Rapatan that progress sounds awesome. Have you got the power supply fired up and everything? I would be keen to put one together if the design is good. My lab psu died recently And the new coils. does that mean you've fired some up? I'm half keen on putting together the gun layout you have, its nice with the coils on the outside. Would you recommend it as is? or should I do some math on itby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
I guess I'm just asking the question, I know its probably impossible, if someone built a dirt cheap 200 W fiber laser I would be interested, otherwise the E-beam wins the price/ power war. QuoteGood to know, thanks! I don't get your second point. You also need a high power laser for melting the metals to get a nice grain in the finished part that will be stronger.by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
I'm pretty sure that SLS patent has expired late last year. Also remember that the E-beam is the cost of the vacuum chamber + pump + power supply. The laser cost would be 200W laser + optics + galvo's + power supply + inert gas chamber. I would love to use a laser, if we found a dirt cheap way to make a 200 W fiber laser?by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
Oh wow those are small lasers, I've been looking out for 200W's as a minimum to melt metal power and have it fuse into a solid metal part. Its all well and good melting powder but you need to re-melt the part behind it which is a huge heat sink. I've played with the 405nm 2 W Blueray diodes and they can melt soft powder's but there useless at doing it to a solid metal part. CO2 laser's are theby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
Do you have a link to the $500 laser ? What spec is it? and roughly what would the optics cost for such a high power setup? I searched and searched awhile ago and never found anything that cheap I've always wondered if you get away with a lower wattage laser in a vacuum, you already have half a chamber for the inert gas with a laser.by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
Will the excess material from electron beam machining get stuck to the side wall's ? Does cycle time have an allowance for the time required to pump down the chamber ? Will adding argon interfere with the E- Beam?by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
The PCB prices are in that spreadsheet as well. I haven't seen any assembly costs in the spreadsheet so I would say that its just raw part's. I haven't done any work to see what a bulk buy would do to the prices. It might drop it 50-100 bucks?by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
I was under the impression ionic needed some roughing before hand.. It might just be faster, maybe someone here can shed some light on It? It's going to be around 1k USD per power supply in electronic parts alone, have you looked at the cost spread sheet? its prob $3k USD for the power supply If you ask nicely I might be able to assemble the smd components on your boards. It depends on whoby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
i'm about to start sourcing some parts for a build of the 1kv power supply which is pretty much the same as the 62kv supply, you need both for a Metalica. I cant confirm it all works tho, I'm trusting the good work of the team here. If your still keen to pay for some parts up front I could build up some pcb's for you aswell and you can test it out yourself Also with your pumps. You can't start uby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
Hi Kempy, hows the power supply going? Have you guys got it making an electron beam? curiousby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
For a electron beam to work there needs to be a vacuum. a vacuum is created by sucking out all the gas inside the chamber. If there is gas in the chamber the electrons aren't going to travel very far as they would have to push the gas molecules out of the way first. If it was air for instance it would arc through the air to the nearest metal object, e.g. the chamber and not behave like a beamby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
I don't think you would want to mill after each drop. I don't see why you couldn't drop a 0.01mm droplet? The droplet would get the heat sucked out of it as soon as it hit the rest of the part. You might end up with holes and it wouldn't fuse together. Would look like this? http://www.slashgear.com/3d-printed-liquid-metal-could-see-a-terminator-like-future-10289741/by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
the diffusion pump oil should last along time like you say, I haven't actually had to change mine yet. The main way that it will get ruined is if you open the vacuum to air and this will burn the oil onto the pump or you don't have sufficient cooling. I haven't actually put in the powder dispensing mechanism. Has anyone got ideas on what it should look like? thats a very good point, the titaniuby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
The circle on the build platform and light green triangle above it is a transparent part i made to approximate the e-beam path. the build platform is actually 320mm x 320mm square. The blue part in the 3rd pic above the build chamber is what spreads the powder. it goes from one side, fills up from the one of the main hopper. then slides to the other side leaving a layer of powder behind it. Therby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
bugger!, Thanks for that very important information You just saved me from going down that path. I will wait till i have something working firstby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
Just been playing around in CAD and made a rough outline of what I think the next machine will look like It has - 300 mm circular build platform - 300 mm z axis height - removable part box containing powder + finished part - removable hopper's so you can fill them up - large door (500 mm diameter clearance so hopper and part box can be removed) - door parts are printable, small pieces are bolteby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
I agree with your frustrations. I've actually got a lot of mech, elec and software skills. So I know i can do everything. But there's only so much free time in the day that i have to pick what i work on. I've decided that I'm going to get a very basic and small build chamber (~50mmx50mm) and prove it can make blob's that kinda resemble the model that went in. Then as i can show blob's forming i wby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
They have written up the difflection of the beam in 5mm of argon. and the window will have a very small hole for the beam to go thru. and from what i understood the self built titanium sublimation pump will be able to keep up the loss thru the hole. then the "dust bins" will be in the argon atmosphere and not the vacuumby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
Yea I agree with you there. The version on here with the split chambers seams to address that issue? E-beam in its own vac chamber with window to a chamber containing argon.by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
The whole oxidization issue is a head ache i no there shielding gas but a vacuum takes care of it for you! How would you go about certifying your laser weld to prove there is no contamination? It would have to be xrayed right?by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
The one thing that this machine should be able to do is a tolerance of 20um over 200mm. Thats really really accurate. So bearings, shafts, gears, pins, could be made. other advantages of the e-beam process is that it can be used to polish the surface AFTER printing which will make one continuous chrome finish, very useful if you don't want to sit there with sand paper or your making a ball and sby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
Ah yes well you could probably lit a match up and ignite a small cloud of dust of those particles. So you cannot get a fused join with a particle like that and another solid object, like a coin for instance? Using that process you could prob get them to stick together and not fuse in a part. might be 10-25% original strength ? This could be a first step for a kickstarter? this process could beby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
So you have physically melted metal with a 2W laser?by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
What power rating would you need on a fiber coupled laser to melt metals? and what optics do you need? Back to the kickstart topic. Anyone done one before? anything to watch out for?by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
what do you mean by ISS? Have you actually got a laser and inert gas setup?by pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
If its just me ... prob 2 years. I'm focusing mainly on the SEM vision system in the hopes that when I get that part finished the rest of the guys here have the hopper and high voltage power supply sorted. If that pans out I should get something going this year. Even if its melting a hole in a plate! anything that shows my e-beam has some powerby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
That's true. Once its complete. small medium and complex pre defined parts. And could also offer a custom service. I'm along way of that though. the E-beam , hopper and computer software is going to take my weekends for a few years on my own, and that's after I get my basic setup running! I'm hoping that a kick-starter will be guys who want to contribute as well. Thus meaning that there's 10 orby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap
I agree with people not funding something that's not complete/ working... I do think that singular pieces that work on there own have merit. I'm not so sure about the FDM making it easier on a upgrade path. It probably has another set of completely different technical issues to deal with. How about we flesh some of the different states of the project out with standalone uses. This can then beby pyrotronics - MetalicaRap