Pwdr - an open source powder 3d printer

http://pwdr.github.com/

by kephra • 14 years ago

54 35 14 years ago

pwdr.github.com

Pirate-of-SV• 14 years ago

Am I the only one waiting for a 3D printer which parts can be created with a 3D printer?

brntn2• 14 years ago

Isn't that the whole point of the reprap projects?

You're going to be waiting a while if you're hoping for a 3D printer that you can buil at home and can churn out steel rods, bolts and belts.

kephra2• 14 years ago

Pwdr can do aluminum oxide and likely also other sinter metals.

brntn2• 14 years ago

It's very superficial of me, but I wish more open source hardware projects went to this much effort to "sell" their product.

Beautiful page design, well written copy, nice photography and a great looking device.

Gussy• 14 years ago

I completely agree, this kind of presentation is so great to see!

This is one of the hard problems open source hardware has at the moment. The community is just now realising its existence, so hopefully there will be more so us working on solving it soon.

Without going into too much depth (which probably warrants a whole article of it's own), the problem is that once you have designed something electronic and built a few, actually manufacturing more than a handful of PCBs (>10) not only becomes a whole different ball game, but requires a completely different skill-set to actually pull off well.

iamwil2• 14 years ago

You'll have to remember that most hardware people aren't web devs or designers. Just as most web devs aren't ops people. Sometimes, you just need to get something out to show people. And often times, the people that hardware people show it to is other hardware people, and they don't mind it as long as there's good content.

schmrz• 14 years ago

While I do agree that the page design is nice I don't consider this a good presentation of the end product or an open source project. The first thing that you should show if you are selling the product—doesn't matter if it's to fellow open source developers or customers—is that it works. And the best way to show that is with a simple and short video.

It could be of course that the presentation is not yet finished completely. Nevertheless, the idea is really nice and I would love to see the project take off.

wetterhorn7• 14 years ago

Thanks for your feedback. Meanwhile, I've added some pictures and a video of the printer. A more extensive video should follow soon.

ChuckMcM2• 14 years ago

This is awesome, I had forgotten the kickstarter to make an inkshield, apparently the guy pulled it off and made 'em [1]. Way to go. I apologize in advance for killing his web site.

[1] http://nicholasclewis.com/projects/inkshield/

wetterhorn7• 14 years ago

Indeed, I've used an earlier version of Nicolas' inkshield for the Pwdr machine, it works great!

angusgr2• 14 years ago

My initial reaction was this might be a hoax, or at least vapourware, on account of the lack of any print pictures or videos, just the very nice glossy shots of the machine sitting idle.

However I did find one video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzX5x1A1AMg

And one photo: http://www.thingiverse.com/image:161441

So, seems the results may lag a bit behind the presentation, but this is still really exciting to see. Fair enough for something they're calling v0.1, as well.

wetterhorn7• 14 years ago

The focus was mainly on the machine and not the results, as they can still be improved. But i've added a section on the Github website with pictures of print results. Hopefully this proves that it isn't a hoax ;)

angusgr2• 14 years ago

Very nice, thank you!

Didn't mean to be too cruel about it, it's just that with a new 3d printer announced almost every day I always look to see what the achievable print quality is like.

It's a great project you're working on, I'm sure many people (me included) will be watching closely.

tocomment3• 14 years ago

I'm not understanding how it works. Can someone explain?

printer2• 14 years ago

1: A very thin layer of powder (plastic) is evenly spread. Then the print head prints a binder on the places where you want to create a slice of your 3D model. Then another layer of powder is layered on top of it and GOTO 1. When all slices are printed your 3D model will be covered in powder which is also the support material for overhanging slices.

It's very hard to make this up from the photos but I think you can see the container for the powder and model with a movable bottom.

-EDIT- This printer uses a binder, but other models melt the powder with a laser (Selective Laser Sintering).

tocomment3• 14 years ago

Thanks. A couple follow up questions:

So does the user sprinkle the powder after each slice, or does the machine somehow do it? How would the machine make an even layer of powder?

Why doesn't the powder stick to the print head, or get pushed around unevenly by the print head?

Why doesn't the powder fall out during printing?

rplnt• 14 years ago

You add layer of powder, melt together the parts you want to print, repeat (add another layer of powder, ...).

tocomment3• 14 years ago

So how does this compare to the quality of the rep rap? Is this a better approach?

ChuckMcM2• 14 years ago

It will compare badly at first.

RepRap/Mendal/Prnrbot/Makerbot all use a plastic extrusion mechansim (think robo-spider) which can make a lot of cool things but cannot make a bunch of other things. In particular 'spinning' machines (as I tend to think of these) cannot make large overhangs because the material they are using has no structural stability while being extruded. [1] The "Dual 'struder" on the Makerbot Replicator opens the possibility of a 'support' material that can be removed, this requires filling in with the support material to support the non-support material being extruded over it. The support material is later removed with a solvent.

In powder based machines the 'unbound' powder it its own support. So overhangs are not an issue. The challenge with powder machines has always been that the materials have relatively poor structural stability (in the cornstarch variety) or require a precise (and) delicate sintering process, or a 'firing' type process. In all cases having both bound and unbound material present can challenge the finishing stages.

[1] These machines melt ABS plastic to the weak/sticky stage as they push it out (typically 220 - 240 degrees). At that temperature a strand cannot hold its own weight.

Pwdr - an open source powder 3d printer

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