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BrundleFab is now printing its first calibration test on sugar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHy0NdR5VD0
I could not be more excited!
Once I get the sugar + binder + heat recipe down, it’ll be time to turn on the E and Z axes!
Looking great. Printing density at 2 sweeps seems to be just right. Also the lines seem very crisp. I am convinced that if you would have good test results on any printer, it would be this one. Can’t wait to see more.
The head was still too far from the sugar – got lots of ‘overspray’:
BrundleFab – print head calibration results
Next step is to apply the fuser pass – a halogen lamp assembly from a laser printer, which _should_ heat and fuse the darkened sugar.
HP ink simply colored the granulated sugar, as expected. Many additional material tests are needed to tune the granule size, additional binders needed, and fuser temperature and pass time.
The fuser system is working now – and no fires yet! But WOW do halogens get hot!
… but now I have piston troubles.
Varying humidity (humidity really puts the ‘multi-dimension’ in MDF!) and sugar migration into the piston seams has locked up my NEMA 17 based pistons.
I can disconnect the motor and move the pistons by hand, but this will not do for a real build.
I’m considering either going the NEMA 23 route (with bigger motors will also come bigger drivers, and more electronics rework), or trying some loose-fit seal ideas I have.
Any experience here with piston success/failure modes?
Piston problem solved, in the most trivial way – I shaved down the sides of my MDF piston heads by 1mm, then I use a piece of vinyl fabric glued on top as my powder seal.
Currently printing my first calibration object – I still have some sequencing issues, it seems – my fuser pass needs to occur before I lay down the next powder layer!
All in all, a good day!
I’ve moved my project page to http://reprap.org/wiki/BrundleFab on RepRap.org, as my personal site doesn’t have that much image storage space.
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