3 ms·

"For things that are 100% plastic, ie. basically the only type of thing a 3d printer can reliably produce" This is nowhere remotely near true. I've been testin

"For things that are 100% plastic, ie. basically the only type of thing a 3d printer can reliably produce" This is nowhere remotely near true. I've been testing SLS-printed diamond blades and coring bits for two years, now. They work just fine, and last longer than their stamped/brazed equivalents.

WaitWaitWha 4y ago
> diamond blades and coring bits Can you point me a direction where I can learn more about this?
- lightedman 4y ago
  What sort of information are you looking for? My use case for these is lapidary work.
  - WaitWaitWha 4y ago
    I would like to learn more about SLS where you are using hard stones (?) as blades and such. I have a thing that I want to make and this might be a potential path.
    - lightedman 4y ago
      I apologize for what I see as some confusion caused in my wording - diamond itself isn't the blade. It's the abrasive sintered-in with a powdered metal. You basically mix the two together and hit it with a laser to fuse it all together.
huiiuiujiojio 4y ago
I may be living in the past in this aspect. I admit my statement earlier that only plastic being printed reasonably may be wrong. I don't know what SLS is, but I briefly looked it up and it looks like the cheapest ones are more than $5,000, with the larger ones being hundreds of thousands. There may be cheaper options that I didn't see. in any event that may not be an issue if only specialized people use them, and others can buy parts from them locally or online. Would you mind sharing more about what SLS printing is and what it can do? Can I print real appliances with it such as a microwave or blender? Do you see the cost as being reasonable or would it simply be paying more for guaranteed quality? For context I tried searching for what SLS is made of but it seems like it a process and not a material. Can this process be used for metal? If it can only print diamond than I don't think it could be used for appliances. I also found this result which just lead me to more confusion: >The two most common powder bed fusion 3D printing systems today are plastic-based, commonly referred to as SLS, and metal-based, known as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) or selective laser melting (SLM).
- lightedman 4y ago
  Sorry for a long delay in reply. Selective LASER Sintering/melting is a form of powder bed deposition printing. You get materials in a powder form (usually thermoplastics, but there are metal versions used in heavy industry) and hit them with a LASER to fuse them together. It is an additive form of fabrication. You can print most of the parts you'd need for something like a blender or microwave, structurally-speaking. You'd not be printing the actual hardware components like the magnets for a motor, nor would you be printing diamond, as you need way more than a LASER to make that happen. You could print the regular non-PCB wiring with powdered copper filler. The cost is not quite reasonable for wanting to work with metal those machines get pricey due to the extremely high-powered LASERs required. I just buy SLS-printed diamond-embedded lapidary blades and use them. They're metal, with 10mm segments of diamond-embedded metal at the rims.

WaitWaitWha 4y ago

> diamond blades and coring bits Can you point me a direction where I can learn more about this?

lightedman 4y ago
What sort of information are you looking for? My use case for these is lapidary work.
- WaitWaitWha 4y ago
  I would like to learn more about SLS where you are using hard stones (?) as blades and such. I have a thing that I want to make and this might be a potential path.
  - lightedman 4y ago
    I apologize for what I see as some confusion caused in my wording - diamond itself isn't the blade. It's the abrasive sintered-in with a powdered metal. You basically mix the two together and hit it with a laser to fuse it all together.

huiiuiujiojio 4y ago

I may be living in the past in this aspect. I admit my statement earlier that only plastic being printed reasonably may be wrong. I don't know what SLS is, but I briefly looked it up and it looks like the cheapest ones are more than $5,000, with the larger ones being hundreds of thousands. There may be cheaper options that I didn't see. in any event that may not be an issue if only specialized people use them, and others can buy parts from them locally or online. Would you mind sharing more about what SLS printing is and what it can do? Can I print real appliances with it such as a microwave or blender? Do you see the cost as being reasonable or would it simply be paying more for guaranteed quality? For context I tried searching for what SLS is made of but it seems like it a process and not a material. Can this process be used for metal? If it can only print diamond than I don't think it could be used for appliances. I also found this result which just lead me to more confusion: >The two most common powder bed fusion 3D printing systems today are plastic-based, commonly referred to as SLS, and metal-based, known as direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) or selective laser melting (SLM).

lightedman 4y ago
Sorry for a long delay in reply. Selective LASER Sintering/melting is a form of powder bed deposition printing. You get materials in a powder form (usually thermoplastics, but there are metal versions used in heavy industry) and hit them with a LASER to fuse them together. It is an additive form of fabrication. You can print most of the parts you'd need for something like a blender or microwave, structurally-speaking. You'd not be printing the actual hardware components like the magnets for a motor, nor would you be printing diamond, as you need way more than a LASER to make that happen. You could print the regular non-PCB wiring with powdered copper filler. The cost is not quite reasonable for wanting to work with metal those machines get pricey due to the extremely high-powered LASERs required. I just buy SLS-printed diamond-embedded lapidary blades and use them. They're metal, with 10mm segments of diamond-embedded metal at the rims.