This is a super important project. If you need or want help on manufacturing the metal parts, I am a hobby machinist in spare time and could try and help mill or turn some small parts. You are doing something here that many have not even tried to do, and are closer than many other attempts I have seen. Keep your spirits up, and look to the community as well for help when you can. There are reasons that this technology has not yet made it to the desktop, and many of those are commercially driven ones. The FDM and SLA printers went through a similar evolution once their patents expired and such; keep staying the course, methodically and safely of course; you are boldly going where few have gone ahead of you.
Thanks for your offer of help. The parts are quite difficult to manufacture due to narrow wall thicknesses and the need for galleries within the build piston so I think the plan is to redesign things to make them more approachable. I originally looked at getting some parts CNC'd but the prices are pretty astronomical, betting on the fact it'll take more than one attempt to get things right I think it's probably better to redesign them at this stage. I'll be putting together a CNC plasma cutter so hopefully that plus some welding will take care of things.
Interesting stuff! Please keep going, it's an ambitious project, so you will have to struggle a bit to reach your pioneering goals. Good luck and clear optics! :-)
Don't lose hope man. You're making really good progress. I know of at least 2 people right now who are sitting on full-color CMYKW filament printers, and they've been developing them for at least a decade now. Your struggles are worth documenting. Failures are just figuring out which branch of this tree is the right one.
This is amazing. I have watched this project grow for months and even though it may not seem like much has been gained over the past few months, you're getting really close to getting this working. Good luck with the rest of this. Can't wait to see it working.
Sorry for your setbacks. Thank-you for sharing them, as many people would not. You have undertaken a very ambitious project, as you well know. Despite the lack of vigorous success, I listened with rapt attention. As is so often the case, one's failures can be ten times more informative and useful than one's successes. Again, good on you for making this effort! Speaking for all, we hope another excellent update comes soon. Keep your chin up!
Thanks for your efforts mate. Large companies with massive investment backing and huge development teams have spent millions of dollars to make it to the point you have. Be proud of what you have done. Do you have a patreon?(I just noticed the Buy Me A Coffee link above, so I'm going there right after I post this comment). A lot of us would be willing to help you out in order to mitigate some of the cost of damaged parts. And please don't feel obliged to put out content in a certain time frame just to keep people watching happy, your content already does that anyway. Cheers again for what you are doing.
On a somewhat related note. A few nichia diode array packages in green 525 nm started popping up on eBay. I’m gonna order one in the next few weeks because I need a few diodes from that specific guy on eBay who sells all of those nichia arrays. And instead of taking a refund on a module I got last month I’m just going to put it towards one of those green arrays from the same guy. I know it probably wouldn’t be of much interest to you but I thought it was neat because I hadn’t seen the single lens arrays in green until a few months ago
incredibly interesting working with these different lasers it is pioneering work especially for DIY metal 3-D printing. Please keep up the great work can't wait for the next video
one of the main guys that's known for the speed 3D-Benchy printing also had that problem with cheap ball screws and he solved it very cost effectively with a couple of magnets and metal balls, its pretty amazing, not sure if that works for your usecase but it probably would
I really admire your work and hope you will keep going. I see this as a really important project that could be the catalyst for a big change in what low (ish) budget hobby creators are able to achieve. If you need help with the mechanical design part of the project, you’re welcome to reach out! I am a toolmaker by trade, and now a CNC milling machine designer, and would love to help with this project because I believe in your skills and vision.
do you think it's possible to cut each layer of the print with a laser out of a thin metal disk and then bake those individual slices together? the idea is that if you use sheet metal slices as a base, you'd not have to worry about uniformity of powder thickness or wire deposition, less warping problems, etc. it's also possible to test this approach on plastics first.
I've wondered about this too. I don't think one of these lasers would be a good candidate as their divergence is too high. i.e. you'll only be able to cut thin steel which will likely warp when heated. I think a plasma cutter might better serve the purpose.
