we really need a steel printer and this is how we could do it

This is your opportunity to change the world. Since its hard to get a wiki account, i thought i would post here to see if someone would post a new model "reprap steelfabber" to the wiki.

The implications: If we can make a reprap that prints in steel with machining quality for less than 5000 dollars we will take reprap from a novelty to the revolutionary of manufacturing. Currently machining has high barriers of entry due to the cost of a lathe and mill, weight, space required, expertise required. A sub 5000 dollar machine with machining quality will save millions of lives from the farming tools that will be able to be printed. In a world where most of humanity lives under dictatorship, such a machine will forever change the structure of human society.

The machine: This is a combination mig steel wire welder and cnc mill machine. The concept has already been proven with printers such as http://www.3ders.org/articles/20141117-dutch-students-build-diy-metal-3d-printer-using-prusa-i3-printer-and-a-mig-welder.html The machine could use a sieg x2 mill structure, providing enough rigidity to cut steel. It would print and mill simultaneously. Here is a similar machine people made on a sieg x2 but with pla extrusion: https://3dprint.com/15381/tribot-3d-printer-cnc-mold/ There is already a similar machine proposed by a startup: ability3d.com but it is doubtful if they will pull through and we need a open source machine.

Material strength considerations: Welding technology has been proven strong enough to hold together skyscrapers and submarines. Even if the result is not as strong as a casting , the product can be designed thicker to compensate.

Do you want to be part in the saving of millions of lives and one of the biggest inventions in history?

Might be a long time before something surfaces that needs no post processing.

the machine can be programmed to do multiple cnc passes like cnc machines do.

I feel confident a decent CNC machine could be built for no more than 1k per axis(maybe even £500) if you put your mind to it.
the welding approach might be good for scaffold/lattice type structures, but i'd rather start with some alu stock and cnc that for other stuff.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2016 12:22PM by MechaBits.

There are already industrial printers for steel. They usually make prototypes, but I have heard that they also make small production runs for airplane parts. Yes they are very expensive. They fire molten balls of steel to make the creations.

Or, I could just attach my rosin core wire welder to my 3d printer !!!

Dan

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/10/2016 09:13PM by techristian.

It seems that the big reason current 3D printers are cheaper than most similarly-capable CNC machines is that they don't require as much rigidity. Adding milling capability would remove this advantage. So, I doubt it will be practical to mill steel any time soon.

If you want cheap, custom metal parts, lost-PLA casting would probably be the most effective way to get them. But it's probably only practical with zinc or other low-melting-point metals.

Quote
jollyranger333

Do you want to be part in the saving of millions of lives and one of the biggest inventions in history?

Who says I'm not doing that anyway?

Good luck with your design, the snag with adapting conventional MIG welders as FDM machines is big nozzle size. They just can't do much detail without a much finer nozzle. Tricky to get that right.

... some years ago I did both -- micro-MIG-welding and laser-brazing+laser-melting -- for the redevelopment of a sensor housing manufacturing process.

The best "detail-accuracy" with the micro-MIG-welder (price around 6k€) was in the range of 1mm ... the laser-brazing/-melting with a (self-developed) laserdiode-module (1k€) was more like 0.1mm to 0.2mm ... and with a fiber-laser (15k€), a diode-pumped disk-laser (30k€) and a special developed NdYAG-laser (20k€) the finest fabbed/fused details were around 0.02mm when used 0.01mm thick nickel or platinum wires

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/14/2016 01:57PM by VDX.

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Viktor
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