FarmCraft101 - 2021-03-05
Wouldn't it be great if you could 3D print in metal? With a few extra steps, you can! I go through the process in detail explaining how to reproduce most anything that can be 3D printed in metal. Check out BigstackD's channel here: https://youtube.com/c/bigstackD Equipment links: Creality CR 10: https://amzn.to/3c19Psr Cheaper Creality printer: https://amzn.to/38aHP4N Auber temp controller: https://amzn.to/3rjjVLV SSR and heatsink: https://amzn.to/3uW3Ldl Tabletop furnace: https://amzn.to/30fl4s2 Plaster, Prestige Oro, 25 #: https://amzn.to/3sKn7Ag Plaster, Prestige Oro, 5 #: https://amzn.to/3bilkg2 Crucibles: 1.5-2 Kg crucible: https://amzn.to/3qhqTj1 #3 crucible: https://amzn.to/3be67wz (barely fits in tabletop furnace) #4 crucible: https://amzn.to/3qf38YP Etsy Store: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MadeByFarmCraft101?ref=seller-platform-mcnav Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FarmCraft101/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FarmCraft101 Buy me a coffee- or a beer! https://www.buymeacoffee.com/farmcraft101
To get rid of the “there might be air in my plaster” issue, brush some directly on the piece and let it air dry before putting it in the cup.
I made a small vibrating table for degassing.
That's kilnly advice. 👍
At 3:30 a pro tip is to use anything that vibrates or oscillates relatively violently (hair clippers, orbital sander) and touch a part of the body of the device it to your mold to vibrate the whole thing which causes the bubbles to vibrate up and out of the plaster. I do this on teeth/mouth molds since air bubbles are hell when you need the fine detail. Hope it helps!
A vacuum chamber pot setup is about 150 bucks. Now you can get into wood stabilizing and dying. Take the air out of the plaster, epoxy, etc. ✌
Just a couple of suggestions for future pours.... When designing the mold, have the fill pipe fill the mold from the bottom and always include a vent for air escape at the highest point in the mold
When I was at art school in '79 we had an interesting process that the teacher said came from the auto industry: You made your model out of wax , then you mixed up some construction sand and a liquid epoxy, Then painted your model with something called a zircon wash which looked and felt like a very soupy plaster, Then you carefully packed the wet model in the uncured epoxy sand in a cardboard box a bit bigger than the model and let it cure for a couple of hours, Then you put the whole thing in a 300°f oven for 4 hours so the wax melted through the zircon wash into the sand. Meanwhile you were heating your bronze or aluminum. Then you pour the metal into the mold, and the magic part was that the heat from the metal broke down the epoxy while the metal was cooling, so a couple of whacks with a hammer was all it took to remove the sand from the casting. You could make a big wax piece in the morning and have it in metal by dinner. The zircon wash was interesting stuff in that it was porus enough to let the wax out and the gasses out but it could preserve details like fingerprints. Oddly I have never heard of this process anywhere else. We also did lost styrofoam casting, but that is another tale.
They still do that process when the cost of manufacturing and shipping of ordered 3d metal print is prohibitive, mostly in poorer countries though.
Wax parts for the actual casting is still 100% 3d printed though, mostly smaller details.
That's still used in LOTS of industries. Anywhere you need a feature inside a part, you can cast negatives or positives and thermally remove them. Keeps from having to use welsh plugs. The stuff I use for prototypes is made for lighting on fire for quick curing. (Zircon ZA-95)
Cool
In a college sculpture class, we cast in bronze by first sculpting it in wax (a bitch to work with), then dipping it several times (each time letting it dry) in a silica sand and water slurry. Once fully dried, we fired it in a kiln to melt out the wax and harden the cast. Then poured in the hot bronze, busted off the mold with a hammer and it came out great.
That’s called last wax or investment casting, a lot of gun parts and auto parts are still made this way. Very fast, accurate way of making precision parts.
Thank you for the insights and saving us from making those mistakes. I am in the process of getting a 4 axis CNC machine (Carvera kickstart) and I believe this process would be an excellent compliment to that process to do rough parts and then finish with minimal waste. I also have a Creality 3d printer (CR10 mini). I have been playing with the Fusion360 software, which I will probably purchase a license as it will do the 3d printing and CNC operations. I worked 3d design using ProE for about 10 years; managing the department for the last 7 years, so it will be great to get back to it! I have a lot of friends in the warbird community and will be doing parts that can no longer be found! SS
Cool new chapter! Have a blast. ✌
Great video! Thanks for sharing the failures and improvements you made till success.
