OpenSLS Laser Sintering 3D Printer Made From Hacked Laser Cutter

Rice University bioengineering researchers have hacked a cheap Chinese CO2 laser cutter into a low(er)-cost laser sintering 3d printer and used it to produce fine objects such as liver structures. They claim it can be made under 10000 USD.

Materials used on it are nylon, sand, Candelilla wax, polycaprolactone (PCL) and other. 

Since there is a 40-80 W of laser energy, they use custom build inter gas module to prevent burining of the material.  

They have also made it open source, which deserves some gratitude from the community! Thank you Rice team! Sharing is caring!

Here is the short presentation video:




Here is the powder distribution mechanism in action:



Project has a very detailed and extensive documentation well worth reading if you are interested in laser sintering and bioprinting.

GitHub with all the files:

https://github.com/MillerLabFTW/OpenSLS

Rice Uni news article:

http://news.rice.edu/2016/02/22/modified-laser-cutter-prints-3-d-objects-from-powder/

Ver detailed RepRapWiki page:

http://reprap.org/wiki/OpenSLS

Detailed PLOS research paper:

http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0147399

If you want to make something similar, do keep in mind that lasers are dangerous, and nylon powder and simillar micro-powder materials are flammable and can also go KA-BOOM. Stay safe kids.

Here is the photo gallery:

Read More

How to Use Wax to Make Your Parts Waterproof

Instructables user Jubal117 developed this finishing method where he uses wax dipping to make a 3d printed part waterproof. It will make it float or usable as liquid container. Molten wax fills the cracks between layers and makes it into full envelope.

Using a scalpel blade to remove excess wax

Full tutorial can be found at:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Using-Wax-to-Waterproof-3D-Prints/

Read More

D-Coil handheld wax extruder for manual 3D printing

From project description:

D-Coil is a new digital 3D modeling approach using wax coiling to bring tangibility to the design of digital models. After defining a shape to extrude, the users follow the lead of a hand-held actuated extruder to instantiate the actual extrusion using wax. The tangibility of the wax extrusion sets the stage to create the next components until the digital model is completed.

The digital model affords all digital attributes (ease of transformation, distribution, and 3D printing) while the wax artifact can be discarded or kept as a one-of-a-kind memento.

We present a proof-of-concept implementation of D-Coil and showcase how this additive approach can also be extended to a subtractive process using a digitally actuated cutter. By adding a 6DOF mouse, users can also include scaling, rotation, and bending effects to create a wide variety of shapes often difficult for novices to produce in standard CAD software.

More information and detailed PDF paper:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2702123.2702381

It reminds me of FreeD handheld fabrication tool or Human 3d printer projects.

Read More

Machinable wax 3d printing filament for lost wax metal casting

YT user aonemarine made this video review of Machinable wax 3d printing filament made specially for lost wax casting. You print the object you want in wax, make a mold and melt the wax away to poor molten metal in it.
The lost PLA casting method is well known but it needs much higher temperatures to melt the PLA away. Wax is much easier to work with.
There have been some wax-like filaments and resins but there is still no wax filament solution that is well established. Maybe this will be the one.

Here is the video describing the wax:




Here is the video tutorial on how to cast metal with it (wax investment casting):



He uses the wax filament made by http://machinablewax.com/index.php

Read More

MOLDLAY filament for DIY lost wax casting with 3d printed objects

Kai Parthy, well known filament material developer, has a new product named MOLDLAY which is a thermoplastic filament with properties similar to wax. It can be used for two casting techniques: lost mold (lost wax casting) or permanent mold casting.
Lost PLA casting is well known method and you can  use microwave oven lost PLA casting, but MOLDLAY can be melted in a common baking oven due to its low melting point and wax like properties.

Here are the key features and technical data:

• superior dimensional stability
• tiff, rigid at room temperature
• near zero warp
• printable without heated bed
• print at 170 – 180° C,
• heated bed max. 40°C,
• melting temperature ~ 270°C 
• the molten wax flows freely out the mold, similar to liquid paraffin
• price: unknown
• contact for dealers: kp@cc-products.de

Here is a video showing the entire process of lost wax casting with MOLDLAY:

Read More

Asiga Pico 3d printer with solid state UV LED light source

Asiga Pico is specialist 3d printer with size of a small kitchen countertop appliance. It is designed with jewelry, dental and medical industry in mind. It produces wax polymer casting for metal parts or uses medical grade biocompatible resin for things like hearing aids. It is priced at USD 6990. It comes with Asiga Composer software.

The Pico is the first 3D printer of its kind to use a solid state UV LED light source. The LED lifetime is up to 50,000 hours and is not classed as a consumable, unlike other systems. The result is consistent curing from layer to layer, day after day, year after year. UV light allows broader materials choices, such as water-clear and pure white materials.

The Pico now has an improved resolution of 39 micron pixel size with a build envelope of 40 x 30mm (X and Y), and a build height of 75mm (Z). With the ability to grow parts in 1 micron increments in Z, the Pico is ideal for high resolution applications such as dental, jewelry and hearing. When building at 50 micron layers, the Pico achieves a build speed of approximately 6mm p/hr.

https://www.asiga.com/products/printers/pico/

Pico PDF brochure:

https://www.asiga.com/media/main/files/Pico%20Brochure_us_en.pdf

Read More

3D printing with locally dug clay, builder’s silicon, wax, sugar frosting, sugar sticks, sugar fondant and wood paste

Jonathan Keep held a workshop at Burg-Halle University in Halle near Leipzig, Germany. He demonstrated 3D printing with locally dug clay, builder’s silicon, wax, sugar frosting, sugar sticks, sugar fondant and wood paste.

Keep is well known for his work with Delta printers and special extruders on clay and other materials such as chocolate.

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/02/how-to-print-with-chocolate-on-your-diy.html


More at: http://www.keep-art.co.uk/journal_14.html

3d printing with wood paste

Read More

3d printing with beeswax

Two Dutch designers, Olivier van Herpt and Joris van Tubergen, developed an open source extruder that can be used for printing with beeswax. Using this extruder anyone can create temporary disposable objects out of beeswax on their desktop 3D printers. Beeswax has a relatively low melting point range of 62 to 64 °C. Once it has been extruded in a desired shape, the beeswax hardens. The 3D printed beeswax products are completely natural, made with the help of bees, with no artificial color, no artificial scent.

It is more of an "art" project, but it could be used in some biology related or food safe 3d printing projects.

Source pages and photo source:

http://oliviervanherpt.nl/3d-printed-beeswax/

http://www2.rooiejoris.nl/store/

Check out how to 3d print with bees:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/07/3b-printing-3d-printing-with-bees.html

Or, if you want to get into beekeeping and get your own honey and beeswax:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/11/open-source-diy-beehives-with.html

Read More