Off an on for a few months I been Cruisen the interweb looking at various companies that offer reverse engineering services to reproduce parts gears, shafts, bearings ect.. that are no longer available,

some even say they can make a new gear even if the original is worn or damaged,

I’ve also looked at various foundries that offer one off castings an low run castings, an copy castings,

I got curious cause there’s always someone lookin for a replacement part for a old blower, drill press, vise, forge, ect…

I was just wondering if anyone has ever tried using one of these small companies to copy a part to rebuild something?

 Or even completely copied something an had parts and castings made to completely build a new one?

Any idea of comparative prices? One off castings tend to be pretty spendy though with 3D printing to make masters I expect copying broken or worn pieces is practical. I'll bet antique auto folks are looking into this. 

Thanks Billy, this could be big.

Frosty The Lucky.

Yes I saw some stuff about new parts for antique vehicles,

I saw a lot of companies that offered the 3d printed options for development,

I also  a few companies that said they had some kinda fancy laser scanner thingamabob that could just scan a part and automatically put it in the computer so their machines new what to make,

it’s supposed to be much cheaper then traditional reverse engineering,

I just thought it would be cool to be able to bring some of our old tools back to tip top shape instead of them slowly all wearing out and becoming parts donnors,

like for instance, if you needed a gear box housing or cover or gear or whatever for an ol blower

 an I had a good part here, i could send my good part in an have a copy made an then send ya the new copy and bring your blower back to life, 

no idea on the costs yet, I haven’t contacted any companies to inquire yet, but since I’ve got a bunch of different models of good blower’s and then I got a grave yard of broke down blowers I thought about checking in with a couple companies to see what they could do price wise,

 

Oh yeah, the potential is there and it's exciting. Heck I could put my old 4x4, Mitsubishi turbo diesel pickup back on the road if I could get the ONE part that failed that wasn't being made. I loved that little pickup, hauled a respectable load and got 45mpg on the highway and 30+ in town. The company was bought out by Chrysler and the line was discontinued, they even stopped making replacement and repair parts almost immediately. 

With fuel price what they are it might be worth the cost, eh?

Frosty The Lucky.