LOM-fabbing ...

Hi All,

... mostly for the pleasure of my sons (and some testing) we built our first LOM-object on an old CNC-system with a provisory atached minidrill ...

I simply stacked 3mm thick deco-sheets with doublesided duct-tape and milled the slices of a mug with some overhang:




Here the CNC-system:




For a better overview of the fabbing-process i apended the complete image-sequence in ZIP-archives.

Viktor

... one of my ideas behind crosslinking LOM and RepRap is the general ability of the reprap to extrude sheets ...

Imagine the reprap outputting a complete sheet with a height of 0,5mm (for example) ...

Then the mill-head (atached second to the extruder) mills the contour-outlines of the actual sheet with the accuracy of the mechanic setup (in my actual CNC-repstrap =0,0125mm or 12,5microns, with microstepping then =3,125microns)

So you achieve a very high accuracy in combination with free selectable FDM-materials or prefabbed sheets - and overhangs aren't a problem anymore ...

The next logical step is stacking of thin foils - best (simplest and fastest) in a continuous way by rolling and pressing on an axis - then it would be similar to an 'additive lathe-building' ...

So i'm developing a 'plastic-foil-lathe' with a diode-laser-head for cutting the contour-outlines in the sheets.

The tricky part would be the software for calculating the contour-lines from STL-objects, 'embedded' in the volume of the onrolled sheets ...

Viktor

that

Hi Felix,

... and it's possible too to output a complete layer of fluid paste out of a wide extruder-slit (maybe even the complete sheet at once), flatten/adjust the heigth with a knife-lid, dry or sinter the paste with an IR-heater and mill the actual sheet - or sintering after milling to the final solid.

So you can build extreme rigid or hard bodies from heat-curing pastes, ceramics or even mix the aterial from sheet to sheet - multilayer-PCB's for example ...

Viktor

[vectric.com]

Is some interesting commercial software that allows this kind of carving. The web site says it will take binary or ascii versions of STL files, as well as other file formats.

It generates g-code to mill an object in layers, that can then 'stack' to make the desired object.

Free demo available. Not cheap but not to expensive software if you are using it for $$$ making.

(not a customer or user, just saw the description and it looked interesting)

Hi servant74,

... i've already tested Cut3D some months ago and think to buy the bundle of VCarvePro+Cut3D.

With my CNC-system i have the software IsyCAM 2.0, which is capable of the same output in 3D-milling and can cut plain slices too, but i need cylindrical shaped cut-planes for lathe-LOM.

I have the contact-data of the Cut3D-developer - maybe he's willing to cooperate in this, but it's a bit more complicated, then working in the plane ...

Viktor

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/07/2008 04:28PM by Viktor Dirks.

@VDX

I like it

As complex as it sounds, it doesn't sound any cazier than the current RepRap fdm process

VDX Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ... one of my ideas behind crosslinking LOM and
> RepRap is the general ability of the reprap to
> extrude sheets ...
>
> Imagine the reprap outputting a complete sheet
> with a height of 0,5mm (for example) ...
>
> Then the mill-head (atached second to the
> extruder) mills the contour-outlines of the actual
> sheet with the accuracy of the mechanic setup (in
> my actual CNC-repstrap =0,0125mm or 12,5microns,
> with microstepping then =3,125microns)
>
> So you achieve a very high accuracy in combination
> with free selectable FDM-materials or prefabbed
> sheets - and overhangs aren't a problem anymore
> ...
>
> The next logical step is stacking of thin foils -
> best (simplest and fastest) in a continuous way by
> rolling and pressing on an axis - then it would be
> similar to an 'additive lathe-building' ...
>
> So i'm developing a 'plastic-foil-lathe' with a
> diode-laser-head for cutting the contour-outlines
> in the sheets.
>
> The tricky part would be the software for
> calculating the contour-lines from STL-objects,
> 'embedded' in the volume of the onrolled sheets
> ...
>
> Viktor

... I've tried with different materials and solvents for fusing the sheets - it's working, but not easy/cheap enough for common DIY.

Actually Im busy with UV-curing with modified DLP-beamers and a strong UV-laser as 'lamp'.

Another running task is XY-scanning a laserbeam as used by SLA-printers (the scanners and optics are salvaged from one) and testing with an UV-laser for UV-curing or a 50W-IR-laser for SLS and DLM with powder ...

---

Viktor
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