@@metalmatters maybe even etching it chemically. sort of how photolithography works. the thing that i'm concerned the most is that you might be looking for a reasonable solution to a problem that might have no reasonable solution.
I'm curious why you chose to deposit the powder directly onto the bed. I'm comparing what little I know from laser welding systems and how they sometimes deposit the powder directly through a powder nozzle. I guess this would make it more of an FDM type printer and could reduce the resolution of the print. I TIG weld stainless at work and what I can say is that the filler rod tends to ball up and run from the heat when it sits in the heat for too long, unless it's on the work piece surface. I wonder if the powder surrounding the area where the laser is pointed is drawing into the heat at different rates during the print. I'm not sure the particle size or how consistent that is, but I wonder if this could be why you're seeing inconsistencies. I guess dialing in the "heat/travel speed" of the system could render what I'm saying useless because I've welded some things where I get the heat/travel speed just right and I can just hold the filler rod in the gap and just move the torch. The science of lasers is beyond me, but this is really cool. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
I chose powder bed fusion as it is the de facto standard and there is a wealth of information available on it. I have thought about a pressurized powder system also but think it's just too dangerous for hobbyists/amateurs. This was probably the lowest power run I've done as the collimation lens didn't expand the beam as much as it needed to and the input power was limited to around 100W, approximately 80W by the time you account for losses. The particle size is 15 - 45 um with a mean of 29um. As you suggest, I think it's akin to welding with too lower current/slower speed and there is a lot of excess heat as a result creating inconsistencies/balling. There are some other things going on with the powder here too but I will dig into that in the next video.
Yet another great video. I keep worrying about the high power densities and users that don’t understand clean. Have you considered “stitch” or “chequerboard” welding to get a more even line? I keep thinking of more user friendly systems. Have you considered wire fed sputtering with magnetic focussing inside a vacuum? Less consumables. Or magnetic launching of molten balls from a wire? Magnetic boosted mig.
Haven't considered those, thanks. I have read about sputtering based metal 3D printing. I think sputtering systems rely on a level of vacuum that is well beyond your usual roughing pump. i.e. $$$
@@metalmatters Thanks, I’m glad you have read up on it. The levels of vacuum are quite severe, but laser densities of kw/mm^2 are in my opinion harder to control if not achieve.
@@metalmatters Just out of curiosity. There is a formula approximating the output characteristics of multimode fibers when you assume the power is well distributed over all modes. M^2 would come out to around 60 in your case. It would be interesting if this model holds true. But high power measurements are always quite hard to do. Using a slit beam profiler would be nice in this case but with M^2 being close to 60 these things sadly give no trustworthy results.
I wouldn't mess with it unless you have a cat D fire extinguisher. It's less stable, absorbs far less light, and the dust is worse for your health if you get exposed to it. Higher thermal conductance also means a lot of energy is lost to heating the work piece rather than fusing/melting metal.
@@metalmatters Imagine 3d printing superconductor ceramic in the same metal print. I would like to ink jet superconductor ceramic melting point at 900C in the same metal print. Over sinter if needed for the metal of choice and place the ceramic in the gap, create a complex superconductor magnet. With a little Helium three you have a safe, portable, compact fusion reactor. That only produces protons.
Keep up the good work. Maybe start a patreon page so we can donate to help support your important work. I always look forward to seeing your progress. Again keep up the good work.
The nozzles for plasma cutters are around 0.8mm - 1.1mm on average. At pressures high enough to sustain a plasma arc, I think this will blow powder off the bed. Maybe not SLM, perhaps another process..
these videos leave me so sad.. there's so much effort, knowledge and money put into these and in the absolute best case scenario you're hoping to achieve some extremely basic low quality (compared to fdm) prints. i wish there was an easier way to achieve metal 3d printing, but maybe there just isn't.
