Wax Filament

[Wolfie]

It could be food grade if we pursued the certification, but for it's intended purpose of casting, I don't think we would.

For your intended purpose of casting, no. But why not broaden its market by getting certified at some point and then branching out into the culinary market. AFAIK, the only thing available in that market is the ChefJet which has yet to ship. Since you are working with low temperature source material, chocolate, butter, even stuff like fondant could be in your grasp.

And I was wondering if anyone had considered stuff like caramelized sugar and isomalt. Isomalt melts at 150c ish. Right in the range of many extruders. Can you say 3D printed candy?

I was also wondering if anyone had considered a cooling bed instead of a heating bed, perhaps using peltier chips? Might enhance deposition of cool melting products like wax, chocolate etc by more rapidly solidifying it before it can sag/ooze. Not thinking actually frosting a beer mug cold but more along the lines of sinking heat away from the deposited material and taking it down to room temp or slightly below before it can distort after being deposited. Just a thought. Dunno if it would help or hurt.

[Wes@MachWax]

For your intended purpose of casting, no. But why not broaden its market by getting certified at some point and then branching out into the culinary market. AFAIK, the only thing available in that market is the ChefJet which has yet to ship. Since you are working with low temperature source material, chocolate, butter, even stuff like fondant could be in your grasp.

I have inquired with the boss about this for our other wax blends, the answer I was given was that direct food contact certification is costly, and also adds a liability issue.

looking pretty good :-)

Thank you!

[Wes@MachWax]

Last week, we sent out a few spools for testing. One of the gentlemen agreed to cast that Yoda print for me. I wanted to smooth it out a bit, so I made a new print @ 50micron. I also tried some techniques to smooth the surface finish. I kept getting a hole in the same spot on the neck. I think the .stl I got from thingiverse is the cause of this. Because of this, I also tested to see how well it takes additive wax. This wasn't a parameter we had in mind when designing the filament, but I was pleased with how easy it was to bind new wax to the old wax. We don't have proper tools for this, so I improvised by using a lamp dimmer, and the soldering iron that I like the least for that task. I also tried a candle, and some dental picks, but I preferred the soldering iron over this method.

The order was kept for all pictures. They were just rotated 90 degrees between takes.

These are before any manipulation. Some with the supports still attached.


And post op. The far left had the neck hole filled, and polished a little with a shop towel, and mineral spirits. The middle one was brutally assaulted with a heat gun. I tried to be gentle, but it melted a bit more than I would have liked. A pen type heat gun would have probably done better than the full size I was using. The right side one was filled in the neck area, as well as the ear holes. I also built the ears up to make up for the pieces that came off with the support pieces. I also polished this one a little with mineral spirits. The right one is the only one that was printed at 50 micron. The other two were at 200 micron.