎

That was an impressive experiment. Thanks for the video.

This is awesome, this is going to help me with my resto now , so glad this video was recommend. 3d printing is changing everything. Great video, 👍

I'm really impressed of how you're impressed man! Great stuff!

Just got my first 3d printer last week. As a shop owner, I was wondering how this idea would work. Great video. Thank you!

Just saw this today and I am blown away. I’m a modeler and and engineer and making something like this for small scale using aluminum from soda cans or roof flashing would work awesomely. When in cad program making the male part I’d probably go at least 5% or 10% in reduction to give more room. I’ll definitely be looking into this for making RC parts

Very cool. I've been wanting to do this for a while but just havent come across a project to try it. Thanks for sharing!

This is such a cool idea. May work well for 3D printed Injection molds!!

We've all had that press experience where you stand sideways and cover your valuable bits. Really cool project. I wonder if the same could be done for louver dies.

That’s impressive! I think you may be responsible for me getting a 3-D printer. The thought to make a die set, then to use the epoxy infill is really cool!

Wow! I actually just recently bought a 3D printer and I am just sifting through videos to learn as much as I can before I get it and came across this and glad I did. I’m actually doing a renovation/restoration on a Vintage Airstream trailer where parts sometimes can no longer be found. I have one part I need that no longer exists, but with this video I now have a idea to print a die and should be able to make that actual part from aluminum myself. Thank you for this content and explaining how you designed the die initially at the beginning.

Nice. Another use for this amazing tool!

Next time, try spraying some mold release when pressing the metals. Try Pam, WD40, wax. You need to give some lube to let the metals move or slide over the mold. You will need the metal to slide over the mold instead of pinching. Possibly try generic blue "waterproof" grease. Just rub it on well after cleaning the mold. You don't want leftover dirt/metal shavings to stick to the new piece you are molding.

I'm really impressed (see what I did there?) Dave, I'd never thought about 3d printing dimple dies - that's opened up a whole new world of fabrication niceness for me!

I certainly didn't think the stainless would form soo well given how hard it is. Nice work. 3D printing opens a works of oportunities for makers.

Awesome work for just starting out! For warping issues I found what works for me is glass beds and Aquanet hairspray. After mechanically levelling the bed the prints stick well and come off easily after a short time in the freezer. Glass is cheap and I keep a stack for swapping out after print runs, keeps machine down a minimum of time. Hold the glass in place with 3 small binder clips. Good luck!

sixth 3D print... 👏. For a small casting project where I have needed a similar filler, I made a concrete out of epoxy and extra fine sand. I get the sand from the aquarium section at Petco. The consistency is just like concrete, you can handle and pack it. I liked it because it solves some issues around the epoxy spilling and being level to the top of your form. Also, it is a large decrease in the epoxy needed to fill the form, depending on what you are doing with it. Not a huge car guy, but I'd love to see where the finished part ended up. They look great. I plan to use 3D printed parts in a press just like yours, so thanks for this video.

Great video. We just made our own dimple dies (I run a manufacturing company). We started out of PLA then went to steel but during the process we learned you have to design the dies with just enough gap for the material you plan to use. If you don’t, that’s where a lot of your wrinkling is coming from. It sucks but you really need a die for every material size it you want it to form properly and flatten the edges out Great work tho. Love the shape you did and it was a great video!!!

Just a heads up fosscad has been using 3d printed jigs to make stamped sheet metal AK receivers for awhile now. No need to fill the plastic with resin epoxy, your thought process was perfect on the infill.

That's very impressive! Great job.

This is really interesting. I've had it in my head that making the primary part with a 3d printer is missing the point and flexibility of the thing. But this suggests a new (to me at least) line of tool creation possibilities.

Cool stuff, some advice: You should look into the spring coefficient, basically if you want to deform steel to a certain degree, your form needs to be overexaggerated a bit because it springs back a few % when you let go. You should also probably sand the back sides of the forms flat to avoid the force being applied non-homogenous. Lastly, when I test this out in a few weeks I will install guide rods and guide frame to make sure every piece is correctly positioned.

