3D PRINTERS: 2016

Monday, 11 January 2016

SLIDE SHOW

You can see some nice information about this topic.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bx8zyKyn5U5ubU53cXZwWUY2LTA

DIY 3d printers made from wood

Wood is very cheap. Wood is easy to obtain. Wood is easy to work with and many shaping technologies are available. It comes in many forms with different properties from flexibility to strength. It is renewable resource. It can be easily recycled.
There were entire generations of printers like Ultimaker based on laser cut plywood, but full wood was never in fashion. probably because it is not high-tech and not self-replicating.
I would like to see more projects with wooden parts. I like the texture and natural aesthetics of wood contrasted to technology.

Here are some designs that use wooden parts, some are fully functional, some are under development:

Wood frame Mendel90

Mendel90 is great design and it is often built with wooden frame. One of the great success stories with wooden parts. Design is custimizable based on your input and generates paper printable cutting and drilling guides for the frame.

Adapto 3d printer

It can have aluminum beams and low cost wood frame.

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/11/adapto-diy-3d-printer.html

Ikea RepRap

While surfing around I found this reprap with wooden / particleboard frame (maybe made from Ikea furniture). Further information is unavailable. Let me know if you have any additional information about this printer.

http://aeons.phrenzy.org/~berserk/reprap/printer/

Gunstrap

Source: RepRap wiki

The Gunstrap is a plywood repstrap that is based on the Mantis CNC design. It has a build area of 200x200x100mm (comparable to the Mendel) and is employs a heated build platform and a heated build chamber. Unlike other wood based repstrap's, no ball bearings are required for its construction, excluding the extruder and all parts can be obtained from scrapped printers and scanners. In addition, its build chamber can be heated up to 100 degrees Celsius as most stepper motors are contained out side of the build chamber and no thermoplastic is used in its construction. The only stepper motor within the build chamber is the extruder stepper motor which is actively cooled using a peltier.

Advantages

Has a very low build cost (around $50USD), excluding the cost of the electronics.
Does not require any bearings apart from the extruder.
Can be constructed with only a hack saw, drill, screwdriver and epoxy resin adhesive.
Has a larger build area as compared to the Mantis 9.1
Due to its fold open construction it is easy to access for cleaning and changing tool heads.
Uses a heated build chamber which has been seen to improve the quality of prints for large objects.

Disadvantages

Requires active thermal management in order to keep the extruder stepper motor at a safe operating temperature as its located in the heated build chamber.
Due to the use of stainless steel sleeves instead of ball bearings, this design will ware slightly with time.
Due to the design of the zaxis the gunstrap may not be able to achieve the same resolution as a Mendel.
This design requires more parts to be fabricated than the original [[Mantis 9.1] in order to accommodated the heated build chamber.
Requires the procurement of stainless steel shafts, stepper motors, belts, ect from old printers and scanners.
Can not currently print any of its own parts.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Gunstrap

WoodRap

http://reprap.org/wiki/WoodRap

http://repraprock.blogspot.com/

RepStrap

Many bootstraped RepStraps are made from wood:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/10/repstrap-bootstrapped-3d-printer.html

Jan 7, 2016

Resin based 3d printable ceramic with high-end properties

Scientists at HRL developed new resin ceramic material that can be 3d printed using stereolitography and has high strength and resistance to temperature. Amazing advances!

Project summary:

Researchers at HRL Laboratories, LLC, have achieved a new milestone in 3D printing technology by demonstrating an approach to additively manufacture ceramics that overcomes the limits of traditional ceramic processing and enables high temperature, high strength ceramic components.

HRL’s Senior Chemical Engineer Zak Eckel and Senior Chemist Dr. Chaoyin Zhou invented a resin formulation that can be 3D printed into parts of virtually any shape and size. The printed resin can then be fired, converting it into a high strength, fully dense ceramic. The resulting material can withstand ultrahigh temperatures in excess of 1700°C and exhibits strength ten times higher than similar materials.

Ceramics are much more difficult to process than polymers or metals because they cannot be cast or machined easily. Traditionally ceramic parts are consolidated from powders by sintering, which introduces porosity and limits both achievable shapes and final strength. "With our new 3D printing process we can take full advantage of the many desirable properties of this silicon oxycarbide ceramic, including high hardness, strength and temperature capability as well as resistance to abrasion and corrosion." says program manager Dr. Tobias Schaedler.

The novel process and material could be used in a wide range of applications from large components in jet engines and hypersonic vehicles to intricate parts in microelectromechanical systems and electronic device packaging.

HRL Laboratories page:

http://www.hrl.com/news/2016/0101/

The HRL team’s research paper, "Additive Manufacturing of Polymer Derived Ceramics," has been published in the January 1st issue of Science.

How to build the cheapest DLP SLA 3d printer for under 500$ including projector

This is probably the cheapest DLP SLA 3D printer that you can build yourself for some 500 USD including the projector!

