/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>525811
>3d metal printer

Exactly what kind of metal do you think can be used in a DIY 3D printer?

>>525811
what kind of metal do you want to work with?
they work just like regular 3d printers but instead of using just resin it uses resin and fine metal beads

you then melt the resin out in a furnace


if you can design a nozzle that lets out beads of molten metal you just made millions

>>525821
Metals necessary
.... wait. I should just get into engineering. I need to get into advanced space allocation algorithms and stuff to optimize the efforts of physical engineering. The first task is to stabilize stealth growth. That means replicating nano systems... shit ... ... ... I just need to skip the bullshit and get into nano robotics. Its the only thing relevant within ten years regarding all things hardware. ... okay. So how far have we gotten on that?

>>525811
Why does everyone always ask for blueprints, in all of my engineering career I have never seen 'blueprints.' No one uses 'blueprints' any more because of CAD. And the companies that have built metal 3d printers aren't going to give you 'blueprints' if they had them.

>>what kind if engineering degree will I need to build one?
mechanical

It is going to be very difficult to DIY a metal printer. The best you could probably do would be to print solder like the RepRap people are doing.

For anything that isn't solder, metal printing requires real-time feedback control, inert gas/vacuum chambers, high power lasers/electron beams/welders, and special post processing.

You could also try this:
http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/sites/default/files/RPJ09_Hiller.pdf
Make a machine that glues metal ball bearings together to make stuff.

>>525821
That's one way to do it, replace beads with fine metal powder though

The only problem with metal powder is that it is explosive so you have to be careful working with it.

>>if you can design a nozzle that lets out beads of molten metal you just made millions
Done years ago with the laser engineered net shaping process

>>525840
>>Nanorobotics... So how far have we gotten on that?
We have yet to verify that it is even possible.

>>525847
Damn you know a lot. I hope to have your brain roaming around again when I make one of these topics.

>>525847
>The only problem with metal powder is that it is explosive so you have to be careful working with it.
I work in the powder metallurgy industry and this is fairly accurate. You're not going to want to be dicking around with fine mesh particle size powders in your home if you've never worked with metal powder before.
There's not only the flammability aspect, but at such small particle sizes there's also the risk of inhalation. Most metals is aspirated are toxic (like aluminum).

At work we have to store our non-dried powders in fireproof cabinets. Our dried powders have to be stored in inert gas or medium vacuum environments. So no big surprise we have no less than 6 gloveboxes.

Pic Related

We also have an inert gas welding chamber which allows us to weld titanium and magnesium.

We have some experience with Selective Metal Laser Sintering, but don't have the equipment ourselves because it's just too damn expensive.
For the most part if you want a shape made out of metal it involves way less effort and time to simply machine it.
Laser sintering only offers you the option of making geometries you can't get using without using more labor or equipment intensive methods like lost-wax casting.

If I have time tomorrow I'll post and image of something we've had printed recently out of titanium.

>>525811
>look up cnc foam cutter
>cut shape
>cast in green sand/plaster mold
>?????
>profit

>>525850
There's really nothing to it. 3d printing is a new field, you could learn almost everything there is to know from a couple of books.

>>525880
Well, if you're going to go indirect, you might as well just print the molds. One might be able to use a DLP projector to cure some resin mixed with alumina particles to make ceramic molds.

This has been demonstrated professionally and was shown to be precise enough to make molds for jet turbine blades. The process was so precise that a new file format had to be used, because STL just wasn't high resolution enough.

So what are some tiny robot records?
Records will of course fluxuate with speciality.
Size, speed, living conditions tolerance... etc...

>>525821
>>525847
All depend on the resolution right? you could put a mig welding machine to a regular 3d printer and now you have a shitty 3d metal printing machine. Like putting a crayola to a CNC

As awesome as a metal printer would be, what's the point? Wouldn't it be much easier to print a master normally then cast it in metal using conventionally means.

>Phase 1: Print in PLA with sprue.
>Phase 2: Incase in Investment Plaster
>Phase 3: Burn out
>Phase 4: Pour in Metal
>Phase 5: Profit???????

>>526020
I could download a part i need.
that would be cool

>>526020
true. downloadable parts... but you're right. my goals of taking over the world are better pursued with nano tech

>>525930
Pic related was made essentially that way. It's cheaper to jet titanium down and mill it precisely later than it is to mill it down from a solid block of titanium

>>526042
We don't know if the fundamental process,diamonoid mechanosynthesis , required for all molecular nanotechnology is even possible and it's going to take lots of computational chemistry and lab work to verify it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanosynthesis#Diamond_mechanosynthesis

We have yet to even meet technical challenge 1 here:
http://www.molecularassembler.com/Nanofactory/Challenges.htm#TCDMS

almost all nanotech research today is glorified materials science.

>>526178
Say... is that a piece of F-22?

>>526178
Now we're getting somewhere.
Sounds like that hexlattice carbon shit would be good at some point for this

i don't know enough to just throw out speculations though. this is where the knowledge is at. thanks

>>526193
No, Chinese fighter jet