Nice results. PLA certainly stands up to the pressure.

very cool, thanks for sharing - never considered doing this sort of work

I'd use quick setting high performance cement for backing filler. That stuff has incredible compressive strength and it's relatively inexpensive vs epoxy.

I'm definitely impressed! Especially given that this was a youtube suggestion and I have no idea why I was watching this...

Wow, amazing work!

Very cool. I wouldn’t have guessed that the 3D printed material would hold up to a press like that. Thanks for sharing!

Good use of 3D printing. We posted this video on our homemade tools forum this week :)

I'm going to be trying something like this and I loved your video. FYI, SmoothOn makes a product called EpoxAcast that's formulated especially for making stamping dies. Their product is intended to make the dies, not reinforce 3d printed dies, but the fact that it is so strong should make it a good thing to use for this kind of work.

This awesome. I used to have to make wooden dies for stamping wing ribs but this is way better

Fantastic. Thank you so much.

I'm impressed!

I‘m pretty impressed with this! 😁

Nicely done!

That was crazy to see with regular PLA (though strengthened by the resin). Thanks for sharing that!

Maybe if on the next project before the resin has completely cured you could sandwich the tools between a couple of slabs of Aluminium tool plate of about 10mm thickness and clamp them as they cure. This should help the tool remain flat. With regards to your pressings...first 6061 benefits massively if you anneal it first. Take an Oxyacetylene torch and black your part with the yellow flame. Now carefully remove all the soot with the blue flame. Do not go to far with it, if it gets too hot it will be in the scrap bin. Heat it with the blue flame until the soot just disappears...Then it's perfectly annealed. In this condition you will be able to shape it with your hands. It will regain it's hardness as it age hardens. The other materials all pressed quite well except the 16G...That wasn't because of it's thickness, it was because the surface finish was poor. A rough surface will grab on the tool and prevent it from flowing across the die, which is why you had good success with the stainless. You can help the situation by DA sanding the material first and also give it a spray with WD40. Looking at your tool I would suggest making it about 20mm wider on each end and cutting the blank to that length, that should help get rid of the pucker at each end. Also make sure that you don't have a rough saw cut finish on your holes. Grind them smooth and round with a spiraband in a die grinder. This will help stop hair line cracks developing at the holes.

Really a great idea and an extension of the application of 3D printing I would say, To avoid that pinch (a wrinkle actually) on MS you need to have a holding to flow the metal properly and in an ironed way. Should work better for the ductile metals like Deep Drawn or Extra deep draw material (DD or EDD types). The real surprise is that SS one. All features came out very well and sharper considering SS

Dude, the second you left the bottom of the print open to accept a resin pour you blew my mind. Freaking brilliant. 1. I’d definitely go with a longer cure unless you’re using something like PC filament that has a higher heat deflection temperature. 2. if you pour the resin a bit proud, you could square the whole part on a jointer, or on a belt sander. Not sure if that level of precision is warranted, but it would probably make any OCD viewers very happy. 😂 3. Doesn’t look like the surface finish needs it, but could be worth experimenting with turning on ironing in your slicer for the top layers. It might result in a really sweet surface finish.

Awesome video man!! Has really inspired me to do the same with some parts on my build

That was amazing! Perhaps if your dies were a bit longer... The edges might not have the capacity to give enough pressure. If the die was longer, you might be able to get a better edge pressure from the press.

Using PETG or other higher temp plastics might help with the deform in the future.

Amazing work a true craftsman who waits for the perfection and celebrate the joy of success.. good luck buddy for all your hard work and sharing your true knowledge...

nice proof of concept. useful tool in the rapid prototyping kit.

You could always anneal it, then heat treat it in an oven. It'd be super easy, you'd get hella better results with it being easier to do as well.

You should change to a bigger nozzle man. Even .6mm nozzle with .3mm layer height. makes a huge difference to print time (and strength too!). I only use a .6mm nozzle or bigger now as my quality doesn't look much worse and it cuts my printing time in half or more. I like the idea of filling the infill with epoxy.

Great video, theory to concept. Good use of modern tech to make old school.

