Originally posted by fierofetish: It has a scale included!! It is a xylophone!! ok ok ..soooorry... Nick
actually - that exactly what I was thinking - a music box - that belt driven thing running the hammer underneath. but, the bars look alum - not a good xylphone metal - and they are equal length - 1 one tone xylphone is pretty lame....
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10:40 AM
NEPTUNE Member
Posts: 10199 From: Ticlaw FL, and some other places. Registered: Aug 2001
I just saw Billy Bob out town just the other day with one.
Its one of those new dilithium chrystal BBQ grills. Yeah its got them thar chrystals on both sides of the grill and Billiy Bob told me all you got to do is just bring them thar suckers just a little out of fase and they'll heat up faster than a turpintined cat and hotter than a bon far in the middle of July!
Is it one of those 3D printers, that can essentially 'print' a 3D object, suitable for producing a mold from?
We have a winner!!!
It is the underside of the print head on an Objet 333 machine. The reason the pic looked so dirty is because it was taken off a mirror to see the underside. I had to send a pic to our service guy, it is having some issues with large parts.
Here is the machine
Here is the print head with the Z stage down and a mirror on the Z stage to take the pic I posted earlier.
Here is the machine with the lid up.
It takes cartdriges of photopolymer.
Photopolymer is a resin plastic that is in a liquid form but hardens when Ultra Violet light hits it. So the machine takes a 3D CAD file and slices it into 16 micron layers. Basically slices the 3D data into 2D slices. It then sends those slices to the print head that prints out a slice using the photopolymer instead of ink like your inkjet printer would. On each side of the print head is a UV lamp that hardens the photopolymer. Then the z stage drops 16 microns and it prints the next layer on top of the previous. Then since you are laying down 16 microns at a time you might have an overhang and that first layer put down will sag so it prints a Model polymer which is solid, and a Support polymer that is rubbery and breaks apart easliy. So that first layer on an overhang will have support material under it. Then when you pull the part off you have to clean off the support material.
So I'm the model maker here (Zebco, Rhino, Fin-Nor, Quantum, Van Staal fishing reels) I make prototypes and models of our products. So if we need a photo ready model of a new product for a photo shoot I would take parts from the machine that look like this
To This........
Of course with some machined metal parts, all metal parts on those models were machined on a lathe or CNCed by yours truely.
We also do actual working parts like gears and sliders.
So pat on the back for you.
Curly
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03:27 PM
blackrams Member
Posts: 33170 From: Covington, TN, USA Registered: Feb 2003
And it can all be yours for a cool $150,000. The new one that can blend soft material and hard material together to get diffrent durometers (squishiness) of materials or it could print out something like a toothbrush handle that has the hard plastic handle but all of the soft rubbery overmolds around it and in diffrent colors. That one runs around $250,000. So chump change. I wish I had one that was mine that I could run at home. You could make what ever plastic part you needed for your Fiero.
[This message has been edited by Curlrup (edited 03-06-2008).]
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03:38 PM
DanFiero Member
Posts: 2817 From: Cedar Rapids, Iowa Registered: Jul 2002
Then I was actually right first. It is a stereolithograph.
SLA technology, using a different method. Instead of using a tank of photopolymer, and exposing each layer, then lowering the item into the tank and doing the next layer, it uses cartridges that put the same photopolymer down, expose it, and then do the next layer by lowering the platform, layering the next layer on top of it and the "support" material around the object being made.
Two ways of doing it are a vat of polymer with a UV laser. Or a platform that it is printed on and exposed to UV Light.
Cool though.
[This message has been edited by Synthesis (edited 03-06-2008).]
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04:12 PM
Curlrup Member
Posts: 2590 From: Havre De Grace, MD Registered: Apr 2007
Then I was actually right first. It is a stereolithograph.
SLA technology, using a different method. Instead of using a tank of photopolymer, and exposing each layer, then lowering the item into the tank and doing the next layer, it uses cartridges that put the same photopolymer down, expose it, and then do the next layer by lowering the platform, layering the next layer on top of it and the "support" material around the object being made.
Two ways of doing it are a vat of polymer with a UV laser. Or a platform that it is printed on and exposed to UV Light.
Cool though.
OK two winners, yes it is a form of Stereolithography. I have actually run the SLA machine that uses a vat instead of the cartridges, and a UV Laser to scan each layer on the resin surface hardening it. Great machines, a little cheaper, but they are messy, since your part is submerged in resin when it is done you drip resin everywhere. Also the layer thickness is anywhere from .0025" (thousanths of an inch) to .006" (thousanths of an inch) depending on machine and setup. Which puts stair steps in your part on compaound curves and angled parts. Which makes for a lot of sanding it smooth before you paint it. Also teh supports are made of tiny structures that are built up each layer from the same material in the vat. When you pull the part you just break off the supports. Oh and material is expensive on an SLA I used to run an SLA 3500 it had a vat that was 15 inches by 15 inches by I think it was 21 inches deep. Thousands of dollars to fill that vat up before you could even use the machine for the first time. Plus every bit of resin you took out of the vat from parts you had to put back. The machine would only run on a full vat.
Here is a good link that shows the platform and the vat on a smaller machine the SLA 250. It also explains that method some more.
Actually, *I* was right first because the minute I saw the picture, I knew what it was.
I chose not to play, however, since Curly told me about playing with the machine when we were having a beer in Tulsa.
John Stricker
quote
Originally posted by Synthesis:
Then I was actually right first. It is a stereolithograph.
SLA technology, using a different method. Instead of using a tank of photopolymer, and exposing each layer, then lowering the item into the tank and doing the next layer, it uses cartridges that put the same photopolymer down, expose it, and then do the next layer by lowering the platform, layering the next layer on top of it and the "support" material around the object being made.
Two ways of doing it are a vat of polymer with a UV laser. Or a platform that it is printed on and exposed to UV Light.
Then I was actually right first. It is a stereolithograph.
SLA technology, using a different method. Instead of using a tank of photopolymer, and exposing each layer, then lowering the item into the tank and doing the next layer, it uses cartridges that put the same photopolymer down, expose it, and then do the next layer by lowering the platform, layering the next layer on top of it and the "support" material around the object being made.
Two ways of doing it are a vat of polymer with a UV laser. Or a platform that it is printed on and exposed to UV Light.
Cool though.
Sorry Chris. I have to dis-agree with you. This appears to be more like FDM (Fusion Disposition Modeling) as opposed to SLA. The plastic is being deposted in multiple layering stages where I understand SLA to be removing material to form your object. End result is the same but gets there in very different ways from my understanding.
Curlup. I have to ask how you are geting your metallic finishes that you have shown? We have a Stratasys 3D Dimensional printer that doesn't give us a smooth enough surface for electro-chrome plating prototypes in either bright (mirror) chrome or platinum finishes. All attempts to create a smoother surface; sanding, clear coating, body filler, etc. has not worked for us. Of coarse, the Dimensional printer only cost $30,000. Any advice?
It is a stereolithograph. 