Samy you are everywhere 😂
Samy is my hero
Paint plaster on your piece before casting
@Dutch Star that's probably a really good idea
Nice. Hey, if you use Chitubox as a slicer, It has a construct-support option. If you generate supports, you can use the cavities they create as vents and multiple spouts for the molten bronze to flow down. other slicer programs have this feature as well.
I love all the detail, including failures, and the consideration for low budget. I'm curious his much electricity those furnaces use.
Ain't cheap on mama bear.
Papa bear gets work when it's a paying job. Baby electric bear must be like having a couple of clothes dryers on for a few hours. Or days? ?
I think this is awesome! Thank you for sharing! I like the point about relatively cheap in the cost part of the project. It would be interesting to hear how much time it would take for the casting process compared to the milling process.
I learned lost-wax pouring in my dads dental office in the ‘60’s. Sure wish I had his old centrifuge.
Instead of vacuuming, I’m wondering if pouring with the molds on top of a vibrating surface might help fill the corners. It would be simple to make and try!
I’m currently awaiting an Ender 3 S1 - my first 3D printer!
Personal experience: cast the plaster, wait 2hours, then heating for 300°C for 4h, then 4h more at 700°C. After this set the furnace to 250°C and let it in the oven over night. and cast on the next day. (reduces cracks) The roundness problem is caused by surface tension, place the part as deep as possible and keep venting in mind. (hydrostatic pressure)
Good/reliable filling at 200mm
Correction- spur (straight cut gears) are the strongest. Helical gears are used to reduce noise, at the cost of some strength, but introduce axial (endways) loading to the shaft, meaning you might need to use a separate thrust bearing. Using Herringbone gears means you have less noise, but the same axial loads as a spur gear. Note that for high speed (eg automotive use) the tribology is different - for spur gears you just need an oil with a high film strength, but for helical or herringbone, you must add extra shear strength, because helical gears have a wiping action. I made herringbone gears from a single right-hand helical gear that I split down the guts with a lathe cut-off tool, then brazed the two halves together (I tried arc welding but it warped after re-nitriding the teeth). Just saying....
The gears are fantastic technology. One could convert the gear motion to: hand or pedal crank high loads easily, add a fulcrum and create a self catching stopper for repelling or a pocket sized wench (Batman might like), a grandfather clock build, all sorts of options. Tension released generator starters, possibilities almost endless. Cheers !
Hey awesome video! I appreciate that it's a tutorial from start to finish, including the design and printing. I love that you used a kiln for the burnout, it's a pain in the ass with the regular propane furnace but you can pull it off if you're careful.
I did some of this with a friend this summer with a propane furnace and from our experience you really don't need the investment plaster specifically.
We lost pla cast some parts for a diy electric bike as well as some stock aluminum for milling. After a bit of research everything said to use investment plaster. This is essentially plaster of paris. It was pretty expensive for not a lot of plaster and we're college kids on a budget so we looked at home depot at all the interior plasters down with the drywall. These say they're "jypsum plaster". Plaster of paris is also a "jypsum plaster" with some added stuff here and there, but it's the jypsum part that counts the most for high temperature applications. We tried a few to see what worked; I'd recommend the Diamond verneer plaster. It's $13 for 50lb and it worked superbly. We actually burned those out without any reinforcement and didn't have any cracking issues.
I'm sure there's a reasons to use investment plaster, but if you're really on a budget, just check that the ingredients list jypsum or plaster of paris, and in our experience it works well and costs a fraction as much.
Great information man definitely subbing!
I was thinking about the same process for a while... Thank you for sharing and demonstrating that it's pretty feasible. The need to compensate for thermal expansion makes things harder to reason about though... Never thought that cast metal when cools accumulates a significant stress around circular shapes.
Hey, that's really cool! Maybe try a paint agitator to get the bubbles out of your mixes, and build a simple vacuum box; you can make one that should serve (for this kind of thing) with a cheap pump, even a shop vac; it doesn't have to hit anything like "hard vacuum" to vastly improve the quality.
I seriously could watch this guy for hours. Always learn something new, and I love that he shows failures and learnings every time. True authentic content
Very helpful, detailed video, thanks. I was wondering if you might consider demonstrating making hard to find bicycle part replacements, such as for mountain bikes? I think some of those parts are aluminum, steel, or titanium alloys, that are typically optimized to be both strong, and wear-resistant.
