Fab@Home 3D Printer

[ADAMya]

I still feel this is a little expensive, any thing else?

[mad.sculpture]

Hi,
I've been fascinated by 3D printing for a while and saw this project on u tube a week or 2 ago.

My initial reaction was Wow also but whilst i admire anybody doing anything inovative particularly open source ther seemed to be a lot of catches to this.

if you download the assembly destructions you'll see that from the construction other than the extruding head itself the unit is a essentialy a small cnc mill in other than name.

if you price up the parts you'll see that
(OR AT LEAST I BELIEVE THAT FROM MY UNDERSTANDING OF IT)
..you'd be much better off using a homebuilt mill/router as most of us are/would like to and just fashioning an extuder.

My reasoning for this is that the construction of the FAB machine will prevent it from ever milling(as they say themselves - not designed for side loads as non generated by extruder) whereas even the crudest form of working homebuilt mill will carry this extruder.(i'm essentialy thinking of a Rockliffe type affair)

whilst the aim of the project is admirable and the documentation extensive
most of the development seems to have been making the main unit from cnc cut plastic,this only does what a mill does,as far as extruder development,the unique part of these concepts goes their currently using a motor to push a syringe plunger down and saying to experiment with feed rates.
This is what any of you cnc whizzes would be at after a few days experimentation isn't it ? the first thing we'd try is a syringe.
The guy mentions on U tube video they've sold them to an artist looking to generate sculpture and a gov.t project somewhere looking to allow people in remote areas to produce stuff in house rather than ship it in but when you look at the quality of the product produced so far i couldn't help thinking these people should have gone somewhere else.


Sorry i lied about innovation...they did make the whole torch including conductive track extrusion, that was cool idea..

***** For me the most intersting part was the revelation that at least 1 of the commercial rapid prototyping machines uses standard Hp cartridges (as in inkjet)The Fab people say you'd need to partner with HP or decypher a too complicated control circuit to drive these to be practical.

..But i you compare the pro machines creations they're talking about the resolutions of the Cheapest(read 5K GBP) machines as 300dpi (although the curves don't look as smooth as say a similarly sized curve printed on paper on an old printer of this resolution.(good enough for many things mind)

So.. you got a pro machine which is essentialy a mill that generates no harsh sideloads,using cheap readily available inkjet cartridges why would you not be persuing this more???

no homebuilder could ever produce the piezo heads etc. but working out a driver (and remember this'd be equivalent to on/off the black ink not proportionaly or colour either) will surely have a way shorter development time to create something very useable than syringes.
I've actualy seen something like this already in ELECTOR electronics magazine or similar already for a different app.
(i mean fudging with print head)

they seem to be reinventing the wheel

the process is actualy a little more complicated (PROFFESIONAL EQUIP. not FAB )in that as well as extruding the resin (like printing black) you need to print another liquid (wax type) where you want the voids rather than leaving it bare (white paper)
This is to support possible printing above on the next layer (otherwise any void would have to carry on up through product.The creation then gets immersed in warm/hot water and wax melts leaving resin intact - voila!
Oh yea, the resin is a special sort that solidifies upon exposure to U.V. light
so you need 1 of them to shine a bit after each complete layer is laid downand the unit needs an enclosure so you only get light from lamp hardening things and your room doesn't strobe when your using it (not insumountable is it)


O.K. then so it's 2 colour printing in a box with a sunlamp !!

I'd be intested to know what you lot make of this.
hopefully this doesn't come across as an attack on a great innovation,rather if you really look into how could you recomend anyone going for this system as it stands for anything remotely like this money ??

THE QUALIFIER TO ALL THIS IS I'M ONLY THEORY CNC BOY AT THE MOMENT
- but look into it and the above info is basically good.

you may neeed to shield print head from u.v during exposure etc .and nothing is as simple as it looks but as i see it cracking somebodys print head is the main obstacle to us all getting cool 3D with less chips anytime soon and its conceivable.

I believe that this is the best prospect because if we all develop the syringe idea by the time we get acceptable resolution PC world will be selling comercial units.(and i don't think we ever will get good res.)

The cheapest 3D printer i found few months ago was down to about 5K GBP and it's only going to go down.

for years i've wanted to get 3D organic models out of the PC's virtual world (because i'm not a very good sculptor - i can do 1 half great but not symetry in anything like a reasonable time)
After looking as much info as i can find i'm E baying for 4 axis mill bits on ebay for foam milling bacause it seems the only chance at my goal.

I'd love to be able to 3D print particularly as i've got 1 room in lodgings and chips and noise won't be that practical but at the moment 'tis the only way -

- other than bureau 3D (much the same as we'd have got a 2D print years ago B4 cheap inkjets) again reducing costs but still not quite there,accessible.


Best regards to you all, especialy if you stayed with this till the end






Cheers Ross

[mad.sculpture]

Several pages in 3D world mag this month where they've sent a CAD model file to about 8 3D printers to compare pricing,service technology etc.
comitment to get 1000 dollar machine on market within 3 years (quality machine fully ass.)

same co. have one out late 07/early 08 for $5000 it's 25"*20"*20" 90lb desktop machine
www.desktopfactory.com is the co.

sites of interest

www.3drg.com
www.3darttopart.com
www.frippdesign.co.uk (colour parts)
www.ipfl.co.uk
www.rapido3d.co.uk
www.thinglab.co.uk


Ross

[WayneHill]

Posted on Yahoo today.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/...tid=1231030451

[DarthDavis]

Im not sure on the cost of this, but it seems very attractive to me if it was less than 5 grand US or so, but wouldn't this be a cinch for us to build at home?

KATANA