Okay so it look like the problem at this point boils down to this: We need to find a way to: 1. Deposit metal onto a metal object without changing the ultimate shape of be object in ways that are too difficult to predict to achieve the desired tolerance (IT 5 I think probably though that needs more research. We want enough to print hydrostatic and hydrodynamic bearings basically that is the mostby GreenAtol - General
Does anyone know how much these diodes cost in quantity? Like what the manufacturers pay. It can't be more than a couple bucks for the diode when the whole drives sell for $24: But I can't find anywhere that sells them for anything near that.by GreenAtol - General
I browse with images off, and the captcha keeps coming up. Pain in the ass, to be more welcoming to users I think it should be turned off after the user is established as a real human which I am.by GreenAtol - General
Okay, here it is: What do you think? Especially with regards to the approaches for the print head?by GreenAtol - General
Also, I'm thinking, like they do with ultrasonic consolidation, each layer of metal that is added could be followed with a milling step. We already know how to do milling fine. So a metal deposition head that deposited full strength metal in full strength bonded layers does not have to be very precise. The resulting printer could print parts to the same precision as the mill. Which is quiby GreenAtol - General
Hm, I have been looking into whether there are existing commercial processes that might be a good starting point. Also, the idea of just drizzling or indeed applying as a low viscosity liquid in some way onto the existing metal might be workable. Need to know more about the welding processes. And what's going on there. I am thinking mostly of making full strength metal objects, myself, but itby GreenAtol - General
I can't price out the different methods for you, but here is some info you might find handy, as I once looked into extracting pure oxygen from the air, and many of the methods are the same, I won't go into detail but you can google them from these keywords: Air liquefaction and fractionation is the obvious one which is used commercially to do the bulk of the separation. It is possible to greatlby GreenAtol - MetalicaRap
I was thinking of ways similar to arc welding, in which a wire is used. Or metal could be drizzled on the printed object as a liquid well above it's melting point. Anyone heard of any metal depositing print heads of any sort? Because the thing is this sort of thing could be followed with a milling step, like in ultrasonic consolidation, to produce finished metal parts in one go, which is of cby GreenAtol - General
Oh. Oops, thanks. I had searched the wiki with various keywords and it didn't turn up. Maybe using industry standard terms would help.by GreenAtol - General
I know it will vary greatly depending on material etc. but what are some examples of the sort of tolerance these Official RepRap printers are getting? Ideally this info should be displayed somewhere since it is a fundamental performance parameter.....by GreenAtol - General
Well, it's a wiki. Why don't you un-mix up the issues you see, then? I just started writing the page, and of course it needs work. The page can become an index for the rest of the project then, a way to organize the different printers so they are organized hierarchically instead of flatly, which is what there is right now as far as I can tell. Don't just be a naysayer, pitch in.by GreenAtol - General
All this is exceedingly interesting. I'll keep looking for some books and other material - it would be really nice to have an eagle's eye view of these types of techniques, organized and with all the different fundamental principles that are depended on, and that sort of stuff. I bet there is some sub-field specifically dedicated to this sort of thing, just a matter of finding it.by GreenAtol - General
In the " self replicating machine" post, the author comments on the possibility of losing precision with subsequent generations. But this gets at the more fundamental question of how precision is produced in the first place - how did we get from stone axes to precision lathes? So I thought I'd start another thread about this. A refresher might be in order for the difference between precisiby GreenAtol - General
is up on the wiki. Should I give it it's own category? I think that can be done if/when the page gets too long instead. It is more convenient to have everything on one page, and the table of contents makes it manageable.by GreenAtol - General
And what exactly is that supposed to mean? I am aware of things like reprapmetalica for instance if that is what you mean.by GreenAtol - General
I'll add this to the wiki later. Where should I put it? Let's go through absolutely all the options, starting from the top with all possible methods of heating, depositing materials etc. for a comprehensive search for better printers that can produce real world, useful goods from full strength materials. Yes, biology might lead to molecular assemblers. But I'm not willing to wait that long, arby GreenAtol - General
The thing is, if you think about it, consider the ecology diagram for the CEP printer. Now add a DMLS machine if it wasn't already there. Now suppose the relationship connections on the diagram are changed so they no longer indicate just what is *normally* used to make what, but also what *can* make what. It would have really a lot of connections on it because there are many ways to make anyby GreenAtol - General
I came across the reprap project a couple months ago and have been thinking on and off about the stuff, especially how it might fit into the larger world, and the future of printers. Here's some of my more interesting thoughts on printers in general: You often hear and read people saying a printer or say a fab lab can make "almost anything" and "at the cost of materials". And there are someby GreenAtol - General