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My attempt at a 3D printer

Last night my mind began to wander and I thought about how cool it would be to own a 3D printer, so i decided to give it a try.

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This project will more or less be a documentation of my attempts at a 3D printer. Therefore I don't think you should copy my results just yet.

After some research I decided that with my budget there was no way I could build a metal 3D printer. Because of this I decided to focus on an interesting design that uses a liquid plastic resin that solidifies with UV radiation. My first design is a machine that houses a 100 mw ultraviolet laser and can move it upon a two dimensional plain. Then I will put a small nozzle underneath the laser that will slowly release the resin into the printer. The laser will be pointing at the resin directly after it is released so in theory it should harden in place and form a solid object. There is also another design that I like that might be simpler. This design involves having a UV lamp in the top of the printer and a nozzle that moves in 3 dimensions. This idea seems easier to me because there is no need for me to match the laser movement to the nozzle movement. There is one more design that may work for this machine. This is the simplest design because it works by slowly building the shape of the creation by adding a single layer of plastic resin then hardening it into a thin slice of the object you are making. After this layer is hardened more resin is put in the chamber and more of the resin is hardened into shape.

  • Design change

    Howie11/20/2014 at 00:23 0 comments

    As anyone who has experience with 3d printing would know my previous design would not have worked as well as I thought. Therefore I decided on making a printer that uses thin plastic filament that is melted and slowly deposited in layers to make the final shape. I am lucky because minus the big tank my frame will be able to be used in the new printer.

  • Test 1

    Howie11/16/2014 at 01:57 0 comments

    Today I conducted an experiment and found that my laser can not solidify the resin fast enough to build a consistent shape. This narrows down my options to the last of my three basic designs. I decided to order an old projector to use for the triggering source and a small electric pump to gradually fill the tank with solution.

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