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Hi all...
Well the 3D Printer finally arrived last week and we have had a week of training classes, and run throughs. Now we are building 3D parts using our favorite 3D apps. I have some shots here showing the setup and details of the process.
In a nutshell a 3D printer is like a regular inkjet printer except it lays down plastic [part] and wax [support] layers. The wax layer is a gentle support that is put down to fully support delicate structures during the build as the plastic is molten coming out of the 'inkjet' head and could sag if not supported. The process as I relayed it last was that you slice up the model in a piece of software, such as Rhino 3D from bottom to top in as many layers as you want fine resolution. Then, like a CAT scan, the inkjets lay down a layer of plastic for the part that shows in that layer and the rest is support material. On this machine the plastic is blue-green and the wax is a purple color. After the build is done layer by layer, you remove the wax encased plastic piece from the build plate and drop it into a heated solution of something called VSO which is really just a parrafin solvent. This removes the purple wax exposing the final part which can now be molded.
The machine takes time to work. The idea is that if you can build the part faster from scratch than by drawing it up and sending it to the machine then go for it. We do. But for say a complete model kit with all of its parts, you can draw them up and print them out far faster than they can be built by hand and while that is going on you are doing the next one etc... So you are freed up to work on other things. I will say this, being a tradtional modelmaker. Fancy ass gadgets like this have their place and in my opinion will never replace the traditional modelmaker. We are heavily vested in such 'ordinary' tech because that is many times the best way to do things. This type of machine is used for cases where a client needs rapid turnaround of a highly complicated part as this machine can make anything with details as small as 1/10,000 of an inch.
That said, we DO wish to use it to make up some cool items for our hobby we love so much in the RC Submarine arena... And hell , we can sure grow some cool tank parts.... hee hee...
Here are some shots of the setup and parts underway...
The overall setup. The machine's footprint is tiny. As you can see it is a desktop sized machine. To the right is the flat panel and keyboard that interface to the machines processor and hard drive. To the right is a crock pot full of VSO which we heat up and melt the wax with.
Here is a closeup of the jets laying down the purple wax and bluish plastic. These are two rings that have small details on them as they are being created.
Here are the finished builds. There are three items here, two rings, and one nonsensical cubey roundy thing used to calibrate everything. Now the wax gets dissolved which takes only a few minutes and the next picture shows the final rings.
After wax removal this is what you have... Perfect, highly detailed parts. It is like magic, or a Star Trek replicator only MUCH slower! These rings and cubey thingy took 11 hours to build.... As I said, it is used for very complex parts that would take weeks otherwise.
Well I was just catching you up on the new tool. We will be interested in hearing what people would like to see grown and we might consider it. We have a docket of projects already but I am happy to shift the order around. The grow area is 6x6x12" in size, with bigger parts being appended to the ends of other parts for sizes larger than that.
Let me know if you have ideas that we can sneak onto this baby!
Marc
Well the 3D Printer finally arrived last week and we have had a week of training classes, and run throughs. Now we are building 3D parts using our favorite 3D apps. I have some shots here showing the setup and details of the process.
In a nutshell a 3D printer is like a regular inkjet printer except it lays down plastic [part] and wax [support] layers. The wax layer is a gentle support that is put down to fully support delicate structures during the build as the plastic is molten coming out of the 'inkjet' head and could sag if not supported. The process as I relayed it last was that you slice up the model in a piece of software, such as Rhino 3D from bottom to top in as many layers as you want fine resolution. Then, like a CAT scan, the inkjets lay down a layer of plastic for the part that shows in that layer and the rest is support material. On this machine the plastic is blue-green and the wax is a purple color. After the build is done layer by layer, you remove the wax encased plastic piece from the build plate and drop it into a heated solution of something called VSO which is really just a parrafin solvent. This removes the purple wax exposing the final part which can now be molded.
The machine takes time to work. The idea is that if you can build the part faster from scratch than by drawing it up and sending it to the machine then go for it. We do. But for say a complete model kit with all of its parts, you can draw them up and print them out far faster than they can be built by hand and while that is going on you are doing the next one etc... So you are freed up to work on other things. I will say this, being a tradtional modelmaker. Fancy ass gadgets like this have their place and in my opinion will never replace the traditional modelmaker. We are heavily vested in such 'ordinary' tech because that is many times the best way to do things. This type of machine is used for cases where a client needs rapid turnaround of a highly complicated part as this machine can make anything with details as small as 1/10,000 of an inch.
That said, we DO wish to use it to make up some cool items for our hobby we love so much in the RC Submarine arena... And hell , we can sure grow some cool tank parts.... hee hee...
Here are some shots of the setup and parts underway...
The overall setup. The machine's footprint is tiny. As you can see it is a desktop sized machine. To the right is the flat panel and keyboard that interface to the machines processor and hard drive. To the right is a crock pot full of VSO which we heat up and melt the wax with.
Here is a closeup of the jets laying down the purple wax and bluish plastic. These are two rings that have small details on them as they are being created.
Here are the finished builds. There are three items here, two rings, and one nonsensical cubey roundy thing used to calibrate everything. Now the wax gets dissolved which takes only a few minutes and the next picture shows the final rings.
After wax removal this is what you have... Perfect, highly detailed parts. It is like magic, or a Star Trek replicator only MUCH slower! These rings and cubey thingy took 11 hours to build.... As I said, it is used for very complex parts that would take weeks otherwise.
Well I was just catching you up on the new tool. We will be interested in hearing what people would like to see grown and we might consider it. We have a docket of projects already but I am happy to shift the order around. The grow area is 6x6x12" in size, with bigger parts being appended to the ends of other parts for sizes larger than that.
Let me know if you have ideas that we can sneak onto this baby!
Marc
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