MakerGear Forum

Has anyone successfully added a paste extruder to their M2? I would love to make some things in porcelain and/or precious metal clay.

Megan

i havent heard of anyone doing it but a few guys have printed molds for casting and are doing some cool stuff with that. you will get much better detail doing it that way since the paste extruders i have seen have very little detail to them at all.


there have been a few threads recently
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=141&hilit=plaster#p996
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=224

+1 for porcelain and metal clay. I'm aiming in that direction myself, but like jim commented, through printing the molds for the objects and then casting with different materials.

I'm just finishing up the mold for a cast right now. The saga is documented in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=295

I'll be casting in permastone tonight to make sure it works, and then trying ceramic next.

Do you have a kiln? I've been looking into getting one but can't make up my mind about them.

jimc wrote:i havent heard of anyone doing it but a few guys have printed molds for casting and are doing some cool stuff with that. you will get much better detail doing it that way since the paste extruders i have seen have very little detail to them at all.


there have been a few threads recently
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=141&hilit=plaster#p996
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=224

Thanks Jim! You have been like my guardian angel, unbeknownst to you. When you posted your tweaked .FFF ABS file a while back, it helped me back on the road to good prints.

megan

Toby wrote:+1 for porcelain and metal clay. I'm aiming in that direction myself, but like jim commented, through printing the molds for the objects and then casting with different materials.

I'm just finishing up the mold for a cast right now. The saga is documented in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=295

I'll be casting in permastone tonight to make sure it works, and then trying ceramic next.

Do you have a kiln? I've been looking into getting one but can't make up my mind about them.

Wow Toby, that looks amazing! Can't wait to see how that will turn out.

No, I don't have a kiln, but I do belong to a pottery studio where I can have things fired. Their only stipulation is that you use their clay. If you look on youtube at the videos of ppl using molds for clay, it looks like they allow only enough time for the clay to shrink and dry slightly and then they remove the mold. Then the item is left to air dry the rest of the way.

megan

boxermegan wrote: Wow Toby, that looks amazing! Can't wait to see how that will turn out.

Thanks, Megan. I'm looking forward to it myself! Hopefully I'll get it working soon for casting in plaster and then I'm really ready to start experimenting with ceramics.

Looking forward to hearing more about your projects. I've never tried metal clay but I would love to see what's possible with 3D modeling and printing as the design tool.

Structur3D Printing has launched their kickstarter campaign for the Discov3ry universal paste extruder:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/st ... th-your-3d

I was discouraged to see a large gap between the $50 or less "supporter" funding (you don't get a paste extruder) and the price point for actually getting a paste extruder ($250 or more). Seems a bit steep for what is basically just a pump. And, as pointed out on this thread, the published results are considerably less impressive than just using the printer to make a mold. Seems like a better thing to do would be to write a bit of software that will simplify the task of inverting a volume mesh and figuring out how to chop it into pieces convenient for a mold.

By the way, as I was looking through the firmware source for Marlin, I came across a number of lines of code written for the "BariCUDA paste extruder". This is apparently new enough to be in recent Marlin distributions, but not in the original M2 firmware source. But I couldn't find any reference to such a thing. Does anybody know what it is?

For anyone who has not seen it, the most recent issue of RepRap magazine (readable online) has a really well-done article on paste extruders and the various mechanisms that can be used to create them:

http://reprapmagazine.com/issues/3/index.html

-John

I am currently working on modding my M2 for paste extrusion. I was hoping to get to it over a year ago....... but life likes to happen at the most inconvenient of times But now, I am working on it again. I previously did a dual extrusion system, thermoplastic and paste extruder for my old MBI Cupcake that I had laying around while I was waiting for my M2. I will post here with updates as I finish the parts.