Funnily enough I had a friend of mine mention this to me the other day about the possibility of filling the cavity with a thermal material for that very purpose making it integral to the product. Oh the possibilities!
Not strictly bushy but quite good
- Thread starter Dannytsg
- Start date
-
Hey Guest, Early bird pricing on the Summer Moot (29th July - 10th August) available until April 6th, we'd love you to come. PLEASE CLICK HERE to early bird price and get more information.
Funnily enough I had a friend of mine mention this to me the other day about the possibility of filling the cavity with a thermal material for that very purpose making it integral to the product. Oh the possibilities!
Just one thing to note, a lot of uncertified plastics contain high quantities of Lead (levels of around 3%) - may want to be careful with "food" items.
Just one thing to note, a lot of uncertified plastics contain high quantities of Lead (levels of around 3%) - may want to be careful with "food" items. - Thats right! So for those first time users, you have to be very careful in choosing the right plastic filament especially if youre going to print a food container. One of the examples of food-safe plastic is this PETT filament: http://www.3d2print.net/shop/product/taulman-t-glase-green/. This material is FDA approved.
I saw an article on the BBC today talking about a Chinese firm that is 3D printing concrete houses. "The Future" is nearly upon us.
"The future is here, it just isn't evenly distributed yet"
The things you can do with 3d printing we can barely even imagine. If you want some inspiration Cory Doctorow's Makers is a really good read. It may be a work of fiction, but still very close to the mark.
There are several methods of 3d printing, for things like ABS and PLA, they tend to use a heated extrusion type method. But for the metals, they tend to use a laser sintering method. Where by they deposit a small piece of the metal on the item you're printing, then melt it in place with a laser. Effective, but expensive, and it won't get you the strongest item possible.
What you can however do, is you can take an item (modified slightly to include drafts and vents) you have printed in PLA, place it in some green sand, place this sand upside down in an oven, and wait for the PLA to melt out. The PLA can then be reprocessed into filament to print another item with. The now empty mould can be taken to your foundry, and the casting metal of your choice used to cast the finished product. Lost wax casting for the 21st Century. Test the design in something cheap like Aluminium, then when you're happy with the design, repeat it with silver... or gold... or platinum.
It is also worth considering that while the document scanner is the ideal companion of your desktop printer, so a 3d scanner is the perfect companion for a 3d printer. Find a funky leaf in the woods, scan it in, scale it down, print it out, cast a copy, make a beautiful pair of one of a kind silver ear rings?
The only limit of what this technology can do will be your imagination... and possibly untamed patent lawyers...
J
The things you can do with 3d printing we can barely even imagine. If you want some inspiration Cory Doctorow's Makers is a really good read. It may be a work of fiction, but still very close to the mark.
There are several methods of 3d printing, for things like ABS and PLA, they tend to use a heated extrusion type method. But for the metals, they tend to use a laser sintering method. Where by they deposit a small piece of the metal on the item you're printing, then melt it in place with a laser. Effective, but expensive, and it won't get you the strongest item possible.
What you can however do, is you can take an item (modified slightly to include drafts and vents) you have printed in PLA, place it in some green sand, place this sand upside down in an oven, and wait for the PLA to melt out. The PLA can then be reprocessed into filament to print another item with. The now empty mould can be taken to your foundry, and the casting metal of your choice used to cast the finished product. Lost wax casting for the 21st Century. Test the design in something cheap like Aluminium, then when you're happy with the design, repeat it with silver... or gold... or platinum.
It is also worth considering that while the document scanner is the ideal companion of your desktop printer, so a 3d scanner is the perfect companion for a 3d printer. Find a funky leaf in the woods, scan it in, scale it down, print it out, cast a copy, make a beautiful pair of one of a kind silver ear rings?
The only limit of what this technology can do will be your imagination... and possibly untamed patent lawyers...
J
I guess the book I first saw this quote in contained a misprint or typo ..."The Geek shall inherit the earth"....
I teach 3D CADCAM and have always seen it as a prototyping technique (and teach it as such). Once my students have come up with a feasible design they need to consider how to mass produce the item using cheaper and quicker techniques - usually injection moulding. 3D printed components can also be used as moulds in investment casting processes - lots of exciting possibilities here.
Just seen this on the BBC site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27156775
if you can build houses with the technology then it's rapidly coming of age.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-27156775
if you can build houses with the technology then it's rapidly coming of age.
My uncles business got one last year for making prototypes, made perfect sense for him tbey can now design the part and hit print, a few hours later its ready, before once the design was finished it would be emailed to someone else to make the prototype, turnaround was normally a couple of weeks.
Similar threads