so... your using an 'either/or' workflow ! why not an '&' flow, as in heat the localised metal (to a very high mailable temp) with another heat source (very hot diy electrolysis on demand bubbled h2 shielding gas?) while adding heated lasered/friction -weld- fluidic metal at a given location p.s encode your audio at a better bit rate as its degraded by yt upload i assume (many vids recently seem to have this same sound degradation) the old oxidised copper powder.. no need to make everything you do complicated & expensive & reliant on 3rd party sellers, -remember/learn the fundamental's- just flash sinter it in a diy ball mill with a camera flash -or figure out the light frequency range it reverts back to pure metal from it's old oxidised state & tell rob/every diy'er- see Robert Murray smith channel
Go back to the basic physics. Identify the minimal requirements and parts you need and delete parts you don’t need. Maybe doing things from the beginning will help 😄
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This is a super important project. If you need or want help on manufacturing the metal parts, I am a hobby machinist in spare time and could try and help mill or turn some small parts.
You are doing something here that many have not even tried to do, and are closer than many other attempts I have seen. Keep your spirits up, and look to the community as well for help when you can.
There are reasons that this technology has not yet made it to the desktop, and many of those are commercially driven ones. The FDM and SLA printers went through a similar evolution once their patents expired and such; keep staying the course, methodically and safely of course; you are boldly going where few have gone ahead of you.
Thanks for your offer of help. The parts are quite difficult to manufacture due to narrow wall thicknesses and the need for galleries within the build piston so I think the plan is to redesign things to make them more approachable. I originally looked at getting some parts CNC'd but the prices are pretty astronomical, betting on the fact it'll take more than one attempt to get things right I think it's probably better to redesign them at this stage. I'll be putting together a CNC plasma cutter so hopefully that plus some welding will take care of things.
@@metalmatters let me know as you go along if there’s anything I can help with on the metal front or even DFM feedback.
@@michaellowry1888 That's awesome :-)
Interesting stuff! Please keep going, it's an ambitious project, so you will have to struggle a bit to reach your pioneering goals. Good luck and clear optics! :-)
Your channel is so underrated man 🤯
Don't lose hope man. You're making really good progress. I know of at least 2 people right now who are sitting on full-color CMYKW filament printers, and they've been developing them for at least a decade now. Your struggles are worth documenting. Failures are just figuring out which branch of this tree is the right one.
BRO THATS AMAZING!!!
This is amazing. I have watched this project grow for months and even though it may not seem like much has been gained over the past few months, you're getting really close to getting this working. Good luck with the rest of this. Can't wait to see it working.
Best channel on TH-cam
Sorry for your setbacks. Thank-you for sharing them, as many people would not. You have undertaken a very ambitious project, as you well know. Despite the lack of vigorous success, I listened with rapt attention. As is so often the case, one's failures can be ten times more informative and useful than one's successes. Again, good on you for making this effort! Speaking for all, we hope another excellent update comes soon. Keep your chin up!
As being a Fibre Optic networker, yip, dust and scratches are a real bitch. Very interesting project!
Hell yeah, love this stuff. Give us more! Very interesting seeing progress no matter how great or small
Thanks for your efforts mate. Large companies with massive investment backing and huge development teams have spent millions of dollars to make it to the point you have. Be proud of what you have done. Do you have a patreon?(I just noticed the Buy Me A Coffee link above, so I'm going there right after I post this comment). A lot of us would be willing to help you out in order to mitigate some of the cost of damaged parts. And please don't feel obliged to put out content in a certain time frame just to keep people watching happy, your content already does that anyway. Cheers again for what you are doing.
Appreciate that Dan. Cheers!
On a somewhat related note. A few nichia diode array packages in green 525 nm started popping up on eBay.
I’m gonna order one in the next few weeks because I need a few diodes from that specific guy on eBay who sells all of those nichia arrays. And instead of taking a refund on a module I got last month I’m just going to put it towards one of those green arrays from the same guy.
I know it probably wouldn’t be of much interest to you but I thought it was neat because I hadn’t seen the single lens arrays in green until a few months ago
Do not give up please! You are doing great! You will succeed!
incredibly interesting working with these different lasers it is pioneering work especially for DIY metal 3-D printing. Please keep up the great work can't wait for the next video
Another fascinating video, the amount of effort you're putting into this project is inspiring.