"Little Dipper" has a simple design that anyone can replicate with some basic DIY skills and it makes prints with reasonable quality.
The most expenisve par is the projector which you can get dfor some 350 USd new, but you could probably get it used somewhere. Other parts include simple z axis movement (screw or belt driven) on wood frame and Ramps 1.4 or Arduino controlled electronics.

Simple plastic vat and z axis screw drive

Objects 3d printed on Little Dipper

Objects 3d printed on Little Dipper. You can see the layers, but the quality is still great for the price.

Objects 3d printed on Little Dipper

Little Dipper DIY DLP Sla 3d printer. You can see all the elements with DLP projector on top.

Here is the project description from the makers:

How it works?
A DLP projector is used to cure UV setting resin one layer at a time while a moving axis drops incrementally into the vat of resin. A projected slice cures each layer and builds the part. This style of resin printer is different from a FormLabs 3D printer and some others in two ways.

It uses a DLP projector rather than a laser to cure each layer.
It shines the light source from the top rather than up from the bottom.

Advantages over laser based bottom up and DLP bottom up designs:

Simplicity
Lower start-up cost
Modifiable to bottom up
Fast build (~1 evening)

Major Components and Materials:

DLP projector
There are 2 known choices, although others may work.

Acer P1283 DLP Projector
Acer H6510BD DLP HD projector

Linear Slide/Axis

Almost any linear axis that is belt driven or screw driven will work. Project uses a minimal version of this:
http://www.openbuilds.com/builds/v-slot-lead-screw...
A more budget minded and adventurous person could even choose a drawer slide, but you may find that rigidity and smooth sliding in the z-axis will be a useful feature.

4x4 sheet of 1/2in MDF or equivalent material and hardware

The version shown here is as simple as it gets. 2 pices of MDF cut to provide a mount for the axis, projector and stable footing for the machine. Pretty much any kind of enclosure can be designed for this 3D printer. Your main objective is frame rigidity and ambient light blocking.

Ramps 1.4 or Arduino based electronics capable of running at least (1) nema 17 stepper motor

This build features a RAMPS 1.4 board, stepper drivers and an Arduino Mega 2650 with standard Sprinter firmware. There are some basic modifications needed depending on the hardware you choose. None of these modifications constitute needing to know anything in-depth about programming. The firmware used is modified for 5/16 standard threaded rod and has end-stops disabled. You can modify this firmware using the Arduino environment to further suit your needs.

UV Resin

Makerjuice.com, Madesolid.com are the two most seemingly popular and affordable options for UV resin suitable for DIY resin printers such as the one featured in this build. This build has been tested with G+ from Makerjuice. Funtodoo, Form1+ and Spark/Ember resin formulations are likely suitable.

Build Platform and Plastic Tupperware vat

This build includes plans for a build platform that fits a specific set of Tupperware available at "wallyworld". The benefit to the type chosen in this build is that you get a variety of sizes that scale easily, so that extensive design modifications are not needed. You will also need additional containers for post-cure/clean up of your resin parts.

Control Software and Slicer

Creation workshop is used to control and slice 3D models. Download Creation Workshop here.

Here is Instructables page of a project with detailed build guide, software and everything nneded to build it:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Little-Dipper-SLADLP-3D-printer-for-under-500-proj/

This project was developed by Instructables user "marshallpeck". Kudos to you sir! You can also see more at: https://www.facebook.com/protobuilds/ or http://protobuilds.com/ .

All the recent developments in SLA 3d printing make me think that it is the future for home and hobby 3d printing. We need more affordable resin materials and more low cost parts.

UPDATE:

Thanks to Reddit commentator "Panaetius" here is a link where you can start to research on how to hack or prepare a DLP projector for using it for SLA 3d printing. It describes basic concepts and example of modifications to color wheel focus / lens mechanism and UV filters.

http://www.os-rc.com/en/ilios-documentation-page/37-11-projector-modifications

UPDATE:

Chimera is even cheaper SLA DLP machine made from second-hand and scrpa parts for under 60USD:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2015/10/chimera-dlp-3d-printer-you-can-build.html

Introducing Glowforge - The 3D Laser Printer

Glowforge homepage:

http://glowforge.com/

You can see various things that can be lasercut on Glowforge Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/glowforge/

3D Printing in Everyday Life

3D Printing - Past, Present, & Future

Thursday, 7 January 2016

HISTORY

The history of 3D printing (3DP) began at the beginning of this century with the first commercially available 3D printers. These systems are consumer products which can be used as a desktop application in private homes. The price-performance ratio has significantly improved in recent years and the number of different models on the market has increased exponentially. The cost for a single unit is between a few hundred to a few thousand dollars. Makerbot, Lulzbot, Ultimaker, and Printrbot are some of the popular brands in the consumer space today.