DIY $1500 Metal Printer

Titanium wingspar 3D printed in one piece
The part, measuring 1.2m in length was produced in just 37 hours from digital model to a complete
3 dimensional part using a specific kind of 3D printing known as the Wire and Arc Additive Manufacture (WAAM) process.
[www.3ders.org]

The hobbyist could use aluminum MIG wire.

I bet you could bridge weld if you fed the wire (filament) with a stepper motor, and allowed the metal to cool.
Bridging in metal would allow for some unique 3 dimensional structures.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/29/2013 05:04AM by A2.

Cool video demo.

MX3D printing
Introducing large scale multi axis 3D printing in metal!
[www.youtube.com]

Large scale 'anti-gravity' 3D printer goes full metal
[www.3ders.org]

Tig welder with a wire feeder, mounted on a Delta 3d printer.



StrongPrint - The DIY Metal 3D Printer
Design & Built with the support of the Artilect Fablab in Toulouse France
[reprap.org]

[www.thingiverse.com]

Wire feed was one of the most difficult item to get right (and at the time being is not fully stabilized). What seems to work the best is to rapidly extrude & retract the metal wire to make sure it only melt where you want it to melt

Wire is 0.6mm steel. for MIG.

StrongPrint - Arc initiation Test
[www.youtube.com]

StrongPrint - 3 layers Test
[www.youtube.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/15/2014 10:22PM by A2.

Interested. The BOM lists a specific Tig torch connector. I assume that any Tig torch connector would work. Looking at the cheap chinese DC Tig/Plasma cutters. Also thinking about using an UDOO dual and RAMPS-FD or RADDS.

Yes you can use any type of Welding connector for the TIG, it is just that the 10/25 is the most common.

Concerning the RAMPS-FD one need to be carefull as welding generates a lot of electro-magnetic pollution. I will try it because more computational power is always good but being 3.3V I expect difficulties there. Looking at the alternatives it is limited as:
- UDOO is more a befed-up version of the Due & not a replacement of the printer electronics you may even be able to plug it on the Ramps-FD
- RADDS looks good, but it is all in German which I do not speak.

So I'm waiting for someone to produce the Ramps-FD V2 as there has been some serious improvments compared to the one currently produced by Geetech.

If you want to have a look of some people serious about weld based 3D Printing you can look at Sciaky

Thanks for your interest

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/07/2014 06:13PM by kolergy.

Quote
kolergy
So I'm waiting for someone to produce the Ramps-FD V2 as there has been some serious improvments compared to the one currently produced by Geetech.

Don't hold your breath. Bobc (brains behind RAMPS-FD) has left this forum, and in another forum advised everyone to buy RADDS over RAMPS-FD.....

Substrate Release Mechanisms for Gas Metal Arc Weld 3D Aluminum Metal Printing
To cite this article:
Haselhuhn Amberlee S., Gooding Eli J., Glover Alexandra G., Anzalone Gerald C., Wijnen Bas, Sanders Paul G., and Pearce Joshua M.. 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing. -Not available-, ahead of print. doi:10.1089/3dp.2014.0015.

Online Ahead of Print: November 12, 2014

[online.liebertpub.com]

Michigan Tech developed cheap and easy post-printing techniques for metal objects
However, coatings of aluminum oxide and boron nitride proved to result in quite brittle formations. These were applied to two types of substrates: one of 1100 aluminum and another of A36 low - carbon steel. 'It was determined that boron nitride - coated low - carbon steel provided the lowest adhesion strength. Printing aluminum on uncoated low - carbon steel also allowed easy removal of the aluminum part with the benefit of no additional coating steps or costs.'
[www.3ders.org]