Time to get back to it.

Well, I’ve allowed myself to be distracted the last few weeks but now it’s time to get back to it. Now I’m at the testing phase and my motivation has waned terribly. I guess I was not looking forward to repetitive tests to find the best powder/ink formulations. But, now it’s time to get off my lazy butt and, as the old Nike ad once said, “Just do it”. Anyway, in an effort to self-motivate I’ve been creating a CAD model for the first project to be printed. Now I just need to finish the testing so I can get to it.

When I mention this project to my friends, most are like “That sounds really cool, but what are you going to do with it?” The answer depends a lot on the properties of the “printed” plaster. The level of detail and the hardness of the “prints” will determine what I can (or can't) do with them. What I hope to be able to do is model on the computer then “print” parts which can be used as masters to make molds for urethane casting. Well, that’s the goal anyway. I’ll have to see what it can do and modify my expectation accordingly.

Here is a shot of the project I mentioned. It’s a tabletop holder for one of those LED tea lights. The top and bottom halves are separate. Total height is about 7 inches (18 cm). Each piece will be approximately 900 layers! I reeeeeally need to make sure the printer is working flawlessly before I attempt it.

For now, I’ll busy myself with some small geometric shapes as I test/tweak the equipment. Of course I’ll let you know how it goes.