N00b with top 10 questions

1) If set at different tempatures, can the machine use other products like wax, chocolate, fast setting rubber or latex?

2) Can you make something and program the the nozzle to avoid an obstacle?
Example: A circuit board and want to print a lip around the edge but you want it to avoid travelling into the components.

3) Can the ABS be remelted into a new strand with some home made pasta maker for ABS or with PLA?

4) You can create many colors if the strands were quarter round fed by four spools of different colors was ever considered?

5) At least two colors can be used if you have 1.75mm ABS strand inseted into with a different color ABS wire insulator from a stripped electircal wire or you can't use just any ABS?

6) For smoothing of an object can I brush with a dilluted ABS solvent?

7) Can boiling PLA in water would become flexible like pasta?

8) If I wanted a high detailed figurine is there a material I could use to print oversize then bake it and it would shrink in scale?

9) If it takes longer to print over a passed surface, in other words, longer cooling time until an new layer is applied, does that make the part weaker?

10) Does the software warn you if your part cannot be made as in it will collapse or does it automatically incorporate stilts that can be cut out once done?

Very curious and serious,
Oh and hi!

Hello aardvark,
welcome to the community. i will try to answer some of the questions to the best of my knowledge. a few more on this forum will have some useful information as well.

1) If set at different tempatures, can the machine use other products like wax, chocolate, fast setting rubber or latex?

for another 3d printer made by makerbot, there was an extruder for frosting. i dont see rubber being able to be printed because of its material properties. im entirely sure that a wax extruder could be developed though.

2) Can you make something and program the the nozzle to avoid an obstacle?
Example: A circuit board and want to print a lip around the edge but you want it to avoid travelling into the components.
To the best of my knowledge there is not any software to create machine code to work around that. One would have to design the part and insert it afterwards. although there may be a way to start the print, pause it and insert said part.

3) Can the ABS be remelted into a new strand with some home made pasta maker for ABS or with PLA?
This is a big project currently, i think only a few recycling devices have been made.

4) You can create many colors if the strands were quarter round fed by four spools of different colors was ever considered?
maybe you can clarify what you mean exactly

5) At least two colors can be used if you have 1.75mm ABS strand inseted into with a different color ABS wire insulator from a stripped electircal wire or you can't use just any ABS?
im not sure if this could work

6) For smoothing of an object can I brush with a dilluted ABS solvent?
yes, there is some solvents that could be used
[forums.reprap.org]

7) Can boiling PLA in water would become flexible like pasta?
yes, i actually did this the other day just messing around. my pieve was only 5 layers thick, so it bent very easily with hot water.

8) If I wanted a high detailed figurine is there a material I could use to print oversize then bake it and it would shrink in scale?
This would not cause a significant shrink, but may make the figure slack* and lose dimensional accuracy.

9) If it takes longer to print over a passed surface, in other words, longer cooling time until an new layer is applied, does that make the part weaker? i dont know if it would make the part weak, but generally un even coolnig will cause warping. this could be solved by using a fan or a heated bed to maintain a constant temperature.

10) Does the software warn you if your part cannot be made as in it will collapse or does it automatically incorporate stilts that can be cut out once done?
not yet

a few questions i never thought i would see. i will answer a few

anything related about making your own feed stock, for now is pretty much no, there is allot more to it than just pushing it out a hole, your diamiter has to be very very consistent,

yes you can do allot of different materials you might wanna look a what fab@home can do. no they will not all work with the same hardware.

not all ABS is the same, i really don't think i would want to try to send wire insulation through an extruder.

i have seen lots of guys smooth out prints with a little solvent, i cant remember what one off hand but its not hard.

if you wanted to print around something you could try to do that, but i don't think that could be done in the software yet, you would have to design it for that from the start knowing your clearances.

i would think boiling PLA in water would make it pliable like spaghetti, but you must remember that it will also take in some water, so that if you tried to print with it and it did stay the same diameter, you would get allot of steam out the tip too.

the time it takes per layer is only a issue with too short of a time and it cannot cool down enough. the longer it takes to do a layer only means you have to wait that much longer.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

Thanks for the quick responses.

What I meant about #4 is to cut ABS into 4 thinner strands cut with using cross shaped cutter splitter, making the tip look like a 1/4 slice of pizza.


Then adhere the 4 quaters back into one strand except now you can mix and match colors.

3 parts blue one part yellow = pine green
2 parts orange 2 parts black = brunt orange
1 part red 3 parts black = burgandy
1 part red 2 part white 1 part blue = violet
etc.

Just wondered if anyone tried it.

1) If set at different tempatures, can the machine use other products like wax, chocolate, fast setting rubber or latex?


***note that you would need to use a different nozzle/hot end/feed tube if using any food items. You don't want to contaminate anything you're going to eat.

You would need to consider how long it takes for the material to cool and how well it holds its shape while cooling. I don't think wax would work well because of this.
You also have to consider how you would force the material out of the extruder. Filament extruders work by forcing a rigid piece of filament into the hot end. the pressure of the filament coming in pushes out the melted/softened filament out the nozzle. Extruding melted wax or chocolate requires a different kind of feed control concept.

Some kinds of wax (such as parafin) give off fumes at higher temps.

Once the material is melted, will it fit through the nozzle? How viscous would it be?

The best bet it seems would be to vacuum form my model and then pour chocolate into the mold.

aardvark Wrote:
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> The best bet it seems would be to vacuum form my
> model and then pour chocolate into the mold.


I've been thinking of that also, but for things other than chocolate or candles. Thoughts if you use a mold:
1. If you are going to do a lot of multiples one item, a mold would be a lot faster.
2. repeatable
3. doesn't tie up the printer
4. I haven't done vacuum forming before, I would assume the plastic wouldn't pick up every variation of the master (the printed item) such as the layer lines. Filing the surface would help.
5. If you want to do one offs, molds wouldn't be so good.
6. I was also thinking of using a silicone mold material to form around the master. Especially to make something more round like an animal. Or for flatish items to place in a mold. Thinking of logos to mold in. Then trying to get the plate out of the item. Flexible would be easier to peel out.

I just discovered composimold a couple of days ago and seems to be very interesting in terms of possibilities. I have yet to try it.

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