The American Powertrain Monday Shift: This Miniature 3D Printed Toyota W56 Transmission Is Fully Functional


The American Powertrain Monday Shift: This Miniature 3D Printed Toyota W56 Transmission Is Fully Functional

3D printing is one of those “future technologies today” type things that we are a planet are just starting to see the beginnings of. With the machines now accessible to people who aren’t very wealthy, the amount of interesting stuff and jaw dropping creations that have been made in 3D printing machines are on a dramatic rise. In what can only be described as its infancy, 3D printing will eventually morph, evolve, grow, and develop into areas that we cannot even consider right now. Think about the video below for a minute. This clever guy spend 48 hours using a 3D printer to make all the parts necessary to recreate a Toyota/Aisin W56 five speed transmission and hook it to the back of the Toyota four cylinder he had already made. Here, you will see him remove and inspection panel and shift the thing through all five gears like butter. Watch the output flange to see the difference in speeds at the tail of the transmission.

While this is something that gearheads and car guys can fawn over strong composites and powdered metals are already being used in these machines. That bell housing that was normally cast through an amazingly complex and labor intensive process will now be printed with no waste and to its final specs right out of the machine. When you think about just that alone and how it will change the world of machining, casting, and the very usage of metals themselves, your eyes will open really wide!

This is an awesome desktop creation and it makes us smile to see it work but more than the fun you get from making something like this is the fact that it is very much a glimpse into a technological future that guys like us are super excited to see develop…until we create the robots that will ultimately enslave us, but we’ll probably be gone by then.

This is some desktop engineering that we admire!

PRESS PLAY BELOW TO SEE THIS MINIATURE TOYOTA W56 TRANS WORK –


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