SUper cool video man, nice content all around, thank you.

Excellent process development, and super clever using the resin. Suggestions: Lubricant on the dies! that would help quite a bit. Obviously the epoxy exotherms; many times on a pour, if we took too long, the plastic (not styrofoam :-0 SMH) cup would start smoking, therefore using many smaller pours would be better, and maybe pouring one end with the form on a slant until cured (or at least until the temp drops, reverse slant then pour the other end, repeat, that way you would have alternating 'leaves' that overlap where they are thinner, allowing faster curing with thinner, but still structurally connected layers. Too me it seems that the next pour should be done when an overlapping layer is still a bit 'green' for best interlayer adhesion. Also, I think I would try printing a lip with a recess to allow the last layer to receive a rectangular plate of aluminum or steel (say 1/8"); fill the last 1/16" with resin, coat the contact side of the plate, and lay it on from an angle to exclude air which would give a nice final surface to receive the direct load and be the buffer for distributing pressure to the resin/print block. It seems to me, care in curing to avoid the temp warps in the print to maintain original shape would be key. Doing experiments (maybe on a non-part) to see what layer depth limits for temperature limits/rise might be beneficial. Also for the ends, creating deliberate 'waves' for control of excess metal bends so the compressive material at the ends is formed in a way beyond the part for the purpose of eliminating 'wildness' that affects the ends of the part.

If you get to print em 100%,use the salt method to remelt the plastic in an oven ,that way you wont have layers break on you.

This is so cool!! thought of doing this on thin alu for a logo and found this, now I'm very optimistic 😁

I for one.... am really impressed!

Stuff Made Here made some good videos on using 3d printing for steel forming

Impressive! It'd be interesting to see how long it would last without the warping issues. Is it worth the effort for 100 parts made? 20? I dunno lol

That 18ga stainless looks great. Got some Titanium as well I could try. Only got a 5 ton press but for jewelry size peices this looks like it will be very handy. Dude you have made all sorts of things possible with these plastic dies. CNC Delron dies are doable on the 3018.

Really interesting use of 3D printing! Maybe I'll give something similar a try!

You might try Bondo Short Strand Fiberglass Filler. Len

I've heard that meniacle laugh before, he lost his fingers.

Nice work! Thankyou Sir!

Nice results. Reminds me of a similar project by Stuff Made Here.

He pressed, and was really impressed.. while im watching this bloody depressed.

This is legit.

Very nice. Was not expecting it to work with 16ga!

Very nice. I really like your experiments and results. Congratulations.

Hey, with the 16ga aluminum, you should have it put in the oven to annealed, once annealed the forming should be easier. And one other detail making die. The space between each of the forming die should be the thickness of the material you are pressing betweeen. Now instead of using a 3D printer with PLA, you should use a 3D metal forming printer. You would have better results and you could use light oil to help with the forming process. And to finish my comment, they are books on that subject that could have helped you instead of rushing the process. In real life the stamping process of metal is done in multiple succession with one or multiple dies.

Wow - mind blown. Great stuff.

You’re doing very well dude, keep it up 👏🏼👍🏼

I had actually been looking into this a couple months ago, but wasn't turning much up online. Then this video showed up in my "recommended" videos on RU-vid today. Ironically, after not seeing anything before, now I'm getting other recommended videos along these lines. Another thing would be once you have it dialed in, if you were going to make something in production, you could have it machined out of something more durable. But it also looks like the 3D printed versions stand up reasonably well and would likely work for small runs.

I set all sorts of progressive dies for a living, including roll mills dies and 800 ton press dies. I very much like this idea, a simple stamp press, along with a 3D printer opens the imagination up a bit. I'm invested 😁

The press definitely racked which is going to cause that deformation on one side of the sheet. Excellent video and great idea on the infill using epoxy.

Great video, would love to see more on this

ended up here by accident, blew my mind, 3D printing is working it's way into many industries and empowering the crafty! thanks for sharing your experiment, plasticxepoxy press dies for sheetmetal, was expecting 22+ gauge tin, impressed by 16 gauge steel...