Steps towards cost effective metal 3D printing in the home | Metal Matters
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- čas přidán 17. 11. 2020
- Preliminary testing of an i3 based 3D metal printing platform, printing 316 stainless steel.
This project aims to establish a cost effective opensource metal 3d printing platform. Subscribe for future developments & announcements.
Forum and CAD files to be released within the coming weeks. Total build cost estimated to be around $1500 USD.
Music: / hit-squad-killers - Věda a technologie
I guess the first results in plastic 3D printing looked similar. You are a pioneer, do not be discouraged.
The 3D printing community needs people like you, thank you. Subscribed.
Early DIY 3d printers used a hot glue gun, and a motor to shove glue sticks through it, so the layer height was measured in several millimeters and the prints were wobbly glue blobs creatures
@@phxf this is BS, this was only the first prototype thought up by stratasys founder.
I wouldn't exactly say a pioneer he's using true and tested methods just on a diy set up impressive but not pioneering.
I would think it would be easier to use the ceramic metallic filament method that requires baking after printing
@@dikay7658 it's totally different though, I'm going to be giving that a try in the next couple of weeks
I've worked with industrial metal 3d printing for the last 5 or so years, I was not extremely intimate with the machines, but know the process very well, and am fairly familiar with the metallurgy and other challenges. I'd be happy to give input, this is a super cool project.
Hello, I have started building metal 3d printer, but with usual, tig welding head, now want to move on to the laser. Just have been researching and was not able to find, some information, if you can share it here I would be glad. 1) how much power is enough from 500nm -1000 nm laser to be useful for metal 3d printing? 2) mostly what grain size is used in metal 3d printing? 3) do you pressurize environment with argon gas? thank you in advance
pre heat and keep your powder hot before the laser hits it will help here, hot air, old dvd infrared laser pass just before the main power laser passes etc whatever you like/have around...
hooking up a localised directional piezo speaker and sending a freq to be determined through it will also help break the liquid metal fluidic tension too
Yes, you’re on the right track, your build plate has to be extremely even all the way across. Our machines set a 50um layer and can’t have more than 40um deviation across the entire plate. Keep it going! Awesome work!
This is really great, but from someone who's worked with metal systems, a few things that might help. Firstly, you want to make sure you have a perfectly trammed surface i.e. within a few micron/thou. Layer unevenness causes uneven heat distribution balling spatter and warp. Also pre-sintering the powder before a coat helps mitigate warp and balling by "introducing" the particles so they are more likely to fuse properly. Lastly you want an inert atmosphere to reduce oxidation like with a weld. For cheap I would suggest using an oxygen concentrator in reverse. They're usually zoalite or similar that are a molecular sieve for nitrogen.
I was prototyping a metal 3D printer a long timer ago, when the 2W blue laser modules came out. We used 50 modules, glass fiber and a precision cut prismatic glass to beam them up, and photographic optics to focus. Expensive as hell 😊
However the number of modules has revealed to be useful to make the laser beam adjustable in power, and was a winning factor for ultra-miniatur mechanical objects, and its main scope: dental prothesis. All in all it was about 20k, but still 1/10 of a similar, industrial product.
fun fact: some metal powder is highly explosive
Titanium starts hiding
The soot is extremely flammable!
I think almost all of them are flammable as dust in the air. It’s a big problem in steel mills.
Almost anything in powder form is explosive even flour
Typically magnesium and zinc powders are volatile when exposed to UV light...
An argon gas enclosure might help with the splattering/oxidation.
@Maksim Korobkin I think a vacuum enclosure would be more practical anyway if the goal is home use, since it only consumes electricity. Adding argon as an extra consumable only complicates things for the user.
Gonna keep my eye on this channel! Good stuff. Dig the tunes.
You going for a revolution my friend.
Home brew sintering! Machines to build machines.. SkyNet coming soon! Keep up the good work!
I like where this is headed my friend.. keep up the good work..👍
Hey, thanks for a great video with great news. I love seeing someone bringing metal printing to the DIY'ers. In 5 years, this will be common thanks to people like you. All the best!
Thanks!
Hi, I check the spec of NUBM31 laser source. The wavelength is 455nm, not every metal absorb the wavelength. You can search google with keyword "metal absorption spectrum" for maximum laser-to-heat efficiency . Also, a second metal/ceramic powder which not absorb 455nm laser and not melting with first metal can mix into the metal powder as shrink reducer. You can also try control laser at pulse mode. Let heat generated by laser just enough to combine single metal particle to its neighbor without generate melting pool. This can also reduce the shrinkage of forming process, but most of the time require ultra short pulse laser. Hope these helps.
the main obstacle will be managing the huge shrink forces as the weld metal cools. If you welded before you would know how difficult that can be. That’s why the commercial slm printers use a very high heat print chamber (temps close to the melting temp of the powder). And annealing ovens post process to remove huge stresses within the part. This will be a very very difficult (impossible) project. Good luck!
