I have been planning to get a small part machined out of a lightweight material such as aluminium, delrin or similar. I have little experience of 3D printing apart from a small plastic part I had made by 3D Hubs a couple of years ago, and wondered if there was a 3D printing material that would be a suitable alternative. The item is a small adjustable mechanism with three parts that will be manually adjusted relative to each other by M5 thumbscrews. No part will have a dimension greater than 100mm and mostly up to about 10mm thickness. It needs to be rigid but will be subject to little or no stress. It will need to have a couple of holes drilled which can be tapped to M5 for the thumbscrews. I’m currently trying to master Sketchup to make a proper 3D drawing, but still find it easier to use a pencil, paper and ruler.
Id suggest giving Fusion 360 a try, makes better models for 3d and also has a cam feature for cnc.
Taulman Alloy 910 Nylon is a good material that would work, its pretty strong.
You can search your area for printers with the material. I also carry it if you dont find anyone local. Same if you run in to issues designing it but have a good hand drawing and dimensions needed I could draw it up for you in a modeling program.
To be honest unless a material is specifically noted as flexible all 3D printed materials could be described as “rigid” - if there’s a decent thickness. If there’s no stress on the parts then Nylon may be a sledgehammer to crack a nut where ABS or even PLA might be sufficient. It really depends on the model.