And I think the triathlon street competition bicycles, are probably optimized for having lighter weight. Might be a good side business, with this tough economy; thanks sir. Keep up the good work!
polymaker has a dedicated filament for this - it burns out completely leaving no residue
Amazing video. If you want those bottom layers to be smoother, then a mirror on top of the bed works really well. Then you need something to help bed adhesion, I'd recommend a little PVA glue which you then spread out into a thin layer using some card or paper. Lasts dozens of prints before you need to re-apply, and I still get beautifully smooth bottom layers, sometimes better looking than the top layers.
Pouring the plaster from higher will make it fall into a smaller stream and force bubbles out of the mixture, if you want buttery smooth pours
Oh my god this is perfect!
I have only recently gotten into 3d printing, but I have been sitting here trying to find metal filament that can be sintered when I could have just melted some metal and used the plastic for some moulding. This is so cool, I am so excited to see what crazy stuff I can make out of metal with this method.
Love the process and as a 3d printer I have all kinds of ideas. However, as a machinist and owner of a open die steel forge facility (industrial not back yard) I must say something I read on my dad's desk years ago.. "A Casting is nothing but a metal of questionable integrity, usually held together by welds and or braze".
Those gears not really useful in my opinion but sure is a great idea!.
Nice job!
This really made me reconsider buying a lathe and just get a casting setup at home seems like it would be good for making metal parts. I’d love to see casting aluminium and steel if possible
if you want a smooth surface you need to make it in the pattern. try melting some soft wax in a thin layer then use paper towel to polish it allowing the little bit of wax to fill in the print layers. You can also use some soft wax like the kind on baby bell cheese which you can mould into a cone and use as a sprue to evenly flow the metal into the investment material. Yes i'd get high temp investment stone for the lost wax technique which also gives you minimum expansion than plaster of paris. You can also burn out at 800F then raise to 1200F just before pouring. You do not want to pour cold. and you need to have a steel pipe as a ring to hold the investment material at the sides. Bigger oven for bigger objects. acetylene torch can also melt the metal or use Mapp gas with Oxygen.
Your setup looks great! How about a homemade metal parts tumbler? I like a stone wash on some of the blades I'm modifying. Your take on the budget can go from rags to not even near riches. I'm thinking my way through one and would appreciate your idea of good, inexpensive version. First video of yours I've seen - subbing now.
Neat! FYI, actual at home 3D metal printing is in development right now, using metal powder and laser sintering. Enterprise metal 3D printing has already been underway (Several car companies use 3D metal printed parts for exact/complex parts). Great Vid!
Awesome Job !!!!!! I would love to be able to cast nickel alloys one day. If i can give any advice it would be to use a heavy duty mercury displacement relay to power the nichrome heating coils in the kiln instead of a solid state relay. They are much more durable. Also remember that solid state relays have a bleeding current when turned off. My friend does glass blowing and made his own annealing kilns.
Nice vid!
I had some pretty decent results painting a susceptor on my prints and using a microwave to vaporize the plastic (LOTS of smoke). Only ash was left = fast burnout in 5 minutes maybe?
If the mold has any water in it when you place it into the microwave, water vapor will collect inside. (I actually had better castings placing a moist mold (4-hours after pouring) in the microwave as the mold cracked less while the plastic turned to smoke).
I was tempted to cut a hole in the top of the microwave to let the smoke and water escape upwards but the pucker-factor stopped me.
great video! :) adding sand (1) and clay (2) powder to the plaster (4) helps a lot for stability during burnout. To not loose any details due to the rough sand you can first brush a light coating of your finest plaster onto the part before setting it into the plaster-clay-sand mixture
Thanks for the info!
@FarmCraft101 as Can Mei said add a sandy material to the plaster ratio of 2:1 makes the cooked plaster hold together more during firing (its called 1/8 th to dust grog from ceramic suplyers) also use a very hard plaster!
One thought I would recommend considering is giving either a full air channel or emplament within the design a few channels off to the side of the part to allow air to better escape the part as you pour.
This video is incredible. Its so cool seeing old and new manufacturing techniques coming together. A lot of channels i follow seem to just be one or the other.
Cool! Love your process. Yes, as you well know, everything shrinks when it cools, PETG and ABS as great examples! Great video! I can't wait until 3d-printing of metal is affordable for the DIY'er!
Very well done. I have always had the vent hole design. My experience was with casting sand . For a finer casting I used screen sizes fine for the first contact and course for the fill with talcum fir the release agent.
