What kind of 3d printer and filament/plastic would one have to have to print the nozzles and fenders?
The printer temps and resolutions determine what materials you can print at what detail. Otherwise any printer works. For example, ABS plastic is going to want a heated print bed and an enclosure. PLA doesn't care. Nylon is going to want higher temps while carbon filaments want stronger nozzles. As long as you have a printer that can hit the specs of the filament you choose, you're probably going to be okay. It doesn't take an expensive printer for this anymore.
I hear you guys on making parts. I was wondering if the nossle would hold up to the load froma 3d printed part but it would seem it did other than when you modded it.
You must have a heap better 3d printer than I have.
The issue i guess is that while it could handle it, when they modified it they broke through the outer layer and this is where it all went wrong. I would be interested in seeing the cost to machine one from billet but i think it would be very high due to the block you had to tear up.
It sounds like you are probably using ABS plastic, or are having temperature issues. ABS is a stronger and more rigid plastic than PLA, but its those qualities also are a weakness for printing. The ABS has big problems with delamination during printing. This is caused by the lower layers cooling before the top layers are not done printing. Rather than melting together, the next layer just rests on the layer below it. The plastics also shrink and expand, so as the layers cool at different rates, they rip apart. PLA warps too, which is why we use various types of brims while printing, but PLA will usually distort, rather than separating.
Geometry, post processing, composite designs and intended service life are also pretty major factors.
