Robotics : 22275


Robotics / 22275

Some brainstorming needed. —Steve Baker
I've been thinking about trying to build a '3D printer'. These things exist in a number of commercial products - but they cost an absolute fortune and I've been thinking about making one using Lego robotics components. The idea is to take a 3D CAD (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

	Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Mike Thorn
	(...) Wow, Steve, been a while since I've seen anything with your name on it! :) And if you're referring to yourself there in that last sentence, I think you can easily afford to call yourself something a lot better than an 'amateur.' ;) As for the (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

		Re: Some brainstorming needed. —MiB /Marcel I. Bos
		Marcel @ Sweden you need a glue pistol and so modified that the material it puts out can be turned of and on under extream heat. There is a coffie machine look alike that uses abs plastic.. At the moment i do not remember the machines name.. But its (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

			Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Steve Baker
			(...) I was just thinking of that exact thing! Maybe with a finer nozzle and some kind of control valve to shut it off, I could have it draw a 'raster scan' of parallel lines of glue just close enough to each other to form a solid sheet. It would (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

				Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Dan Novy
				(...) Or! How 'bout using hot glue as the rapid prototyping material!? Trace the outline while pushing out hot glue. That layer'd be cool by the time you had the next stick reloaded. Believe me, in special effects, I've used hot glue for a lot of (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

	Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Juergen Stuber
	Hi Steve, (...) how about building a robot that uses a pile of 1x1 plates as raw material? These are even easy to come by in the form of mosaics. Jürgen (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

		Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Steve Baker
		Juergen Stuber wrote: > lego-robotics@crynwr.com (Steve Baker) writes: > >>I've been thinking about trying to build a '3D printer'. > > how about building a robot that uses a pile of 1x1 plates as raw material? > These are even easy to come by in (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

			Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Kevin L. Clague
			(...) I've had a 3D graphing calculator on my mind for a long time. Another of my hobbies is 3D fractals. In the case of the 3D fractals I would make, there would be no overhangs. Imagine though that you did not restrict yourself to 1x1 plates. What (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

	RE: Some brainstorming needed. —Andy Gombos
	Sorry for the double copy Steve, I thought I sent this to the list. I don't have much input (except to say that number 2 is probably easiest - a few mW laser with some optics to focus the beam into a very small point would probably be enough to cut (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

	Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Steve Baker
	(...) You can email directly to: lego-robotics@crynwr.com (...) Yes - I had thought about something like that. I was thinking in terms of sheets of thin balsa wood - which could probably be cut with the kind of power I could get from a Lego motor. (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

		Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Mike Thorn
		(...) If you already have the Dremel, how about buying one of those pen-like extensions? (URL) lighter and smaller. Easier to access controls that way, too (plus the resolution can be adjusted by changing the size of the bit). ~Mike (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

		Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Dan Novy
		I've toyed with the idea myself and it's essentially a CNC plotter with a nozzle of some kind. I wanted to see if I could spray/deposit thin layers of sugar (or marzipan!) the build up custom 3D edible candy figures. I think it's the material you (...) (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

			RE: Some brainstorming needed. —Andy Gombos
			(...) To lessen the effect of the thickness of balsa, if you use a razor blade, make it be able to angle itself. \| - \| - \| turns into \| \ \| / \| Obviously this would only be where you wanted a smooth surface. (21 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

		Re: Some brainstorming needed. —SIVA Frédéric
		what about putting the demel tool at the end of a lego motor ? To cut thin Balsa, it should be strong enough. To assemble the layers, I would simply have two central axles on which all layers would be stacked. Those should of course be put at a (...) (21 years ago, 15-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

			Remove from maillist —Vadim Iosifovich Vaynerman
			please remove me from your mailing list. Thanks! (21 years ago, 15-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

		Re: Some brainstorming needed. —SIVA Frédéric
		what about putting the Dremel tool at the end of a lego motor ? To cut thin Balsa, it should be strong enough. If the Dremel power is necessary, then you can have it fixed upwards on a table, and have the lego plotter to move the Balsa plate onto (...) (21 years ago, 16-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)

	Re: Some brainstorming needed. —Pavel Kyn
	(...) The device you describe above is a 3D printer from Z-Corp. (URL) had the pleasure of using one, on loan from Z-Corp for a month. It is a wonderful prototyping device, although SLA (stereolithography) prototyping systems produce superior models (...) (21 years ago, 17-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)