Printable View
So I'm wondering what can be achieved with mixing stuff into the resin. I plan on testing different fillers, but not only to economize. Colors are one thing, but can we also make metallics, sparkly prints and other special effects (like coffe grounds / wood powder)? Also, I'd like to investigate mixing in more than 22% by volume CNTs to make electro conductive resin for electroplating 3d printed models (and perhaps to make PCBs directly?). Any other ideas?
Yes all good ideas!!! I'm trying to make a bioresin from flax and hemp oils. We need to look into these things more but very time consuming to test all the new ideas. I'm trying to make my own resin for 1$ per liter.
Localy sourced bio-resin would be wonderful.
whhoo a dollar per liter Thats ambitious .. I love it ... can you tell us more?Quote:
Originally Posted by amirjabri
I talked to the owner of manitoba harvest, and he said he sells hemp oil at 1$ per liter. Hemp oil can be converted to an epoxy resin in air using a non-toxic manganese catalyst (like manganese dioxide you can get for free from used batteries: I took apart a used panasonic C battery and got over 20 grams!). You also get several grams of pure Zinc metal which can be used for many applications: don't throw away your used batteries anymore they are full of amazing valuable and pure chemicals! (I'm thinking of using it help to stop my car from rusting).Quote:
Originally Posted by rylangrayston
You can obviously add the most active known photocatalyst for epoxies which can be made easily or purchased separately for around 20$ per kg from suppliers advertising on alibaba http://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?..._en&fsb=y&sq=y (you only need less than a percent by mass of resin though so it doesnt add more than a few cents on the dollar).
I'm also working along those lines, but also trying out more hacker-friendly recipies using virgin oils made in canada and recycled chemicals like from batteries etc.
Mix those two things together and you have a perfect bio-degradeable, cheap, food-safe, and totally green resin. I used to work in a chemistry lab for 15 years, where I made polymers for industry so this is no problem! I have a small lab set up near my home where I have a controlled heater and I'm testing variations on the curing. I found definately flaxseed oil is naturally photocatalytic and can slowly harden in the sun over the course of a few hours (nothing happens in the dark). I'm trying also to add a simple catalyst to speed up the process so that possibly your peachy printer could use a virgin flax oil and catalyst for 3d printing. Its also nice with flaxseed as you cant really cure more than a thin layer because it is self-limiting as it needs oxygen from the air to cure along with the light. Once a layer is cured it stops untill a new layer is exposed to air and light and the curing starts again.
I started years ago looking into natural based plastics like flax fiber composites, and catalysts for making such plastics, and recently thought it would be so cool to convert a natural oil into a 3d printing resin after the Peachy Printer project was born and inspired me to get involved into it. Plus I teach children and I wanted to let them use the Peachy Printer, however I was worried that the resins available were probably toxic and not safe for children to use.
Wow this sounds awesome! The original Kickstarter video made the Peachy Printer sound too good to be true, and yet it keeps getting better! Dirt cheap printer plus dirt cheap resin is really exciting. And if you don't like a print you can just eat it haha. Best of luck!
Also with regards to the flaxseed oil needing oxygen, would it be possible for the flaxseed oil to get oxygen through a liquid rather than the air? I ask because if the flaxseed oil was sandwiched between two liquids it wouldn't have any surface ripples. Either way though this sounds great!
Well you would need then to make an epoxy from the flax first using a catalyst and add a photocatalyst to make a resin for peachy printer, and it wouldn't need any air to cure because it is already an epoxy. I was also interested in if you could just use a virgin flax oil which would eliminate one step.Quote:
Originally Posted by jstrack2
Oh okay thanks I understand now.
Well you just let me know how I can help you amirjabri
Have you talked to Josh Elis from maker Juice yet?