Fantastic! I subbed to see the progress of this project.
Keep it up sir. You are forging the way for us lazy people to reap the rewards of your progress!
following. amazing work. looking forward to seeing how far you can go
So awesome. Subbed
Subbed in a heartbeat!
Not there yet, but getting there. Speed is not a problem, if you want to print in SS you’ll put up with that. Quality, looks good at the slowest speed.
5 more years and it'll be there. 10 more years and we'll have units that are the same as the laser cutters.
Take a moment to appreciate that you even have a laser cutter
@@ahronwayne8631 Don't have one. Wish I did.
Thank you for sharing
Super cool! Appreciate the effort. I work as an operator for EOS M280, it's about 3 years now. I am also planning on building one, low cost like yours. If u have any technical questions, I'm happy to help.
Awesome! If you could email me at the address listed on the "about" page that would be great.
If you screw down the substrate you can mitigate warping during the print. 10 mm/s looks the best but you're not getting much depth penetration. You need either a higher powered laser or put marker on the substrate to increase absorption, or use a different laser wavelength.
this channel goin places,subed
Saw your latest video like, 10 mins ago.. now im subbed and have seen them all! All four that is, really awesome work! Is that a window and a wall in the background? I'd be a bit concerned for a spark going astray, and i think you have way more to contribute than for any mishaps like that happening!
Very impressive! Where I work, we sometimes send work out for laser welding, and whichever process they use causes near zero deformation - It might be worth looking into that for ideas
Also, how coarse is your metal powder? If its a coarse grain, there will be larger cavities around the grains, so you'd get a lot of shrinkage when you shove those voids out of the way to fuse the grains together. The smaller the grain, the less shrinkage you'd have
Keep upgrading your getting there
I suspect balling is surface tension that's caused by temperature differences between internal and external regions of the glob.
Water has the same tendency to ball and spawl but also has surface tension that drives that behavior.
I believe that a thermal driven surface tension arises when the exterior begins to cool and crystallize relative to the interior.
How many watt YAG are you using?
Any gas?
This looks very cool.
I never thought of using a y axis for the powder in this manner.
Awesome work.
I could be wrong but I believe a heated gas filled chamber is standard on metal 3d printers.
it‘s also a must in any welding process
Interesting, I was checking other videos about metal powder in those big brands and you are trying to follow same process, maybe I should try too.
Keep good work and use PPE, take care of lungs and eyes.
I need one plz perfect!
@MichaelKingsfordGray ?
You get instant like for even trying
Have you tried adding a small bottle of argon or Co2 gas? CO2 or C25 gas. you can get it from Praxair or any welding or industrial supply. Get a regulator run a line and solenoid when the machine is welding the gas is on at very low pressure. This is my first time watching this video so I dont know what you tried in the past. But very cool!!! I dig it.
Thanks. There's actually a D size gas bottle out of shot, you can see clear plastic tubing feeding into the laser head however. That's a supply of Argon.
@@metalmatters How did that work out to didnt work out? Or the results you shown in the video are the results with gas on? Its a pretty cool thing that you are doing. Especially for the home hobbyists. Ill definitely keep following on the progress. Keep up the good work.
nice work keep up. i think a motion system like the ender 5 would be better. and it would be easier to integrate a simple gas chamber (as some have already written). i think you are laying the foundation for a new generation 3d printer, like josef prusa did back then. i hope it turns into such a success story
Cool music
I haven't read all the comments but have you tried thinner layers, like 30 microns or less? Another factor to high quality melting is avoiding the interaction between the laser and the fumes/soot. Like others may have said, the fumes are looking for oxygen. Under the right conditions it could ignite. Forge ahead (pun intended) but be safe.
Realy cool, keep up the hard work 🔥 my question is, is the laser expensiv?
Laser + Driver ~ 500USD
@@metalmatters Yes, but actually no
I don’t know if read your comments, I don’t anything about lasers or 3d printing but I’m just looking from the outside in , would 2 lasers or 20 lasers focused on one spot be better like on star wars the Death Star focusing muti lasers into one, maybe more than one laser at different angles with a certain powder thickness
Instant sub. Have you posted this on reddit yet? Looks amazing
Thanks! I did but it was very early on. Who knows, maybe it'll find its way there organically.
Could the beam be more focused?
