Subject:
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Re: Some brainstorming needed.
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Fri, 12 Mar 2004 17:03:59 GMT
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Original-From:
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Steve Baker <sjbaker1@airmail.!spamless!net>
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Viewed:
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897 times
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SIVA Frédéric wrote:
> Don't know how to post on lugnet, so here is a bare mail ...
You can email directly to: lego-robotics@crynwr.com
> Why not having a pile of 1mm plastic sheets, and a kind of 2D plotter that
> would have a dremmel at the end i.o. a pencil.
> This plotter would take one layer, and cut out what's required, then place it
> on top of the previous.
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. Building
a machine to move something as
heavy as a Dremmel (accurately!) seems like a hard problem for a Lego solution.
Also, I was remembering the machine that uses layers of paper - cutting it with
a laser. It seems like I could
perhaps do that using a sharp scalpel blade in a swivel mount. There are
machines that cut vinyl sheets that
way to make lettering for vehicle and store signs. Many print shops have them.
> To start with, you could even manuall feed the plastic sheets in the plotter,
> and take them away when finished. Ultimately, you can
> build a lego feeder.
The problem I have is how those layers get stuck together. The machine that uses paper layers had a roll
of self-adhesive paper with a backing sheet. As it unrolled the paper, it
peeled off the backing sheet
leaving a sticky underside that it rolled onto the stack of sheets that it had
already cut.
One problem is that to build up an object of reasonable size (say 6 inches on a
side?), you need hundreds
of layers - and that sticky-backed paper is EXPENSIVE! I thought about using layers of scotch tape - or
maybe duct-tape.
> I think even I could do that (one of my first creation was a scanner/plotter,
> which is not that far
> from what I suggest here ...)
Right - I've seen several plotters made using Lego - and that's what gives me
hope that I could at least
draw the design on each layer with reasonable precision.
The hard part is figuring out what kind of material to make the layers out of,
how to stick them together and
how to cut them.
Another thought I had this morning was to use a hot glue gun with a finer nozzle
to deposit little blobs
of plastic and build up the object one tiny blob at a time that way.
---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
HomeEmail: <sjbaker1@airmail.net> WorkEmail: <sjbaker@link.com>
HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
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Message has 4 Replies:
 | | Re: Some brainstorming needed.
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| (...) 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 (20 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Some brainstorming needed.
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| 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 (...) (20 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Some brainstorming needed.
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| 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 (...) (20 years ago, 15-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)
| | | Re: Some brainstorming needed.
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| 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 (...) (20 years ago, 16-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)
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Message is in Reply To:
| | Some brainstorming needed.
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| 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 (...) (20 years ago, 12-Mar-04, to lugnet.robotics)
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