Subtractive toolhead

Hi, I do not actually have a reprap yet and I am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I had an idea for a tool head which would consist of just a hot metal pin for subtractive editing. This could be a useful tool head for poking small holes in objects or etching fine details. Of course this would displace some melted plastic around the etches it makes, but it might be worth trying out.

Go for it.

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Hell, there are no rules here - we're trying to accomplish something.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.

Thomas A. Edison

If we used a hollow needle and a high vacuum perhaps it's a new form of subtractive machining.

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[www.hydraraptor.blogspot.com]

You could even do a form of material recycling. Subtract from here, add to there.

... my father did somethin similar for our model-train 35 years ago - he got a big block of styrofoam and simply 'vanished' all the unneeded material with a soldering stick, until it was a nice landscape with some hills, valleys, a small lake-bed and the trails of some streets and crossings.

After this he covered the areals with specific coatings (grass, sand, stonelike finis and such) - i then thought this is the usual kind of building landscapes

This should work fine with the Reprap, as you haven't much force while 'vanishing' the foam ...

Viktor

Viktor, a foam cutter might be extremely useful. This might be especially useful for producing metal parts via foam casting.

Perhaps one could design a soldering iron holding chuck that reprap could use for this purpose.

... automated 3D-foamcutting isn't so simple as manually because of randomly concentrated blobs of pure PS -- the foam didn't really vanish, but is only melting away from the hot tool and forming small strings and blobs of PS which when cooled down need more heat or slower motion to remove properly.

But it should be worth a try with my CNC-mill and a soldering tip, so i'll test a small piece of styropor at the weekend ...

Viktor

For what it's worth, folks who mill foam on a regular basis for casting use regular wood or wax milling bits in dremel type heads for their milling even though most have hot wire machines for manual use.

... yes, i lathed and milled some parts out from foam (see the atached images, the right/big Yoda was milled with a 3mm-millhead).

But you need a stiff frame or you'll have resonances coarser than 0,5mm!

Here a complete forceless proces would be helpfull ...

Viktor