Alternatively, have you tried several passes (with a cool down time in between)? I wonder if that would allow a better definition: less heat spread
This is something I am exploring at the moment. I will cover focusing it in my next upload. I think multiple passes would encourage heat spread. Most industrial machines use high speed scanning to prevent this.
@@metalmatters That's my point: I think using high speed (but several times because you don't have very high power) would limit heat spread
@@NicksStuff It's an idea, I will give it a try.. I have a feeling it will result in a much weaker part however
@@metalmatters Yep, I'm not making any promise 😅
Sintering with a fiber laser?
Fan of DM/AM and Gucci mane😂 SUBBED
What software you use to operate xyz axle and scraper on table?
Cura. I used my own script to modify the gcode as I needed to.
Warping could be preventing by printing on to a thin steel shim held down by 12 volt vacuum pump. You will have to remove the part from the steel shim after you are down however
The print must be bonded to a metal substrate so removal is a given. I think it might be easier to try out a thicker substrate to begin with.
@@metalmatters that is an interesting idea. Maybe you could bond it to an aluminum base. Muriatic acid, which you can buy at the hardware store, will readily dissolve away aluminum. That way you could dissolve away the aluminium base.
Steel will dissolve as well, much much more slowly. So you should be fine
@@3er24t4g1 You wouldn't even need to use HCl (orNa/KOH). You are only trying to achieve enough adhesion to stabilize the part during printing. Say you use SS316, as shown here. It will 'tack' to aluminum (experimenting with heat/travel/preheat of substrate, etc.) no problem. It will not be structural or permanent, because there isn't enough similarity in the metallurgy, but a few taps from a brass hammer should break it free after printing. If the temperature delta between when the initial tacking is done (say at 200C or so, using cheap fdm heating elements as a heat source in a thicker aluminum substrate) going from ~200C to ~25C will most likely cause the part to simply 'pop' off the substrate from nothing but difference in the coefficients of thermal expansion.
Very nice work , keep it up. I once toyed with this idea, but after getting the price of pro materials I decided against it. What is the cost of the powder you used?
About $25 USD per kg but it is potentially not suitable for high quality prints. I need to explore this further.
@@metalmatters Thanks! That is much more reasonable price compared to what I was able to quote years ago.
is these still available
I want to know the name of the components and the way of programing the machine to move
that's awesome dude. Is that laser custom built?
The laser module itself? No, they're used in projectors.
@Metal Matters
A) Kudos, subbed✔️, Well Done!
B) (Me:Enginerd/Product Eng)?,my questions would be around: oxidation control?, inert gases?,(flux±would require clean cycle?no/maybe/?), Active gas weld/melt ?
The real question is not just the first weld bead quality(yours looks good), it is the layer to layer strength especially in the Z(vertical) axis, say compared to a reliable, cheap FDM/FFF print.
You got me thinking/reading about MAG Welding(the A is active gas, like CO², hotter/different, my background is I(inert) gas welded parts).
I wonder if something so simple as taking a small chunk of dry ice(CO²) and letting the gas flow down your tube would improve the melt quality/pooling (plus CO² is safe/easy, and plants convert it back to O² oxygen, plus free beam cooling)🤔?
My 1st(flash) thought was N² nitrogen flow out of the waste side of a cheap medical oxygen concentrator would control oxidation maybe(nitrogen embrittlement questions, time to read some more).
This did get me thinking that the low cost, simple, gas semi-permiable membranes like Inogen type O² concentrators would be a easy way for you to build a chamber to keep the gases you want to stay inside, and the gases you need to filter or remove outside (I cannot immediately see a way around a sealed chamber design at this moment, if only for the powder toxicity issues). Time to read/better understand different types of gas semi-permeable membranes and metal particle size (no dust vs good melt/packing/small porosity).
PROTECT YOUR LUNGS metal dust & chromium and other weld waste gases. (CRH: safety is #1 priority)
Again great fabrication, kudos
Forgive me if anything came off negative, I never wish to be a downer during a concept brainstorming, I should finish your video 1st and check out your channel 1st, just flashed into input mode.
I suspect the prints will yield better strength than FDM processes given the nature of metal (melting vs fused layering) but a lot of that is dependent on the process itself and the type of metal used. I'm certain we will achieve better strength than any conventional FDM plastics though.
I'm not sure about using any cooled gases (I assume that is what the dry ice is for). Generally the weak point of the SLM process is the internal stresses created by the rapid heating and cooling of the metal. I would think cooled CO2 would only exacerbate the issue. At the moment I'm working on making the powder bed more modular so it can be placed within a controlled atmosphere to help avoid the effects of cold gas blowing over the weld.