Keep it up my dude, this is incredibly important work and I'm absolutely sure you'll crack this!
one of the main guys that's known for the speed 3D-Benchy printing also had that problem with cheap ball screws and he solved it very cost effectively with a couple of magnets and metal balls, its pretty amazing, not sure if that works for your usecase but it probably would
Do you have a link to this?
Use a hulf of engine block if you need two cilinders, perfect geometry with genuine pistons
Damn those little laser units are tidy.
I really admire your work and hope you will keep going. I see this as a really important project that could be the catalyst for a big change in what low (ish) budget hobby creators are able to achieve. If you need help with the mechanical design part of the project, you’re welcome to reach out! I am a toolmaker by trade, and now a CNC milling machine designer, and would love to help with this project because I believe in your skills and vision.
That was really interesting. Keep going.
Great to see your progress. Happy New Year.
do you think it's possible to cut each layer of the print with a laser out of a thin metal disk and then bake those individual slices together?
the idea is that if you use sheet metal slices as a base, you'd not have to worry about uniformity of powder thickness or wire deposition, less warping problems, etc.
it's also possible to test this approach on plastics first.
I've wondered about this too. I don't think one of these lasers would be a good candidate as their divergence is too high. i.e. you'll only be able to cut thin steel which will likely warp when heated. I think a plasma cutter might better serve the purpose.
@@metalmatters maybe even etching it chemically. sort of how photolithography works.
the thing that i'm concerned the most is that you might be looking for a reasonable solution to a problem that might have no reasonable solution.
Great video, keep up the grind!
Progress is sometimes out of your control. Letting us witness the process is awesome enough! :)
I'm curious why you chose to deposit the powder directly onto the bed. I'm comparing what little I know from laser welding systems and how they sometimes deposit the powder directly through a powder nozzle. I guess this would make it more of an FDM type printer and could reduce the resolution of the print. I TIG weld stainless at work and what I can say is that the filler rod tends to ball up and run from the heat when it sits in the heat for too long, unless it's on the work piece surface. I wonder if the powder surrounding the area where the laser is pointed is drawing into the heat at different rates during the print. I'm not sure the particle size or how consistent that is, but I wonder if this could be why you're seeing inconsistencies. I guess dialing in the "heat/travel speed" of the system could render what I'm saying useless because I've welded some things where I get the heat/travel speed just right and I can just hold the filler rod in the gap and just move the torch. The science of lasers is beyond me, but this is really cool. I've been thinking about this a lot lately.
I chose powder bed fusion as it is the de facto standard and there is a wealth of information available on it. I have thought about a pressurized powder system also but think it's just too dangerous for hobbyists/amateurs. This was probably the lowest power run I've done as the collimation lens didn't expand the beam as much as it needed to and the input power was limited to around 100W, approximately 80W by the time you account for losses. The particle size is 15 - 45 um with a mean of 29um. As you suggest, I think it's akin to welding with too lower current/slower speed and there is a lot of excess heat as a result creating inconsistencies/balling. There are some other things going on with the powder here too but I will dig into that in the next video.
Yet another great video.
I keep worrying about the high power densities and users that don’t understand clean.
Have you considered “stitch” or “chequerboard” welding to get a more even line?
I keep thinking of more user friendly systems.
Have you considered wire fed sputtering with magnetic focussing inside a vacuum? Less consumables.
Or magnetic launching of molten balls from a wire? Magnetic boosted mig.
Haven't considered those, thanks. I have read about sputtering based metal 3D printing. I think sputtering systems rely on a level of vacuum that is well beyond your usual roughing pump. i.e. $$$
@@metalmatters
Thanks, I’m glad you have read up on it.
The levels of vacuum are quite severe, but laser densities of kw/mm^2 are in my opinion harder to control if not achieve.
Great project! Do you have a rough estimate of the M^2 value of the fiber coupled laser at the output of the fiber?
