Printable View
Anyone else see the potential? ;) I know the peachy wouldn't drive the laser but this is something I would love to try.
http://reprap.org/wiki/DIY_Selective..._Sintering_FAQ
Nice thing about powder printing (you must build in a box to keep the plastic in one place, thing of the environment) is the print face is always at the same level. And ABS/PLA is cheap, maybe use it on the left over plastic (That's another tangent).
I see a lot of problems, but none that can't be solved.
First of all is the heated chamber, not a big problem in itself, but you need pretty good temperature control so you don't have to go overkill on laser power (20w diodes aren't cheap to buy or drive)
But you could maybe mount a co2 laser pointed at the peachy mirrors.. altough I don't know how well that'd go down, peachys' mirrors are plastic covered aren't they?
So you might have to replace them, and then calibrate the magnets for heavier mirrors and then maybe replace the magnets(?)
... maybe just go with a heated chamber with good, accurate control :p
OK so say you do somewhat like the page suggested, heat the powder to within 5° of it's melting point and go with a 2-3w infrared diode, ofc. you'll have to have a new driver, no problem, in all likelyhood you end up having to use black plastics due to reflection, ok sure, now remember that your box needs a z-axis and as such a way to finely spread new powder ontop of your previous layer ,it's not getting any easier.
IMO Too much work, not enough payoff. With that said though I think it's possible, the hardest part (mirrors) is good to go so if you wanna go for it, go for it! The building and problemsolving is after all the fun part ;)
I like every solution you listed Peredv
I happen to have some rather expensive high quality mirrors, they are .2 mm thick lapped and polished silicone glass, coated in aluminum and are first surface, So they could handle much more heat than our standard plastic mirros and they are optically flat, so better beam focus could be achieved.
If any one is going to give this a go let me know id love to chat with before you start, and send you whatever parts I have kicking around that would help your cause.
Another change I would make is to change the hole moving armature that the mirror and magnets and damper are mounted on from plastic to aluminum foil or titanium foil.