Yes, wearing a respirator is a must!
no, build inside vacuum oven
www.ebay.com/itm/283827399228
95W Laser? Faserlaser or CO2?
AWESOME, take your like and subscribe you deserve it Thanks from Venezuela, whta kind of powder did you use, how many w is the laser and finally can I use powder coating??
Have you looked into if there are any patents preventing the sale of a printer like yours
I believe the patents expired in 2016. My intention is not to sell this printer however, but rather to build an opensource community around it.
@@metalmatters I plan on doing both.
Nice project. Unfortunately your design wastes your best asset which is the laser. If you over drive your laser but keep constant amperage by using chopping you'll get faster heating without damaging your laser. In addition, if you use servo actuated mirrors and lenses and you dispense with the gantry you can move your melt point quickly enough to prevent warping. Essentially, you'd be melting the entire layer in one quick go. Even heating means less warping. No idea for your initial layer problem though. I'd suggest trying a thin layer of heavily sand blasted aluminum. It'll grab mechanically, but break off later with minimal force.
love the song lmao
This methodology is still covered by patents right? Meaning we can't get small commercial products like a prusa or ender that does this?
I'm not 100% sure but suspect there might be.
3dprintingindustry.com/news/more-3d-printing-patents-are-expiring-soon-heres-a-roundup-96561/
Is it possible to weld 0.2mm copper to steel case of 2170 cell with this laser?
I honestly couldn't tell you. I imagine it could but I would be reluctant to try it..
have you considered a low melting point alloy like zinc-aluminium? that might help reduce power consumption while reducing splatter.
See what about availability? Is Zinc-Aluminium an alloy whose individual elements can be found, are relatively cheap and also cheaper to process? If yes, in relative terms to the industry, then you're right he should get it
It also has to be strong
@@ezramantini8078 zinc aluminium alloy is what cheap moped and lawn mower carburetors are Made of, si, yes it is relatively cheap, alloys have a melting zone instead of a point, which mean less power to work
@@Biomechanoid29ah I see. Then alloys would make a better option. Easier said then done.
@@ezramantini8078 that is the reason I asked, I know a bit on 3d printing but nowhere near the level needed to make a laser sintered melting machine.
How do you even get a laser that powerful, with that price without a massive tube?
Laser projectors are the driving force behind their development.
@@metalmatters Can you give us a hint on the exact type of the laser? What are the specs and price?
following, i'm curious about the laser too
Hi can you experiment on using metal treads/wires or similar instead of powder?
It's an idea, though I suspect would require some considerable reworking. I'll keep it in mind.
up till a little while ago you could buy a Metal powder box on Ebay
Is there any cheap chinese desktop 3d metal printers available yet? I can't find anything under 20k. It shouldn't be much more than a plastic printer in theory.. maybe $500 extra in build cost.
My only complaint is that the text pass by too quickly, thus forcing me to pause it many times..
Otherwise - great and interesting video!
Hi! What is the slicer that you use for this ? Thanks !
I was using Cura and a post processing script.
@@metalmatters is it possible to have this post processor please ? Cura support sls printing ?
Metal powder and high power laser at home without an enclosure. Yikes !
This setup is a bit similar to my dualbox setup. (czcams.com/video/uHVJd8TjtNA/video.html ) . Only mine works with inkjet and not with a laser. In the past i tried to make metal objects by mixing glue powder and metal powder. The droplets from the inkjet activate the glue powder. Later the glue powder is burned out in a kiln. You could do the same kind of thing by mixing in a low melting point plastic powder.
you have a clear hose going to the laser what is it for?
Argon
@@metalmatters I'm guessing it's blowing onto what is being printed
Yep. The powder is dense enough to tolerate it without being blown off the bed.
@@metalmatters discord.gg/zegZSQwd
you should join this discord server, its a bunch of guys trying to build sls machines
Already there, my name is Junkers. : )
I'mma just throw in this idea for evenly spreading the metal powder.
How about you vibrate the buildplate after manually evening it out? This should distribute it evenly.
👀👀👀😍😍
nice,dont burn the house down brah!
So, how can we help? What do you need?
Time..
I was wanting what if you just took a aluminum wire welder with gas and attached it to a filament printer. Aluminum cools rapidly and don't have slag. You could add a copper gard to the welding tip that touches the base plate to help make the weld smooth. Because the aluminum weld wouldn't stick to the copper. Just a 3d welding kit idea I've had for a few years but can't build do to lack of knowledge.
I think TIG welders are the go to standard for Aluminium. It's been done with MIG/steel but the results are not great in my opinion. I think the plasma arc is too erratic to produce consistent results.
