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On the Kindness of Strangers

A project log for Suspension 3D Printing

A unique approach to 3D printing that injects curing resin into a gel. The rig is designed to be added to most hackable 3D printers.

michaelMichael 05/26/2016 at 16:020 Comments

Hi all,

Sorry for the delay in updates - for the past month, I've been in the process of selling my home which has significantly hindered my ability to hack.

I've decided to move to a delta printer for the prototype, but I have a problem: I don't own a delta printer, and considering all my moving about I'm not in a place to buy a bunch of equipment yet. In the next few weeks I'll be settled into my new place with plenty of garage space, but how do I keep moving on my project when I have to keep my current place looking like a showroom? Enter the awesome @Ryan Shill.

Ryan generously offered to print my adapter part so I could validate that my design would fit all the correct parts - in particular the silicone tubing and static mixer. Here's the printed part, sitting on top of a printed effector plate he also printed for me to check sizing:

In trying out the dimensions I've found a number of issues, the biggest being that the hole through the standard effector plate just doesn't give me enough space to fit the silicone tubes I needed. Furthermore, I chose too small of silicone tubing.

So I've pulled the original OpenSCAD for the effector plate, and modified it to match the right dimensions for everything, in the effector plate itself. This way to make the printer work as a suspension printer, you need to replace the whole effector plate. This has the advantage that you don't need to disassemble your extruder to modify the printer, so that's a big plus!

Here's the new part:

You'll find the modified OpenSCAD file attached to the project.

Next steps, I will be trying to actually get a printer to modify. I have a clever idea for how to get my hands on one very, very quickly...stay tuned to find out my plan!

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