Can you SLS with a simple laser engraver? DIY SLS printer laser test

Рет қаралды 15,711

2 жыл бұрын

So I had some PA12 powder and TwoTrees 3.5w laser engraver and I decided to check if you can "print" at least one "layer" using this combo.
The fact is you that you can! And it seems that my summer 2022 adventure will be building an SLS printer or at least a prototype of that.
Stay tuned. I mean, subscribed.

Пікірлер: 34

@infered5365 10 ай бұрын

Commercial SLS printers usually heat the chamber to fairly close to their glass transition temperature, and use the laser to push it over the edge. You'll probably get better results using ramped power during the double fired areas (the edges where it lingers) and using a heated chamber and very low power on the laser diode.

@PrevailingDanger Жыл бұрын

The edges are probably crispy because the laser hovers over that area for longer. During each scan line, the laser moves across the powder at, what appears to be, a consistent speed, but at the end of each scan line, the carriage has to stop and move down on the y-axis, before starting a new scan line. This slight pause - as short as it might be - causes the laser to transfer extra heat to the powder at the edges, and probably melts the powder in that area to a greater extent. This is all just conjecture, but powering down the laser during those stops might solve that problem.

@techbytch Жыл бұрын

yes but this is more of a slicing problem that can be solved later. The main issue for the next step is to get a moveable platform without building full - scale aluminum bed with leadscrew etc

@andrewtinker7537 Жыл бұрын

Just change the slice parameter to vase mode. That'll keep the laser moving at a constant speed in a nice spiral, without the reversing at the edges.

@OpenBuilds 2 жыл бұрын

This is awesome, we want more!

@danhassid9280 2 жыл бұрын

intresting! please keep on investigate this topic!

@brianjirvin Жыл бұрын

Makes me want to build one now

@kawag2780 Жыл бұрын

Surprised that a low power 3.5W diode laser is enough!

@femmyvr3290 Жыл бұрын

maybe try seeing if you can pulse the laser instead of having it on continuously, and maybe doing multiple passes, that should get rid of the burning effect and allow for finer precision

@sahanfernando4414 4 ай бұрын

i know this was a while ago but the edges are thicker because the print head has some weight and when changing direction needs to decelerate, stop, and accelerate back the other way, you could tune it to reduce power as it slows down.

@techbytch 2 ай бұрын

Hi, unfortunately not, it's not written on the box. This is a charcoal that is used filters and bought from a building store.

@gedr7664 Жыл бұрын

to help warping heating the area around the powder as well as the surface of the powder is benficial

@techbytch Жыл бұрын

yes but if would require some hardcore aluminum machining which I have no access to yet

@kiahalhay1163 Ай бұрын

we are waiting for the update on this method, have you stopped working on this project?

@techbytch 22 күн бұрын

I personally had no time to work on this in the time being but maybe I'll get back to that as I still have the powder and a spare laser. Meanwhile, there is a sls4all.com/ project that is making a sls printer

@GHOST-OF-X Жыл бұрын

Bro can you give me link to this 3d printing laser and mount please

@harjoat 2 жыл бұрын

Very promising!

@quark_E Жыл бұрын

I've been thinking about this lately and I'm glad someone is playing with this idea! I don't entirely understand how commercial SLS printers work but I have a thought and I'm curious if it's feasible. Rather than a consistent layer of powder for each new layer, could you have something like a funnel w/ a flow regulator that holds powder next to the laser and have it drop a consistent line of powder ahead of the laser? Or angle the laser a bit so it hits the powder as soon as it's dropped?

@techbytch Жыл бұрын

Hi, good question. You might not be able to distribute the powder via funnel as even as doing that layer by layer - because Nylon is easily electrified and creates clumps. That's why all Nylon powder printers utilize the whole volume (both SLS and MJF ones). This is different with metal printers - as you might see they just pile the material in a middle of the chamber as the model grows, and they use electrostatic to place the metal powder when needed.

@charmio 10 ай бұрын

Kinda defeats the purpose as you don't get the benifits of sls (accuracy and the part is suspended in the unused powder negating the need for support). At that point you essentially got a worse FDM printer that can't print overhangs and is far less accurate.

@mjwarlock Жыл бұрын

i keep believing this was possible one way or another if you have the ender kit you can pre heat the bed during lasering wich should help with binding

@salvadorflores9588 Жыл бұрын

Gratis idea!

@stefandebruijn3167 Жыл бұрын

Well wow, that's so interesting this actually works. The motion for the powder layering is very simple, as is the heating. It would of course be better with mirrors, but if this is cheap.. who cares. Have you made any progress with it?

@techbytch Жыл бұрын

I'm actually struggling to make any progress with that because progressing would mean milling a power chamber, cutting a lot of aluminum sheets, and would require to use a cnc and basically the prototype that can print layer by layer would be around 1500$ just to play around. Not sure this is the commitment I want at the moment. Plus SLS is not only about sinthering, there is also a sieve, cleaning chamber etc. Meanwhile sinterit lisa costs 10-15k if you really need mjf printer and sls4all.com/ is building a similar project to what I had in mind, so you might want tot take a look.

2 ай бұрын

Congratulations on the video, where did you buy the powder, can you share the link or website? How much did you pay?

@techbytch 2 ай бұрын

Long time ago on Alibaba. Around ~45$/kg + shipping + import taxes.

@thefutureisnow8767 2 ай бұрын

This wouldn't work with air cooled printing head (a cloud of dust).

@techbytch 2 ай бұрын

Well it was a air cooled printing head (laser), no clouds there.

@ryelor123 11 ай бұрын

Try the electrochemical method. I want to see how it works.

@techbytch 10 ай бұрын

Electrochemical with nylon? What do you mean by that?

@trkoo 7 ай бұрын

There is no way you can get any accurate part without heating the surface to just below melting point of the Polimer heat difference to melt from cold will warp all parts to unusable state