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Currently, it is not quite there with practical costs. With a CNC mill, they can mill 3-D metal to an exact design. But that is more of a subtractive process than an additive process like 3-D printing.Wandering Daisy wrote: Is 3-d printing feasible on metal?
Possible? Yes. Affordable? That depends on the alternatives. For their new rocket engines, SpaceX's Raptor and Blue Origin's BE-3 and BE-4, none of which has flown yet, 3-D printing is allowing the use of exotic alloys and the manufacture of parts that were previously impossible to make, or required numerous smaller parts to be bolted together. For them, this is cheaper, more efficient, and superior in quality to previous machining and manufacturing methods. For backpack frames and stuff most of us use in our everyday lives...I haven't heard of any 3-D printed metal parts being made yet. My uninformed wild guess would be that it may be coming in the future as prices come down. But again, that's simply a guess.Wandering Daisy wrote: Is 3-d printing feasible on metal?
Many years ago I had a Coleman Peak 1 backpack with a plastic frame. It was indestructible. You could toss it off a cliff no problem. I bet you could run over it with a car without damaging it. It was flexy in use, but I didn't see this as a problem.Wandering Daisy wrote:Is there any plastic strong enough to be made into a pack frame?
We used a set of those packs for awhile in the late 70s, but for our 5 day trips only. They had endless slots for strap anchors. You could quickly adjust to accommodate a range of participants. They were a bit more flexible than I liked and they were not built for longer trips or trips requiring higher weight like trips including climbing. The bag was too small and the padding too skimpy for that. For 5 day leisure trips with no climbing, I found them adequate, but wasn't particularly fond of them.RSC wrote:Many years ago I had a Coleman Peak 1 backpack with a plastic frame. It was indestructible. You could toss it off a cliff no problem. I bet you could run over it with a car without damaging it. It was flexy in use, but I didn't see this as a problem.Wandering Daisy wrote:Is there any plastic strong enough to be made into a pack frame?
"Creative" and constructive indeed, I've just discovered a "destructive" way to use a external frame backpack: First you overload it, then hoist it up onto a little scale, and then have the giant bastard thing come crashing down- smashing and lacerating your foot! I've just returned from the local Urgent Care, where they closed it up with 3 stitches, and told me the foot will soon heal up fine, but I would still be a jackass.There are unlimited creative ways to use an external pack frame. Once I strapped a partially butchered elk to it!
Mystery Ranch makes about the most heavy duty (and just downright heavy) packs I'm aware of, moreso than Gregory. They used to make a hulking aluminum frame for carcass hauling. Your post made me look them up for a link and low and behold, this post won't be off topic (future of packs) because it seems they're now building their frames from carbon fiber. The carbon fiber itself is not exposed like an aluminum frame, but is encased in nylon fabric sleeves. The CF is also referred to as formed into (external) stays. They look fairly straight, without the curvature you would see in a Kelty frame. Below are links to just a carcass hauler and then that same frame with additional pack-bags. You can peruse their site to find their other offerings. These things are intended for brutal load hauling.rlown wrote:Well, we quartered a 350 lb bear in Trinity and got that out in 3 packs. I'm an external frame fan. First trip out was with hide and head in my Kelty. Yes, there was a second trip for the meat. Snow helped us save the meat.