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3-D Printing with Molten Steel (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the let's-get-together-this-weekend-and-melt-some-steel dept.

Steve Delaire is making a 3-D printer that uses steel instead of plastic. Specifically, he's using TIG welding to build up layers of steel, just as most 3-D printers build up layers of plastic. He says he's "still working it out," but eventually hopes to use 3-D welding to make larger than life art pieces that are strong enough to be placed safely in public areas such as parks, where children are likely to climb on them. Steve's blog is called Molten3D, and it's a diary of his work, including the problems he encounters and how he overcomes them. He's not the only one doing metal 3-D printing; a Texas company has even made a printed metal gun. So there's plenty of people working in the field of what we really should call "additive manufacturing" instead of "3-D printing." But whatever you call it, every year we see this kind of process being used to make stronger and more complicated shapes, using an ever-increased variety of materials in ways that have been developed since this seminal paper, Liquid Metal Jetting for Printing Metal Parts, was written in 1997. (Alternate Video Link)

4 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Some meta by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Some Meta

    The good:
    This isn't some naval gazing blog post by someone whos opinion we don't care about babbling about how 3D printing will change everything. In fact, I didn't see anything about future implications of this technology. This is just a blog by a guy building something really cool in his garage, and I like this.

    Maybe it won't pan out. Maybe it will be impractical. Maybe he'll hit some insurmountable wall. It doesn't matter, he's actually doing something! He has actually got a physical thing in his garage that he's tinkering with, and that's cool in my books.

    The bad:
    Bold comic-sans esq font. I'm not usually a font snob, but this is really hard to read. I actually copy+pasted the contents into a text editor to read it.

  2. Good luck by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Good luck.

    I was a welder for quite a while. Molten steel behaves more like water than plastic. Steel "beads up" as you heat it. Being precise with welding is very hard. Plastic behaves more like frosting when molten so it's easier to use in a printer scenario.

    I think his big mistake is taking the ID of 3D printing and applying it to a martial for which it wasn't intended. I'd think he'd have better luck if he instead looked at Powdered metals: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

    In industry, they design a part, make a mold for it, press a mixture of powdered metals into the mold and then sinter it (basically the same as firing ceramics)

    ooo... hey look, I tried looking it up and that's exactly how they 3D print metal:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

    anyways, yea, that's the direction he should go. I'd use electro static charge to hold the shape and then use something like an Xray laser to melt/fuse/sinter it.

    1. Re:Good luck by CaptainLard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think his big mistake is taking the ID of 3D printing and applying it to a martial for which it wasn't intended

      Maybe he just wasn't aware "they" have already chosen all of the materials which are allowed to be used in 3D printing and that no further attempts at innovation are necessary. He probably doesn't even know that no useful knowledge ever comes out of an experiment that fails at it's original intent.

      Or maybe the opposite of all that....

  3. Re:Lower costs of production by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yes, there are people who really believe we're at the dawn of Star Trek because a hot glue gun on a stepper motor made a Yoda coffee cup.