printing steel :-)

something very interesting happened when cutting a bearing with an angle grinder: [youtu.be]

roland, the little physicist :-)

Are you sure that what you were seeing was not the cutting wheel's fragments and was actually the steel?????

... regardless, if it's from the cutting wheel or from the bearings - interesting enough, that it's sintering to a pretty solid structure without shielding gas

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Viktor
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These blobs start to rust when made from standard steel.

Perhaps it's so solid in this case because grinding hardened steel produces very small chips, which sinter better.

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Generation 7 Electronics	Teacup Firmware	RepRap DIY

We get this on our industrial saws. Makes for some cool art.
As for steel printing. Metal powder and laser beams FTW.

> As for steel printing. Metal powder and laser beams FTW.

And how do you create metal powder ???
And how much more expensive is a laser beam that can melt the powder in comparisen with an angle grinder ?

First two rules: you do not ask questions.
But also first two rules: you always speak yes.

it won't work with aluminium because it is to soft to be heated up.
That my indeed be the explanaition why i first observed this effect when cutting hard bearings.

someone of you might be happy to test whether such a flow of glowing iron particles can be bent with an electric magnet..

this all is only a possible beginning.

roland,
the little physicist

Instead of bending the metal stream with an electromagnet like an old CRT screen, how about using an electrically-charged bed like in powder coating with a small nozzle and soft jet of air? Wire feed the steel onto a small grindstone on the moving hotend, and use the same retraction logic that we use for plastic filaments.....

I didnt mean offence, i'm not understanding your reply to me..

i said 'Metal Powder and Laser beam FTW'

"For The Win." An enthusiastic emphasis to the end of a comment

i said as a broad statement as i really like the concept of 3d metal printing.

in no way sarcastic

... I'm using fibercoupled IR-diodes with 9Watts or 25Watts of power to melt metal dust ... and can combine several of the fibers to get the averaged sum of the emitted power on a spot of around 0.3 to 0.5mm, compared to a smaller spot of 0.1mm with single fibers.

But as i too have some fiber-lasers (not to mismatch with fibercoupled IR-diodes!) with powers up to 120 Watts and spot sizes down to 5 microns, I'm using them instead of the IR-diodes ... so my methodes aren't portable to the common DIY developments

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

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

An amalgamate of metal powder is commonly created with fiber cutoff wheels. I suspect that that resin, and fibers from the wheel is bonding the metal together. If there is some metal to metal fusion taking place, possibly the resin from the wheel might be providing an inert shield? This is a good video to spur creative thinking, tks for sharing.

I have seen this when grinding tool steel before.

But I'm not sure its a viable printing method as its a bit like hot metal spraying in that if it will join the surface its joining to is usually cherry red from the hot particles before. To keep al whole print red hot may be unrealistic.

The other problem is the grindstone will where down and be throwing its unwanted particles in to the mix.

I'm hoping to be able to restart my cold metal spraying project as I'm getting a new job so may finally have time and money to set up a workshop for playing with this stuff.

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