So then don't make the fiber size larger than the nozzle. What's the problem? Many little fibers add up to a whole lot of strength.by sanman - General
At Dupont, one of their secrets was to coat the fibers with Teflon, to allow them to slide through the nozzle more easily. So it could be possible to pre-treat the fibers with some kind of agent to get them through the nozzle more easily, and also to help them bond to the surrounding polymer matrix more effectively.by sanman - General
Electroplating has traditionally been a 2D process, but so was printing. If there can be 3D printing, why can't there be 3D electroplating? Brush electroplating seems like the best candidate method. Why isn't Z just an extra dimension to do this in?by sanman - General
I used to work for one of the major plastic companies, and they had plenty of engineering plastics which were loaded with fibers to give enhanced structural properties. Some were loaded with glass, and some were even loaded with Kevlar. I'd like to know if anyone out there is doing 3D printing with fiber-loaded plastics. If not, then why not? Is there some reason why this cannot be done? Furtheby sanman - General
Alternatively, have you guys thought of going for a lower-end technology, to allow some kind of rudimentary printing of metal parts? How about FDM of metal wire with some kind of nitrogen atmosphere in the build chamber instead of vacuum? That's a simpler modification of existing designs that already work. Do a Kickstarter for that first. Then later you could try FDM of metal wire inside a vacuby sanman - MetalicaRap
chief_hacker Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Nice thread on large format printing. I want to > share the work my team has been doing in the > development of Goliath, a printer with 600 x 600 x > 600mm print volume. You can read more about the > group re:3D here: re3d.org the printer is of a > straight forward and solid design. I am currently >by sanman - General
Bobbitay Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > One pretty large scale 3D printing project I saw > was: > > > ing/ > > Kinda cool I thought. Yeah, I've read about that Contour Crafting stuff - pretty cool. I wonder if it wouldn't be better implemented by taking their concrete print-head and adapting it for use with traditional concrete boom pumpsby sanman - General
Or alternatively, have an AJAX-based editor that can quickly read/write CAD data to backend database, which can store all past states necessary for revision control? The particular format the data is stored in on the database end would be optimized for loading/reading from the frontend editor, and could be independent of any particular CAD file format, with the site allowing you to export to theby sanman - General
Yeah, sure I know about Sketchup - but it's not quite as seamless as Wikipedia, in the sense that you need to download a plugin. It's still not at the point where anybody can just navigate to a page and hit edit and immediately start editing. I was thinking of something more AJAX-based, where it would be more naturally integrated with normal browser function, without even having to download a cusby sanman - General
Hi, I'm curious - there seem to be a lot of coders on here, as well as mechanical designers and tinkerers. Pardon my ignorance, but does anybody know if there is a web-browser-based wiki-style portal for collaborative CAD designs? I'm talking about something like Wikipedia, but instead of having a text-editor interface, it would be a CAD-style editing interface inside your browser screen. Imagby sanman - General
Here's an interesting article I came across, about a group of engineers who are using 3D printing to manufacture their car, called the Urbee 2: Are there any projects for building 3D printers with large build volumes? Could something like this be built using a shipping container? I'm imagining large plastic cabinets or credenzas being printed with smooth glossy finishes. Or maybe just simpleby sanman - General
Anybody heard of this? Could this help to improve the quality of the vacuum? If it's good enough for vacuum tubes, then why couldn't it be good enough for a RepRap? Our main enemy is oxygen - am I correct? Do we care as much if there is an other harmless gas inside the build chamber?by sanman - MetalicaRap
Hi, I was just reading this fascinating thread, and wanted to ask if it's possible to use a combination of methods. Could you use a higher-temperature ceramic nozzle in conjunction with a magnetic induction heating coil, for example? Instead of working with a pure metal feedstock, would it be possible to use a suitable alloy with the necessary properties - perhaps an amorphous or glassy metalby sanman - General
Hi, I just came across this thread and wanted to ask more about it. Is there any consensus on what is the best way to heat up metal filament? Aluminum and magnesium have melting points of 660ºC and 650ºC respectively - are there any ideas on how to achieve these temperatures? What are the challenges and obstacles here? What are the different possible methods? What are their pro's and cons? Tby sanman - Wire and Thread Embedded Extrusion
Another approach worth considering is this one suggested by engineers at SpaceX: QuoteAlign yourself with a professor and attach yourself whatever he or she is working on. You could try for a worldwide collaborative effort involving people from different colleges. It might be possible to benefit from research grants. This type of approach has succeeded in the realm of open source software, anby sanman - MetalicaRap
Well, if you browse the Kickstarter website and look at their most well-funded projects, you'll see that a disproportionate number of them are 3D printer projects. So obviously 3D printers are a big hit with the Kickstarter crowd. If you want your Kickstarter project to attract the most funding sponsorship, then make it a 3D printer project. It seems to me that a project for 3D printer that prby sanman - MetalicaRap
Hi, I recently came across your cool idea for a DIY homemade EBM printer, and I'd like to ask how long the project has been going on. Have you people considered trying to do a Kickstarter on this to get the money to make it happen? If your project succeeds, it would be a great symbolic breakthrough that would certainly make 3D printing vastly more popular. I've never bought a 3D printer myselfby sanman - MetalicaRap