Am looking at buying something for my classic Lambretta but one of the lenses is cracked.
Anyone know if it’s possible to 3D print a red lens at all please ? I know plastic printing is the whole point of this type of printing I just wondered if it’s possible to do a translucent lens.
For clarity there would no bulb behind the lens it’s purely a reflector.
You could try one of the companies that offer 3D printing / rapid protytyping services.
eg => www.protolabs.co.uk
They should know what is available.
/david
I think not - at least, not a suitable one.
Yes it’s entirely possible, but use 3D stereolithography (photochemical resin printing) rather than FFF (aka FDM) printing, to get better transparency.
(@Gazza , you just knew I’d know didn’t you! 
)
Today I hear that an Ear has been 3d printed from live human cells to make a new one for a patient using cells grown from a sample taken from the recipient. The possible ramifications of this if fully successful are huge.
New kidney anyone?
Excellent, thanks for the advice.
Now to find somewhere locally who can do that.
I have the original reflectors so hopefully they can scan them for the print.
I would have thought they printed the scaffolding and grew the cells on that rather than directly printing the cells themselves.
Not sure …… some details here
Certainly one of the better usages of 3d technology
I imagine the problem would be to do with the optical design of the cover - as far as I know most, if not all, have some sort of ‘lens’ moulded into the inner surface (not a lens, really - some sort of Fresnel thing). This would, IWHT, be difficult to model correctly. Then there are the optical characteristics of the plastic, though I suspect this is less important.
Also I would imagine that it would be cheaper to source a replacement - there is a bay somewhere that usually can supply this sort of thing. There seem to be lots on there.
I think you will find that the toughest part is getting the part drawn in order for it to be printed.
Tim
Scan and edit.
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