3D cement printer

Oh wow, that's just looking awesome!

Of course, this project allways has me asking "How do you put a roof on it?"
The tilt-up method the Chinese printer uses can do it, but that's (currently) very restrictive, footprint-wise. Andrey seems pretty confident, which makes me wonder just what he has up his sleeve for capping this castle off.

... and another cement printer

'World's Advanced Saving Project' using clay and soil. Using a huge delta printer.
[www.3ders.org]

Minnesota man 3D-prints a castle big enough to walk in
[3dprint.com]
[www.geek.com]

At a meter and a half per day, printing out the scaled-down castle could be completed in just a few days.

Rudenko’s design is based on the open source RepRap.

He’s been working for well over a year to finalize the design, however, and he’s had to do a lot of tweaking to the delivery system to make it work. Most concrete pumps are built to work with material that’s a bit soupier, and that wouldn’t play well with a 3D printer.




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/03/2014 10:52AM by A2.

It took a while but in the end the result is here. it was a bad idea to print separate parts of the castle. the parts are quite heavy and will need some effort to lift. Next project I will definitely print as a one solid object and will try to print nonstop.
after I printed the castle based on the experience gained, I decided to completely redesign the printer. one of the problems that appeared: in the sunny day I can not see the computer and LCD controller screen. I'm going to use a tab with a bright screen but not sure yet how to load Pronterface on a tab (i have spare android galaxy2 I can use for now but eventually need OLED)

Oh wow!

I don't envy you the task of lifting and placing those turrets. (though they look amazing, I gotta say.) Any plans on rigging some kind of hoist arm onto the printer (if it can even take that much weight)?

Some questions though:
How are you supporting the interior portions of the turrets once they are placed? I don't' see any interior walls in the castle itself.
How did you handle the horizontal bridging in the rectangular windows? Is there some kind of metal or wood support there?
How far of an overhang can the cement take? I see quite a significant overhang on the spire piece you printed, but I can't tell if that's hollow or if there's support inside.
Will there be a solid roof on this at some point or are you keeping it open to the sky?
Lastly: How far has it sunk into the soil since you started printing it without a foundation?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/19/2014 04:08PM by Feign.

@AndreyR, looking good!

Post pics of how you lift the pieces.

How are you preparing a cured surface to bond to an uncured layered?

That..is awesome. Looks like it's time to rent a crane though.

i loved the grading texture in the layers of cement. .. Gives it a kind of character. Maybe you could add pigment and get some more variation ...just a thought

Good job!

... and yes, time to look out for a small mobile crane

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

I know you have it working with electric motors, but is there some reason when you were looking for high torque drives you didn't use hydraulic motors? Is it just a case of one more system to go wrong?
Thanks Mike

First Entirely 3D Printed Estate is Coming to NY, Including a 3D Printed 2400 Sqft House, Pool & More
[3dprint.com]

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A2
First Entirely 3D Printed Estate is Coming to NY, Including a 3D Printed 2400 Sqft House, Pool & More

I looked it up and he's using a powder and binder printing process that uses sand as the powder and some kind of very secretive 'marble-like' material for the binder. With the support material involved, there's absolutely nothing stopping him from printing a whole crazy alien structure in place with roofs and floors and stairs and everything... But he'll still have the manual labor involved in digging the house out of a house-sized mound of sand after the print is done. It's not that nobody has thought of this method before, but that when you think of it, the impracticality of it immediately sends you to seek other methods.

...But then, practicality probably isn't this guy's biggest concern.

How are you supporting the interior portions of the turrets once they are placed? I don't' see any interior walls in the castle itself
.-------- ¾ of the portion has support from the wall, and the last 1/4th hangs on its own.

How did you handle the horizontal bridging in the rectangular windows? Is there some kind of metal or wood support there?
–----- I just opened a website- www.totalkustom.com – and under “Architecture Forum”, there are pictures that explain the rectangular windows.

How far of an overhang can the cement take? I see quite a significant overhang on the spire piece you printed, but I can't tell if that's hollow or if there's support inside.
---- –For each layer, the overhang is about 5mm, not more. The biggest angle is the upper part of door arch.
Will there be a solid roof on this at some point or are you keeping it open to the sky?
---- – The printing of this was the important part to me; I might add a roof sometime later though.
Lastly: How far has it sunk into the soil since you started printing it without a foundation?
---- -So far, not much, but I’m sure it will sink a lot in a couple years.

Post pics of how you lift the pieces.
-------Ill post something to my youtube account, rudenko952, sometime soon.

How are you preparing a cured surface to bond to an uncured layered?
---- Adding/spraing water but it does not help very much
That..is awesome. Looks like it's time to rent a crane though.
-----—I had help from a few friends- 7 of them to be specific It was certainly not easy, and my next project will definitely be printed in one piece.
i loved the grading texture in the layers of cement. .. Gives it a kind of character. Maybe you could add pigment and get some more variation ...just a thought
------I experimented with this a little; it’s a good idea and I will keep working on it.
I know you have it working with electric motors, but is there some reason when you were looking for high torque drives you didn't use hydraulic motors? Is it just a case of one more system to go wrong?
------ Hmm. I don’t know how I can use hydraulic motors in this design.

First Entirely 3D Printed Estate is Coming to NY, Including a 3D Printed 2400 Sqft House, Pool & More
[3dprint.com]
------ I have utmost respect for this project and I’m looking forward to seeing its developments.

Ahh, I see. The pictures do tell a thousand words. And the castle looks amazing with the towers on it (your friends and family must be very tolerant... But it looks like they were well rewarded. )

Aaaand now www.TotalKustom.com is in my bookmarks.

3D Concrete Printing: an innovative construction process
Loughborough University
[www.buildfreeform.com]

Hardened properties of high-performance printing concrete
[www.sciencedirect.com]

Center for Rapid Automated Fabrication Technologies (CRAFT)
[www.craft-usc.com]

I-beam
[www.contourcrafting.org]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/26/2014 09:31PM by A2.

I think that castle needs a dutch hot tub

I remember about the dutch tab and already talked to local guys if someone wants one , because I can't have it on my backyard(neighbors will not be happy) Also I talked to friend of mine who is an metal artist to make something fancy about the pipes. And finally ihave got an idea to make two in one: a hot tub inside a castle( or another kind of small fancy structure. )
the problem is its to heavy to move so I need a client nearby

That is an awesome castle Andrey! I'm very impressed with your printer, it's definitely a good way to draw attention to 3D printing!
Do you have a file (.stl, .obj, etc) that we can view/modify/print?

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Thingiverse Profile

Update?

Hello, Andriy
I'll appreciate if you share the how to mix cement to be able to get similar stability.

Sorry to resurrect a 6-month old thread, but it looks like Mr. Rudenko has been hard at work. It looks like he got his first customer for a full-sized printed house.

And by house, I mean hotel.

That's still pretty cool.

This is a very, very, interesting topic, I look forward to seeing an open source parts list for this soon or a DIY kit list, I'm thinking about using a Moineau extruder like the one here: [www.youtube.com]

Quote
cpus
Update?

Wow, over 8 years since I've been on here... In that time I've gotten an electrical engineering degree so I have an even greater respect for this project; I was already very impressed when I first read this thread. It appears Andrey has significantly improved his model over time as well as introduced new models: http://www.totalkustom.com/ Going to be interesting to see if 3d printed structures become more prevalent over the coming years.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/24/2023 06:56PM by cpus.

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Going to be interesting to see if 3d printed structures become more prevalent over the coming years.

... they are! -- several companies are already printing houses or complete villages

---

Viktor
--------
Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]