Oasis 3DP questions

Powder and inkjet printing
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FredWalter
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Joined: Wed Oct 24, 2018 3:50 pm

Oasis 3DP questions

Post by FredWalter »

It is cool that there is an open source binder jetting printer.

I have a few questions:
1) Has anyone printed using metal powder?
2) If no one has printed using metal powder, do we know if the binder being used will work with metal powder?
3) How fine does the powder need to be? The sandblasting industry is a source of inexpensive metal powders ($1-$10/lb metal sandblasting powders versus $100-$200/lb conventional mtal 3D printing powders), but the sandblasting metal powders aren't as fine.
4) How much binder fluid is required to make a 1 cm^3 cube? I'm trying to get an idea as to the cost of this approach. The ZD-16 binder is around $300/gallon plus around $50 shipping+handling plus taxes/brokerage/etc.

Has anyone else starting trying to make one of these? I took a brief look at the bill of materials, and a lot of what is required can be ordered from banggood.com. If anyone buys from them based on my recommendation, you should know that I have ordered a lot from them, and that there is something wrong with their orders around 5% of the time. They've always fixed the problem, but I needed to jump through their hoops (youtube video, photos of the product SKU (keep your packaging!), etc.etc.etc.)

Some of timing belts are closed loop. How hard will it be to change the design to use slightly larger closed loop timing belts, in case we cannot get the exact sizes mentioned in the bill of materials?

Approximately how much did it cost to make the Oasis 3DP?

Thanks,
Fred
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dragonator
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Re: Oasis 3DP questions

Post by dragonator »

Hello Fred and welcome,

1) Nope, I haven't. I know the basics of several ways that it can be done, but I have yet to try any of them myself, if I ever will.
2) I have not yet investigated it. It does probably require more than just some sugar in the metal powder, and then printing with water though. I did just hear of sodium silicate, but I have yet to look into that.
3) The gypsum I print with right now is a really fine powder (It can float in the air for a while). I do not know where the lower limits of the powder are. Is sandblasting powder something that can be processed into being normal metal again, or is it made of 'something'?
4) I have to keep that answer from you until I did some looking up. Now that I have a working 3DP printer again, I do hope I can finally experiment with powders and binders. The $300 is not because there is a lot of expensive stuff in it. It is because Zcorp could ask it for it. I know of people filling the tank of a Zcorp printer with rice wine and it kept printing decent parts (slightly worse parts, lots cheaper). Cheaper materials are possible.

The smallest belt is a bit of a requirement, though the design can be altered to handle different belts. The larger closed loop belt is adjusted on the aluminium slot, so it has quite a way to go. Just try to make belts longer, not shorter. I looked on Ebay, there they have all sizes I needed.

I have not made the grand total yet. Based on some high precision guesswork, I say between €1000 and €1500.

Yvo
3dprinter
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Joined: Fri Aug 24, 2018 12:25 pm

Re: Oasis 3DP questions

Post by 3dprinter »

Commercial metal binder systems from companies like ExOne usually need to be cured. Briefly during printing of each layer with a heat lamp and then later the whole powder bed in an oven at 200°C to strengthen the parts.

You would need to change the Oasis design a bit, at least when you goal is to mimik commercial metal binder jetting technologies.
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