I saw this guys video for this about a month ago and I’m currently looking at building my own out of the 3 spare printers that I have. It looks good, but I have to say, I’m still pending on membership to the yahoo group :(

We have a ZPrinter rapid prototyper at school, uses the same method and can even apply color to the dust it uses. The models are quite fragile until you seal them with a superglue-type liquid, which makes a drastic difference in strength. I’ve even seen a model dropped in the floor without damage (however it is still not as strong as the plastic printers). We have a new type of sealant that is supposed to allow for sanding and shaping of the printed piece that we have yet to try.

Very nice… ^_^

Best use for a lexmart printer!

If I read the stuff right… He using a form of a sugar or corn starch. Not sure.

Interesting way to use a printer…

While glue and plaster could be weak for making objects, if you used somthing besides plaster this could be great for lost wax casting.

He uses superglue to infiltrate the parts and make them stronger.

A two part glue would lend itself to a “inkjet” 3d unit. One cart full of part A and the other full of part B. Just an idea…

@eme – go search, it’s on here http://hackaday.com/?s=fab%40home

I submitted this to hackaday while researching building something like this myself. In the process of trawling google for someone who’d already done it, I also found this article on different recipes for printing materials: http://www.ceramicartsdaily.org/magazines/Ceramics%20Monthly/2009febprintedpotfeature.aspx. Their recipes are for ‘printed pottery’, which they then fire in an oven for extra strength to produce usable ceramics.

I also found this guy who’s doing something similar, but as yet doesn’t seem to have it going. But it helps to explain the dust/plaster reservoir system: http://www.indoor.flyer.co.uk/3dprint.htm

IIRC the problem with heat reactive liquid + lasers is that any components that don’t “rest” on the platform you start building from will have to have a scaffold to hold them “up” and keep them from moving until they are sufficiently connected to the rest of the structure.

With the printing onto a powder method, the individual disconnected sections of each slice can rest on the powder below.

BTW…

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/diy_3d_printing_and_fabrication

As noted, this is a fairly decent method for creating models for 3-d visualization, but that is about it. None of the materials mentioned in this thread are particularly sturdy. For example, if you tried to actually use the engine casing shown (adding the metal pieces required) the question is what would happen first: whether it would blow up or just melt down. Presuming, of course, that it would work at all.

The comment about some form of lost-wax is by far the most practical. You aren’t particularly worried about the strength of the object you are creating with your deposition process – it just has to be strong enough for that actual molding material to be put around it. Then melt (or whatever) your deposited model away and you can pour metal or whatever into your mold.

One question I have is: how about the quality of physical dimensions? What I see being “built” is a cast of something that looks like an R/C model airplane engine. The cylinder [this being written by a guy who is 54 and who watched his Dad do R/C modeling nearly all his life] that the piston will run in has to be particularly precise and extremely smooth, generally speaking very round & definitely particularly straight, etc. I cannot imagine the hardware shown _here_ producing parts of sufficient quality — although I have no doubt that it is “a simple matter of engineering”.

However, who would have even have imagined such a thing forty..fifty years ago (about when my Dad was doing hardship duty in Alaska and they’d use the exhaust of their cars to heat the engines of their models so as to be hot enough to get the puppies started)?

Darned cool device, though. “Dad? Can I have one of those for Christmas?”

Thanks for approving me JoDivo, Hackaday has certainly pushed your members up, at least it said 3 new members when I applied and now it says 24 new members :D

I realize that most of us can’t help but add constructive criticism to things other people build, but come on! Let’s keep in mind that this guy thought up, programmed, and built a 3D PRINTER FFS! Constructive criticism is always awesome but friends give this guy some credit! Awesome post, I hope to see more homemade 3D Printers in the future!

Member afogassa really was the first to pull it off printing objects from his machine.

My e-mail box is blowing up. Thanks to Hackaday bre pettis slums with us as well. ;-)

Remember, If you desire to join state your interest in 3DP and what you think you can contribute to the group in your writeup that you send to the moderator.

Print on!

A few notes,
First, it’s not my intention to compete with raprap or cupcake nor fab@home.
This project was develop at home with no support from any university with a limit budget to prove it can be done cheap.
Without the help from Paulo that wrote the software to slice and print the cad file it would not be possible.
I’ve chosen the printing on powder processes becouse it’s the cheapest way to build a 3d printer and there is no need to support the model as the build takes place.It can not make a usefull part,it’s mainly used to bring that exotic 3d model from the computer to the real world so one can check for looks and feel.It can be used to make a patern for the lost wax process using the right powder or can be used to make a silicon mold then fill the mold with poliurethane resin to make your part.
I’ve found out that printers cartridge are very sesitive about what you put on it, so far the only thing that works for me is distilated water.
Please don’t try to fill your cartridge with ANY kind of glue or you losse.
The glue(binder) in my case is mixed with the plaster and I’m using only water on the cartridge.

I would like to thank’s the support from all of you.

This is AMAZING.

I’m an Architectual student in South Africa and me and a partner are looking into build a rapid prototyper for CAD models. Is it at all possible for your to publish your design of the 3d printer? It would be a great help just to know where to start. Part lists and so on. Thank you for the great work.

I’m very interested in this… But in the video.. i did not see the machine move vertically? or the tray of powder move vertically?..i’m new to this 3D printing…but isn’t it suppose to work on 3 axis?.. i know I’m missing somthing but can’t figure out what? It seems that something shoud be moving UP as the glue is being layed down? can some one enlighten me? thanks