Reprap 3D Printer Prusa i3+ at work printing its own parts - Part 4 - I...

We are delighted to announce that we have just set up our YouTube channel where we will share some videos of our 3D printing projects and other things. To get things started we have posted some vids of the T3DT Prusa i3+ printing its own parts ... more to come soon. Go like and share.

 

Dome Da Dome Dome...

Something is happening under the Dome...?? to be continued.....

Winsford is the home of Britain's oldest working Rock Salt Mine.

Without Winsfords Rock salt the whole of the UK would grind to a Halt every year when the Snow and Ice arrives... So as a designer and  manufacture of flat pack 3D printer Kits it is only fitting that we have a 3D printer using the local resource as the print medium..  yes a Salt printer..

Here is a taster of the Wych 3D Salt printer for anyone wonders why Winsford has not got the designation as a Wych town (meaning 'Brine Town') is the mere fact the Mr Wins had a Ford across the river weaver long before that naming scheme for Salt towns was thought of..  

rints using the completely bio degradable Local resource of Salt.. the printer is based on the open source 3D powder printer called "Plan B" designed by Yvo de Haas. all of the Wych salt printer details drawings will be available as open source downloads..if you like this take a look here and like my page please.. https://www.facebook.com/Takeaway3DTech


New Pictures

   

 

The rain from the east took its time today so I was able to pop up 7 Solar panels on to the Home Office roof. Lesson learnt today allowing only a +/- 1mm tolerance on a roof is far too tight a tolerance even when using laser cut templates instead of a ruler it was very tight but they are nice and tight on the roof. Just have to wait for another rain free day to add the rest.

Sorry for the long delay in post but I have been very busy.. By April I will be fully off grid solar powered for Electricity and  Today I will start to integrate the good bits of my my 20 year  old Fridge Freezer into my 1 year old Laser cutter ready for full scale Production in April if all goes well fingers crossed.. .. Reason the laser cutter needs to have its coolant kept below 20C Currently even with a CW3000 Industrial Laser chiller Im limited to 2-3 hours of Laser cutting this is ok for R&D work depending on my coolant start temperature which is about 8-10C. As I discovered last year Ambient temperate soon creeps up and reduces my lasering time considerably.  It took me 2-3 hours of careful destructive disassembly to recover the whole freezer refrigerant system in tact still full of its refrigerant gas.
You ask why dose a 60W laser need so much cooling!! Well the laser tube is only 15% efficient so there is about 300W of waste heat to get rid of. The American RF Lasers are built into a huge lump of Aluminium the 50W one I had on loan was set in 25+ kilos of Aluminium this is then cooled by a stack of cooling fans take a look at the FabLab 30W laser it has a full row of fans on the top and bottom and back of the machine. Pictures of my Laser cutter the mods to follow...