Any experiance using 3-d printers for parts?

[jdmcm]

I would have to disagree, my brother and I have spent the last 3 years in the 3D metal printing business and have one of the few machines capable of production on the west coast. It is true it can be used to make simple patterns for casting, you can also 3D print entire sand cast molds. The real beauty is you can take a part from CAD file to holding it in your hand in a matter of hours, these parts can be drilled, machined, welded and polished...and a part that would be ridiculously expensive to cast unless you were making hundreds of parts, can now be reproduced for a few hundred dollars. And if you are worried about tough, Paccar uses our parts in their trucks and Boeing flies you through the air with 3D metal printed parts...my two cents

John