Ah. NOW I get it. The layered approach. I originally thought of doing it out of pieces of wood or carbon, but moved away from the idea because I was worried there wasn't enough gluing surface. Welding metal, however takes care or that.
Rocky - thanks for the soldering heads up. I can just see myself soldering away and thinking "hey, what's that smell"....
I clearly misunderstood the capabilities of 3D printing. I had imagined sending my 2D drawing and $100 to someone and having the UPS man deliver a finished part 3 days later. Nope.