I actually haven't yet, It would be really cool to link up with more interested people and sort of form a club to motivate this type of research. There is so much ground to cover, but alot of amazing polymer research has been published in scientific journals which is amazing resource of information! I'm saving all the useful articles I find, and writing down the results of all the experiments I'm doing in case I find a good system.Quote:
Originally Posted by rylangrayston
I'm new to this stuff, but good with tehcnology in general and happy to help with (and be a part of) such a group ;)
Great well we can always just post to the peachy printer forum and make a disclaimer *resin research project* just so people who don't care about it won't get turned off by chemistry jargon! I'll check but I think there are scattered posts on online forums for resin formulation for 3d printing all over the internet, just not in one place. I'll add to a google drive folder all the publications I find that are useful so that anyone can access it, I'm lucky I get access to tons of journals through the university by just going to their library!Quote:
Originally Posted by Morten
Like I said there is so much already known and freely useable (openly published and expired patents) that we have alot of amazing resins to choose from and use! I'm partial to epoxies because that's one great way to make use of natural resins. There is acrylates too which is used a ton and work amazing! Also styrenes etc. can be used but I'm not sure as of yet how great the strength is compared to epoxies and acrylates. I was looking into Tung oil as well, but it has toxicity untill it fully cures so for children it's probably not really that useful.
Great! The RRP is born ;)
Coming from a techie-background I'm quite blank on the chemistry of resins, altho I'm reading up on it in an attempt to assuage the pain of waiting for my own Peachy. I believe a locally-sourced, cheap biodegradable resin recipe with good instructions (and a video walk-through) would be a major boon to the project. Hemp is an especially interesting material, but not easily sourced in many countries like here in Norway, where cannabis is illegal and this affects hemp as well. Yes, our politicians are idiots.
Hook me up to the Google Drive folder @ morteng@gmail.com ;)
Hemp is the greatest substance ever discovered, but the oil barons were so fearful of it's potential to revolutionize the world that they enslaved us to their oil empire by making all hemp variations illegal by demonizing the users of the drug strain cannabis (which by the way is a wonderful pain-killer and medically proven to have the least amount of side effects for people who have chronic pain). Normal industrial hemp won't get you high even if you smoked a ton! I think projects like Peachy printer can gather amazing people to develop revolutionary technologies! I never considered working with plant-based resins for 3d printing till Peachy was developed!Quote:
Originally Posted by Morten
Well, not *only* the oil barons, other monied interests were involved as well. But, aside from that, yes, spot on.
Speaking of oil barons, there are cheap resins you can make starting with styrene or methyacrylates which are really really stinky! (not advised without proper ventilation!) Then any photoradical catalyst will do (probably even benzophenone which is dirt cheap). You could play around for very little money using alot of the additives you mentioned at the beginning of the thread.Quote:
Originally Posted by Morten
I think I'll stick to green resins for my part, for many reasons including ventilation. But what is actually needed to make a reasonable quality resin? Usable for testing, perhaps. And how to do it? Can it be made food safe?Quote:
Originally Posted by amirjabri
I have a working resin using virgin flax oil and a non toxic catalyst. However I'm trying to make a faster curing catalyst by tweaking some of the properties. I'll be testing new versions this week. Another older thread I made on resins and lasers here has one of the catalysts I'm making now.
I'm guessing this thread: http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...ers-and-resins wich has lots of interesting info, and some links that I can' access ;) Really looking forward to reading about your experiments with flax oil!
Also check this amazing wikipedia article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photopolymer
Its a good foundation, I'm probably going to try adding specific sub-pages linked to that article which have more in depth information of specific resins and conditions etc.
I'd be interested in joining in the experimentation process. We have a Makerspace here full of guys interested in developing this tech. We are RiverCityLabs (.org) in Peoria IL. Where are you guys in the research tree and what can we do to help? For reference, our makerspace is more commonly populated with physicians, chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer scientists, artists, and a few students. So we literally can hit any side you guys may want us to work on!Quote:
Originally Posted by amirjabri
Oh, I'm the President and co-founder of this non-profit makerspace (which is the only reason I'd ever speak on their behalf).
That's perfect for the interdisciplinarity needed for this type of development. I'm a polymer process chemist by training, and spent most of the last 15 years in a lab making new polymers and catalysts and testing them. I know its a lot of work but if its distributed and openly shared among a community we can really do a lot to advance the state of the art!Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr LeClair