3D Wax Printing

Hello

I have been looking to buy a 3D printer to get me on the learning curve. I'd like to be able to print metal but the machine costs are too high.

The whole 3D technology is developing so quickly that I think it would be difficult to recoup costs fast enough before better and cheaper machines become available.

I have been looking at 3D wax printers for lost wax castings. This looks like a lower risk, lower capital cost path.

I am wondering if the hot parts can be made changeable to allow wax or plastic to be printed by the same machine.

I did a search of the forum but couldn't find any recent discussions on this technology. Does anyone have recent experience/expertise?

I was using "Solidscape" wax printer to make wax patterns for investment castings of small parts. In my opinion the process of investment casting is much superiour (and orders of magnitude less expensive)to direct printing in metal. An even better process is direct printing of the ceramic investment mould. After printing the mould is fired and the metal can be poured in. There are printers that are especially designed to do this.

What size parts are you thinking of doing? What metals? For small precious metal parts the process is easy, established and well documented online. Lots of jewellery is made this way.

For cheap large simple castings with metals like Aluminium you can print parts with PLA and burn it out. Here is one link for the process Lost PLA Casting from 3D Prints

For accurate castings I suggest sending them out to professionals.

Have a look at lost PLA casting. The PLA printing technology is now very well established, the printers relatively cheap, and they can print other things instead of just castings.

Hi

For me a 3D printer is a solution looking for a problem.
A machine versatile enough to print wax and plastic would be good.
I have read that wax filament is now available.

Printing for jewellery makes sense because the high value of the metals and high margins make the print process look low cost. I am not a jeweller and I don't have foundry, not even a small one.

I might start with a cheap plastic-only printer just to learn to use the tool chain. By the time I would expect to be proficient, the printer technology would have made another leap forward.

As with all emerging technologies, there is likely to be a shakeout leaving a smaller number of manufacturers who can then spend more on R&D to stay ahead.

dazz said:

Hi

For me a 3D printer is a solution looking for a problem.
A machine versatile enough to print wax and plastic would be good.
I have read that wax filament is now available.

Printing for jewellery makes sense because the high value of the metals and high margins make the print process look low cost. I am not a jeweller and I don't have foundry, not even a small one.

I might start with a cheap plastic-only printer just to learn to use the tool chain. By the time I would expect to be proficient, the printer technology would have made another leap forward.

As with all emerging technologies, there is likely to be a shakeout leaving a smaller number of manufacturers who can then spend more on R&D to stay ahead.

Click to expand...

Hi dazz,

As you noted ,a wax like filament is now available. I was close to purchasing it to try out but I opt'd for a different filament at the time. Either way, here is a little information for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq2u7g4HT5k
New MoldLay 3D Printing Filament - 3D Printing Industry
1.75mm MOLDLAY - Formfutura

This filament would allow you to pickup a typical 3d printer and easily switch between the Moldlay Filament and other typical filaments such as ABS & PLA. Hope that helps!

Chris,

TwnFinn said:

What size parts are you thinking of doing? What metals? For small precious metal parts the process is easy, established and well documented online. Lots of jewellery is made this way.

For cheap large simple castings with metals like Aluminium you can print parts with PLA and burn it out. Here is one link for the process Lost PLA Casting from 3D Prints

For accurate castings I suggest sending them out to professionals.

Click to expand...

Wow so cool

I would not be happy with my own printer unless I could print metallic parts. But I still wanted one to learn on and play with.

So I decided to get the cheapest possible printer that still was expected to be low maintenance and not require me to 'build' it.

I got an XYZ Printing 'da Vinci Jr 1.0' which only prints PLA. I've seen people use PLA for castings. There is apparently a "Lost PLA" casting process that uses the low melting point of PLA (~175C / ~350F) which, though not nearly as friendly as wax, is still reasonable.

The reason I bring it up is because you can still cast parts, but the printer was $250 when I bought it. It's still about $300 on Amazon, last I checked. The "retail" price is $350 from the manufacturer's website iirc.

The only mechanical adjustment I did was to tighten up the y-axis belt tensioner because it was producing small 'flats' at Top-Dead-Center and BDC on perfectly round parts. Now they're predictable in size/shape and it has been nothing short of "push button - receive part". It's just slower than most printers which isn't a problem for me. I hit the button before I go to work in the morning, and it's waiting for me when I get home. Or for REALLY long run time parts, it's done around dinner time.