I think your plaster was cracking because thermal contraction, quickly cooling down from the kiln to the cooler air. The tin can sorta acted like a heat retainer/shield. Thanks for the video, very inspiring how easy it can be!
Just got my first 3D printer. I've been a cad and cam programmer for many years now, and I often wondered how this could be done. Thank you so much for sharing. Can't wait for more of your videos!
Actually yes, you can cast these teeth nowadays. There are sand 3d printers which are used in such appications. You can also you regular wet sand and form it, but youd have to be very careful not to break the sand which wouldnt work for large quantities
Also a quick tip: design a second spout so the air in the mould has somewhere to go to. This means also more material so when the part is shrinking you wont have imperfections. We call them lunker (little bubbles inside the finished part) or when the middle is flatter than it should be. This prevents that.
Not sure i could bring my point across but hope i could help :)
I have had pretty good luck stepping up to brass and bronze in greensand. That imposes a hard limit on how much detail you get though. I used to do lost wax molds for jewelry using a centrifugal casting outfit. That's very limited in size though. But I have a vacuum pump and a vacuum box isn't rocket science so investment casting is the next step. That will get your molds filled right up into the corners and dead ends.
Another outstanding video.
I play all the time with gears!! I'm making a custom dedicated machine to only make gears... don't see anything wrong with the expense... if you place an order for the bone herring gears you'll pay probably twice as much!!
Great video!! One wonder whom do all of your editing?? I kind of suck at that!
I'm a material engineer and I really loved your video, that's so cool!!!! Thank you 😃
never be ashamed to feed that inner child in you! Great video! well made! and really sparked my motivation for getting back into 3d printing! I love metal!
This is cool video, i always wanted to get a blast furnace but how interesting, never thought of the power of combining 3d printing with metal foundry to produce metal parts
I've seen the folks on Man at Arms dunk the hot plaster into water after casting the part. This seems to break up the plaster really easily.
Well done, sir! You are quite the scholar and gentleman. I have had similiar ideas glad to see that it actually works. I really appreciate you sharing what didn't work so well, when I try this I will be much more likely to get positive results.
Love the video!
For forcing the metal into the mold I've seen the "potato" method: force half of a potato (wearing LONG GLOVES!) onto the end of the metal tube holding the plaster mold and molten metal. The steam forces the metal into the mold.
And superheated steam jets out the sides. Did I mention wearing long sleeves and long gloves?
Excellent video. I have one of those bronze pulls in my collection.. I'll never use it but I'm keeping it just in case. We're probably related. I never think twice about spending $1000 on tools to make something that if it were available to buy would cost ten bucks.
Helical gears run smoother, wear less and have less noise. Some portion of a gear is always in contact. But if you are going to do straight gears there's a special way to cut them for continuous contact.
Brilliant, love to see casting, learnt how to do sand casting at school 40 years ago! I never realised copper needed 2k to go liquid....I use a lot of it in plumbing, goes cherry red in seconds but its a long way from that to a liquid...
Wonderful video. Thank you. I initially thought as you did to drill some risers from the outer edge tops of each tooth to either vent the air or even provide a chamber for the trapped air to compress into. ETC but within seconds afrer thinking about the ease of turning the pips off after casting. I realised that is a silly way to succeed. What I then thought was to use the 3D printer to make the design wider = fatter = thicker between the sides. It would take no extra drawing skill or time just plot it thicker. Then after casting in brons (or whatever), the gear can be turned in a lathe = faced off down to correcct thickness = width and the rounded corners of the teeth would be gone. But another way is to simply take the CAD design you have and dimension the OD a bit bigger, cast and turn down the diameter to the current drawing spec.
Both used together is negligable finishing work and perfection sharp edges on the teeth and faces.
Blibla Blubb - 2021-03-05
I appreciate the rough cost preview. So many diy channels just say "hey look so cheap" and only calculate material cost and ignore all the tooling.
Another great thing is you showing the fails, and the subsequent solutions. It makes the videos more informative, honest and, when repeating your experiments, one isn't discouraged so easily.
david gustafsson - 2021-03-13
Yea, i tend to get stuck at initial failure when learning new processes, including mistakes and pitfalls is gold.
AlexFoster2291 - 2021-03-17
Add on the electricity/fuel costs
pcktlwyr - 2021-04-08
Every village needs a guy like this one. But its not something everyone can or should attempt not only due to the cost