A wacky idea

Ok, yesterday I saw a site that showed submerging a computer in Mineral Oil, and watching it still run. It got me to thinking: Would there be any value in that for a RepRap? If you could find a material with a density similar to that of mineral oil, would it be possible to do away with support materials (Basically the whole project would be suspended in the oil). Just a fun thought experiment, I guess.

~D

If I understand you right then, no you couldn't the movement from the extruder and the other various forces act on the object being created would make it move around a lot, it has to be joined to something.

The only reason people use mineral oils in computers, is that it does not conduct electricity and therefore you can liquid cool every single component very easily.

I suspect you could do a progressive fill so that the fluid level was flush with the top of the half finished part. That would negate a lot of the need for support material and rapiddly cool the material. There is also the possibility of using a flowable salt gel as the fluid and encapsulate a portion in order to create low voltage wiring. You could then use a nail with a little bit of caulk at the head to puncture the cavity, seal the hole, and connect traditional chip interfaces etc. Of course it might cool the plastic too quickly and degrade interlayer adhesion. Or make the creation of cavities inside of a part impossible.

Or you could put a heating element into the oil/salt bath to increase interlayer adhesion. Or you could do both as needed during a single build, potentially changing bathes part way though.

Basically its another in the growing stack of version 2.0 ideas.

Mike

The thoughts and ideas expressed in this post do not reflect those of my employer and are intended only as communications between individuals. Any attempts at implement are at your own risk

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/12/2007 09:35PM by ohiomike.

Ohiomike,
I took a different meaning from his words...

AcidHell2,
you're forgetting that the base descends with the build anyway. Granted, as the base descends, it will displace mineral oil, but if the oil is forced to fill to a certain level, and no more or less, (overflow tube like in a toilet, float valve, and circulator pump in a secondary tank,) you could possibly do it.

I think it'd take a lot of calibration to get the fluid to exactly match the density of the plastic, however, and getting it off would be annoyingly messy.

Ever clean a gun of packing grease? Not fun.