This gave me an idea: You should be able to use the hotend as normal and just swap out the nozzle for some sort of stiff metal rod like solid copper wire or a small screw, and then use the 3d printer like a sort of router, the foam would just get stuck to the bed with double sided tape or something and you'd cut the foam leaving like 0.4mm at the bottom and you'd finish the rest with a normal box cutter. It could work for making some foam inserts and such.
How about unscrewing the nozzle and inserting a NiCrom wire to be heated by the heater block, you place the material horizontal instead of vertical, and same, the model just a single layer thick, but in this case you don't have to edit the code. The only thing you'll need to do is exchange the nozzle and the NiCrom wire and you can use the printer both ways.
The heater block won't heat a long wire - as it is so thin the heat will disipate very rapidly along its length, one needs to conduct power along the conductor to make it uniformly hot. ( all one has to do it tell the slicer program that there is a single layer, no raft or brim, and slice the object in the y-z axes.... - with the topology demonstrated - with the x axis is removed - OR the machine axes can just be swapped at the stepper drivers so y and z are now x and y... To cut rudimentary tapers leave the x axis intact, slice the shape in the x-y axes (or redefine the hardware) and anchor the distant end of the nichrome wire at the "vanishing point of the taper (it may need quite a long piece of string... (counterbalancing may (probably) be needed to offset the tension of the taught wire on the y-axis... lol...)
Very cool. I have the same printer. The printer works really well with a few mods. I have printed RC Boats with it, you can see that on my channel Good Job
This gave me an idea: You should be able to use the hotend as normal and just swap out the nozzle for some sort of stiff metal rod like solid copper wire or a small screw, and then use the 3d printer like a sort of router, the foam would just get stuck to the bed with double sided tape or something and you'd cut the foam leaving like 0.4mm at the bottom and you'd finish the rest with a normal box cutter. It could work for making some foam inserts and such.
Very cool. Take it to the next level and make it so that it prints tapered wings.
How about unscrewing the nozzle and inserting a NiCrom wire to be heated by the heater block, you place the material horizontal instead of vertical, and same, the model just a single layer thick, but in this case you don't have to edit the code. The only thing you'll need to do is exchange the nozzle and the NiCrom wire and you can use the printer both ways.
The heater block won't heat a long wire - as it is so thin the heat will disipate very rapidly along its length, one needs to conduct power along the conductor to make it uniformly hot.
( all one has to do it tell the slicer program that there is a single layer, no raft or brim, and slice the object in the y-z axes.... - with the topology demonstrated - with the x axis is removed - OR the machine axes can just be swapped at the stepper drivers so y and z are now x and y...
To cut rudimentary tapers leave the x axis intact, slice the shape in the x-y axes (or redefine the hardware) and anchor the distant end of the nichrome wire at the "vanishing point of the taper (it may need quite a long piece of string... (counterbalancing may (probably) be needed to offset the tension of the taught wire on the y-axis... lol...)
Thank you
Very cool.
I have the same printer.
The printer works really well with a few mods. I have printed RC Boats with it, you can see that on my channel
Good Job