@@metalmatters I have no idea. I do know that tig welding if my personal favorite. But it has so many rods. So I was thinking aluminum wire welder would work because it's already runs similar to a FDM printer. Of course you have to get the right starting speed, angle, and temp aswell as movement. But it's something I've been wanting to test out. I've not seen anything about home made metal 3d printing except this tbh. It's just it as a half baked idea for a while. I love the idea of combining metal work and 3d printing at home.
Can you share with me the design of this machine, and the address to buy metal powder as shown in the video at 00:40 minutes, thank you very much.
Hey KEAL. This design no longer exists as it wasn't up to the standard needed. You can watch some of my other videos for insights but at this point in time I don't have a _finished_ design to share.
@@metalmatters I hope you finish. I'd love to buy the finished design when you're done.
do you use gas?
Yes, argon was being flowed through the nozzle.
I got ripped a new ahole on a video of 3d printing car parts by laser by saying there's people in garages doing it 😂 and I just hope those people have seen this!
I'd be interested in one of these machines just so long as it doesn't play that music whilst producing a 3D model.
Well I was the 6666'th viewer, and I became the 666'th subscriber...scary lol.
Well done ! ( Weld done ? ^^ ( sorry for this poor joke from a non english native speaker)) But Safety first !!! Take care of you. Beware of those nasty metal powders, gases and laser light.
Very cool. Subbed! So a thought on shielding. It might work to do this with a fish tank that the build platform will fit in and filled with argon: czcams.com/video/A4hUNOpyeFY/video.html Might be able to add a float to the tank to see the level. It will add some challenge to avoid crashing the head into it, but it could help alot with shielding.
Yes, I've seen a fish tank used as a chamber elsewhere (I can't view that video due to it being blocked in my country). I have a couple ideas for the sake of creating an isolated inert atmosphere but want to rule out the basics before having to purge an enclosed chamber. There have been a few issues where the printing process has been interrupted and having to purge a chamber repeatedly would add to development costs.
@@metalmatters Oh. The video was actually a test floating things on sulfur hexafluoride in a fish tank. There should be many like it. In principal argon should behave the same way since it is "heavier than air". We used pressurized purge chambers to do some welding. I agree that that is a bit much in the early phases. It's why I thought of the fish tank. Just let the argon from shielding nozzle fill the tank up and have it sit in there with no purging. Maybe if you could float something on the argon you could see the level it was at. I don't know if that would work since argon is less dense than SF6. Seems like it could be a more affordable approach to an inert atmosphere. Or it could be a stupid idea that's more trouble than it's worth. hehe
I want
Who the heck downvoted this!
Stratasys maybe
While I appreciate the idea, metal printing at home is never going to be a common thing. The raw materials are expensive and hazardous. The high energy lasers a serious health & saftey issue, as are the fumes and dust. And just printing/fusing isnt enough, it also needs sintering, which requires a kiln. Yes you might reduce the cost for the equipment from tens of thousands to somewhere around $5k-$8k, the hundreds of dollars per kilo of metal powder notwithstanding, but you arent gonna get it sub $1k and never in any way, shape or form something you want to have in your home.
Thanks for your comment Florian. I agree with you in regard to the health and safety concerns. I think this probably deserves more emphasis for anyone wanting to try and replicate the process. As for the materials I'm using, costs are around $40 USD per kg. The process I'm aiming to achieve is SLM, not DMLS i.e. there is no post sintering stage. It may not develop the reach that FDM has due to the reasons you've stated but I suspect it will find favour in the realm of engineering once cost has been reined in. I think this technology has a lot to offer and has yet to reach its potential, hence the motivation of this channel.
@@metalmatters The reason I am saying that just printing isnt enough because of expectations. I think people understand that 3d printed structures are not going to be as robust as castings/forgings/milled parts. What I think they will have trouble with is thinking „metal“ and getting something that is is not much different than plastic sintered parts.
Pronounce GwInstek like you pronounce Guinevere
WTF kinda funky ass name is good will instek anyhow?
That music is too much! Too loud.
Nope. The future of 3D metal printing at home is in FDM printing with metal powder in a binder and then debinding and sintering just like in metal injection molding.
Shut up and take my money!!!
Wait Alex, not jet
Использовать водянку не варик
...when you wanna help develop the tech, but have no equipment, money, knowledge, or skills to contribute.
just stick a mig torch on a large 3d printer frame. problem solved. LOL
Nice try !
hahs your a stryder
could do without the music brah
The music is really annoying
I want your help in my project, I want to contact you and I want your help.