Ideas for lasers and resins

[amirjabri]

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to say how much i'm inspired by this community and project. I love the philosophy of peachy and I hope the open source nature stays that way. On that point, I am a polymer chemist and I wanted to experiment with a wide variety of new resins, including all-natural plant based ones. The only question I have now is will the peachy printer have a powerful enough laser to try to use while testing? I found and purchased for my own investigations a souped up 405nm laser from ebay: link http://bit.ly/1ixUZcD , and I was wondering if the peachy printer will allow for me to swap in this laser if I need more grunt for bioresins I'm testing?

Thanks!!!!

[nka]

It's a 405nm 20mW, so less powerfull than you have!

Yes, you'll be able to swap the laser. If it dosent fit in the hole, you'll have to make a new support, else it will work. If the laser require too much power, you'll also have to use a 5V relay to open the laser instant of using the circuit directly.

[Feign]

That laser looks like it wouldn't have trouble fitting into the Peachy assembly, though I don't know the specs on the lasers the beta testers got, if all else fails, you could use a little bit of regular resin to print a new laser mount and snap it into place with the way the P28 is constructed.

Also the idea of a plant-based photoresin is intriguing (and the term "Bioresin" has an awesome sound to it.) I've only barely researched how photoresins work and I'm pretty sure I only understood a fraction of what I've found, so you have my respect for trying. Good luck!

[Anuvin]

... the philosophy of peachy and I hope the open source nature stays that way.!

I'm with you, the freedom respecting openness of the project is a big deal. I think it means a lot to a large portion of the community, and to the Peachy team.

I was wondering if we could use a product like the one mentioned here: http://www.castingabout.co.uk/Bio-Resin.html

I know the catalyst has to be uv reactive, and so that would have to change, and that is where my understanding ends. If you find some time, I would be really interested on what you had to say on the topic.

[glauco]

A device that creates things using three active elements (Sound, Heat and Light), three passive elements (water, resin and drawings) with bioresin is almost god playing.

[amirjabri]

I'm with you, the freedom respecting openness of the project is a big deal. I think it means a lot to a large portion of the community, and to the Peachy team.

I was wondering if we could use a product like the one mentioned here: http://www.castingabout.co.uk/Bio-Resin.html

I know the catalyst has to be uv reactive, and so that would have to change, and that is where my understanding ends. If you find some time, I would be really interested on what you had to say on the topic.

Wow, so cool thanks! That's really right up my ally as I was specifically looking at oil-based off of flax/soy/grapeseed etc. One of the things I was actually looking at is the type of modification they are doing at that company. That article you linked to makes me want to build an ozone generator too now! There is tons of possibilities, but for now I want to see if I can find a decent oil (Maybe even Tung oil), or mix of oils (and possibly modified ones like you found), and the right catalyst (I will try the conventional ones and some new ones I'm looking into), then also hit it with a ton of laser power to see if it can be polymerized! In general most resins contain some type of "unsaturation" or sites where a radical can attack and form a polymer. Since natural oils also have "unsaturation" they can also do this too! Actually linoleum is made from flax seed oil, a catalyst (usually toxic!), and sunlight! Its a very tough polymer so hopefully we can make linoleum in a 3D printer too (with a non-toxic catalyst of course, I also have one in mind that actually works)!

[Feign]

The way you're explaining it makes it sound easy... But I assume it's very much not.

If the catalyst and oil are both non-toxic, would there be a likelihood of the end result being food-safe? Or does the polymerization process tend to make the result more toxic?

[Anuvin]

Haha Feign said exactly what I was thinking.

So, all we need is the right oil and the right catalyst? What did you have in mind for a catalyst? What do you need to test this? Will the resulting product has properties like linoleum?

Very cool stuff! Can't wait to hear more, please share anything you think up!

[amirjabri]

The way you're explaining it makes it sound easy... But I assume it's very much not.

If the catalyst and oil are both non-toxic, would there be a likelihood of the end result being food-safe? Or does the polymerization process tend to make the result more toxic?

I'm kind of weird like that, but I'm not interested in a project unless it is tricky...so that probably explains this obsession. In general if the monomer is non-toxic the polymer should be no? It's alot harder to digest anyways so it probably passes through you. I'm pretty sure it is bio-degradeable from what I read but I'm too lazy to look up a reference. If I actually can polymerize flax oil into linoleum with a non-toxic catalyst I'll be so glad I'll eat some myself! :-)

[glauco]

I'm kind of weird like that, but I'm not interested in a project unless it is tricky...so that probably explains this obsession. In general if the monomer is non-toxic the polymer should be no? It's alot harder to digest anyways so it probably passes through you. I'm pretty sure it is bio-degradeable from what I read but I'm too lazy to look up a reference. If I actually can polymerize flax oil into linoleum with a non-toxic catalyst I'll be so glad I'll eat some myself! :-)

Actually this looks very healthy. Printing food!! If these kind of experiment works, I would try even hemp oil because is the most healthy thing in the world... but not here in Brazil, it is forbidden to have hemp of any kind...