Glass 3D Printing Via Laser

If you haven’t observed, diode laser engraver/cutters have been receiving much more impressive these days. [Cranktown City] was participating in with an Atomstack 20 watt laser and wondered if it would sinter sand into glass. His early experiments have been not as well promising, but with some function, he was equipped to make a crude sort of glass with the laser as the supply of electricity. Nevertheless, utilizing glass beads was far more efficient, so he resolved to create his possess glass 3D printer using the laser.

This is not for the faint of coronary heart. Surfaces have to have to be flat and there is aluminum casting and plasma chopping concerned, though some of it may perhaps not have been important for the closing design. The strategy was to make a process that would depart a layer of sand and then place down a new layer on command. This turned out to be remarkably difficult.

We ended up impressed with the numerous tips he experimented with to get the platform just appropriate. The top option was very very simple, but which is how that commonly operates, is not it? You try out all types of complicated points until you strike on something straightforward.

We often delight in jobs the place you can see the methods to achievement such as the unsuccessful makes an attempt. The device seems decidedly Rube Goldberg. But how does it function? Well, he did get a recognizable benchy inevitably, but not ideal away. Perfect? No, but we recall when early 3D printers only did a little better.

We’re impressed. It took a wide selection of expertise to pull this off and we hope he will go on to refine the function and potentially other folks will, as well. This is not the 1st time we have observed this trick, but previously attempts haven’t been as sturdy. We even observed a 2D variation back again in 2016.