No sorry. Even the manufacturer didn't have an answer for me when I asked. What are you trying to calculate?
@@metalmatters Just out of curiosity. There is a formula approximating the output characteristics of multimode fibers when you assume the power is well distributed over all modes. M^2 would come out to around 60 in your case. It would be interesting if this model holds true. But high power measurements are always quite hard to do. Using a slit beam profiler would be nice in this case but with M^2 being close to 60 these things sadly give no trustworthy results.
Very impressive
Isn’t aluminum a better choice to start with lower temperature laser and cooling constraints to deal with?
I wouldn't mess with it unless you have a cat D fire extinguisher. It's less stable, absorbs far less light, and the dust is worse for your health if you get exposed to it. Higher thermal conductance also means a lot of energy is lost to heating the work piece rather than fusing/melting metal.
@@metalmatters Imagine 3d printing superconductor ceramic in the same metal print. I would like to ink jet superconductor ceramic melting point at 900C in the same metal print. Over sinter if needed for the metal of choice and place the ceramic in the gap, create a complex superconductor magnet. With a little Helium three you have a safe, portable, compact fusion reactor. That only produces protons.
You should make a video asking who wants to buy parts direct from china in bulk with you. It splits the cost of transportation between all of you.
Keep up the good work.
Maybe start a patreon page so we can donate to help support your important work. I always look forward to seeing your progress. Again keep up the good work.
Could you make a slm with a plasma cutter at a low psi?
The nozzles for plasma cutters are around 0.8mm - 1.1mm on average. At pressures high enough to sustain a plasma arc, I think this will blow powder off the bed. Maybe not SLM, perhaps another process..
i love your machine so muchhhh , i want buy this machine !!! !♥♥♥♥♥
Hi KEAL. I most likely won't be pursuing LPBF any further. See here: metalmatters.co/showthread.php?tid=9&page=4
Will these printers be for sale because I don't know how to make them
It'll be an open source design with the potential for a kitset. It's a little too early to say at the moment.
these videos leave me so sad.. there's so much effort, knowledge and money put into these and in the absolute best case scenario you're hoping to achieve some extremely basic low quality (compared to fdm) prints.
i wish there was an easier way to achieve metal 3d printing, but maybe there just isn't.
I'm a little more optimistic ; )
Why is there light coming out of the side of the laser? Or is that just a camera lens internal reflection?
It's actually lens flare from a TIG torch.
@@metalmatters I'm talking about the one at 2:55
@@VEC7ORlt It's a window, a status indicator I would assume.
So it doesn't work then?
That’s okay, all research is slow learning curve
Maybe u could colab w styropyro too 😂
comment for algorithm
Response for the algorithm
FIRST ONE LETS GO!!
so... your using an 'either/or' workflow ! why not an '&' flow, as in heat the localised metal (to a very high mailable temp) with another heat source (very hot diy electrolysis on demand bubbled h2 shielding gas?) while adding heated lasered/friction -weld- fluidic metal at a given location
p.s encode your audio at a better bit rate as its degraded by yt upload i assume (many vids recently seem to have this same sound degradation)
the old oxidised copper powder.. no need to make everything you do complicated & expensive & reliant on 3rd party sellers, -remember/learn the fundamental's- just flash sinter it in a diy ball mill with a camera flash -or figure out the light frequency range it reverts back to pure metal from it's old oxidised state & tell rob/every diy'er- see Robert Murray smith channel
liquid nitrogen
resistive wire extrusion should be quite easy, with quick cooling after the print line head
carbon powder absorber above the target melt shiny metal
@@Jkauppa hackaday.io/project/169412-wire-3d-printer like so?
@@metalmatters more like normal PLA 3d printer, same kinda of quality, so that you can print the boat sample well
@@metalmatters normal PLA printer does not flow current like a welder, it flows around the tip of the printer head
Unfortunate naming convention. Haha.
Go back to the basic physics. Identify the minimal requirements and parts you need and delete parts you don’t need. Maybe doing things from the beginning will help 😄