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Possible to 3D Print Wood Part?

munruh

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jan 3, 2011
Location
Kansas
I have a prototype part for one of our clients that is a two piece part. One piece is stainless and the other wood. It's going to be a real booger to machine, especially some of the angles. I'd like to look into the possibility of getting both pieces 3D printed. Is it possible to print wood and where would I find someone that can do this?
 
I have a prototype part for one of our clients that is a two piece part. One piece is stainless and the other wood. It's going to be a real booger to machine, especially some of the angles. I'd like to look into the possibility of getting both pieces 3D printed. Is it possible to print wood and where would I find someone that can do this?

I think the shop that does it is right next door to the one that does wood welding.
 
There are stainless powder printing machines.

I could see a wood flour mixed with a hot melt glue, prextruded
in to standard coil stock to be used in a normal machine.

Would be nice to get wood concentration as high as possible,
maybe over 65% or so.

Hot melt glue would have to be thermoplastic for the reheating
in the machine (which IIRC most hot melt glue is)
 
There are extrusion type 3D printers (FDM) that have a resin which is a percentage (mine is 40%) wood - just google wood filament and 3D printing

Also,if you know anyone using a Helisys LOM (laminated object manufacturing) 3D printer, that would likely work. These use rolls of paper, which are trimmed with a laser, and glued one layer at a time. When finished, it looks like wood, can be sanded, etc.
 
Also,if you know anyone using a Helisys LOM (laminated object manufacturing) 3D printer, that would likely work. These use rolls of paper, which are trimmed with a laser, and glued one layer at a time. When finished, it looks like wood, can be sanded, etc.

Those are very cool. Been around forever, too. I guess people use them to make patterns ?
 
The big question that needs to be asked is what "wood" means. Does it mean some high density particle board or some kind of nicely figured solid wood or veneer laminate.

For the first case a plastic pattern could be 3D printed, rubber molds made from it, and a casting made of "wood".

IMO if a stacked veneer product is acceptable products like Diamondwood are better for machining because of the stabilizing resin.
 
Well, you could make something that can burn, like a fuse or such.

In a controlled manner, maybe to gently let something come down with gravity.
 
If it must be in wood it can be done by machining or lasering thin pieces of wood sheets with internal dowel guide holes for alignment pins. The Cad model is sliced to produce layers just like 3D printing. Most of the time a laser is used for speed as opposed to a cnc mill.

Veneer hardwood is the most common woods used and it is available from thicknesses of .024” (.6mm) and up... then assembled and glued together. Some final sanding is usually required to get a smooth finish. Wood Bondo is sometimes used too.

I’ve done a few… usually some where from +- .015 to +- .020” tolerance is achievable... but with skill +-.005 to .010”

I saw the Helisys LOM process years back thought I'd try it with the veneer works good.
 
They are. Unfortunatly, unless you can generate the need/work... at 35k and up starting, ROI is tough and you still are doing finish work (labor) on them. Material cost is around 55 cents per cubic/cm right now though there is some new tech coming out (knife cutting machines starting at 25K)that claim to get it down to 2 cents cubic/cm.

The coolest tech I’ve seen is a type of vapor depositing using both anode/cathode and sometimes even magnetic attraction. Also there’s talk of gravity free and vacuum induction extrusion. I’m sure it’s still down the road for now. Getting a factory up in orbit for the gravity free environment and vacuum would make it all feasible.
 
They are. Unfortunately, unless you can generate the need/work... at 35k and up starting, ROI is tough and you still are doing finish work (labor) on them. Material cost is around 55 cents per cubic/cm right now though there is some new tech coming out (knife cutting machines starting at 25K)that claim to get it down to 2 cents cubic/cm.

Have a friend who is a patternmaker. Needed a pattern for some small cast parts, hey ! I'm a machinist ! I can do this ! Draw the part, figure the shrink, draw up the pattern, buy cutters, work out the tool paths, make a pattern, then head over to Lloyd's shop for him to put it on a board cuz I don't know nuthin' about that. He looks at it for a minute, "nah, that's not going to work" grabs a piece of wood and a pencil, saw, planer, sander, glue and that wax string that goes in the corners and he's done in half an hour. Better than me in two days.

Hi-tech is cool for some stuff but for sand castings ? A guy who knows his shit can kick ass.
 
Have a friend who is a patternmaker. Needed a pattern for some small cast parts, hey ! I'm a machinist ! I can do this ! Draw the part, figure the shrink, draw up the pattern, buy cutters, work out the tool paths, make a pattern, then head over to Lloyd's shop for him to put it on a board cuz I don't know nuthin' about that. He looks at it for a minute, "nah, that's not going to work" grabs a piece of wood and a pencil, saw, planer, sander, glue and that wax string that goes in the corners and he's done in half an hour. Better than me in two days.

Hi-tech is cool for some stuff but for sand castings ? A guy who knows his shit can kick ass.

Yep...The first question out of my mouth is "Are you designing the mold and I'm just machining? Or, am I suppose to desige AND machine it?" Most of the time you can tell by the print... but sometimes with these CAD models you never know for sure.
 
In the old boat building days in Britain, they used to use "grown knees" for certain structural elements in boats. These were made by planting trees, and torturing them into the needed shapes to make them grow that way. Maybe you could try that. I'd be careful when I quoted the lead time though.
 








 
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