Printing With Wood - Robo 3D

[Larry]

Have any of you guys tried out any of the wood filaments? I think the idea of using these filaments are awesome. Plastic seems cheap, but wood doesn't. Here is a video from Nerdgasm in which they use the Robo 3D Printer to print out a little wood box with a sliding top. What do you think? Any luck printing with wood yourself? It pretty much looks like it was carved out of some plywood.

[ImaginationProgress]

I agree. The Wood box in this video looks high quality, while plastics just make things look and feel like toys. I think Wood and Ceramic filament might be something of the future. There are probably other semi-plastic filaments that could be make by adding other materials in with the plastics. For example, what if recycled paper powder or stone powder were mixed up with the PLA? Wouldn't that give us some different textures that feel like they are higher quality?

[Mike]

Last year I did an article on using Laywoo-D3 with an Afinia. The result didn't look like anything else we've printed.

[Mike]

I agree. The Wood box in this video looks high quality, while plastics just make things look and feel like toys. I think Wood and Ceramic filament might be something of the future. There are probably other semi-plastic filaments that could be make by adding other materials in with the plastics. For example, what if recycled paper powder or stone powder were mixed up with the PLA? Wouldn't that give us some different textures that feel like they are higher quality?

Kai Parthy (Germany) is doing a little of what you describe. He's a filament inventing machine.

[Larry]

Wow, those images are awesome Mike. Looks like an expensive wooden box.

[Mike]

Wow, those images are awesome Mike. Looks like an expensive wooden box.

Thanks, Larry. The trick with Laywoo is to ignore the fact that it sometimes looks hairy and clumps a little while printing. Sanding after the fact fixes everything. We put seven coats of Shellac on the pagoda box in the picture. I also highly advise printing as a solid, instead of hollow or with a honeycomb infill. I thought it was a neat project, because I've always wished I could do woodworking, but couldn't.

[spaceman]

How is Robo 3D new model working compare to Ultimaker, do they have same build area?