impresion en 3d con silicona

Many people explore these materials, and are now going far beyond writing names on cakes. Well, nobody probably ever tried to do so with silicone of course ;)

Make sure to go and check other RichRap worthwhile explorations!

Extruding clay (ceramics), icing sugar, chocolate or any other kind of solidifying paste requires a serious modification of the printer head, where the hot end must be swapped with a syringe, a peristaltic pump, anauger screw or some mind-stimulating Moineau pump. Note that clay is abrasive and may damage any pump or screw in the long term, and that chocolate need to be kept warmed when stored in a large syringe.

Paste/pellet extruder : an outstanding auger screw design by Olaf Diegel.
The revolving drill bit drains molten material downwards through the nozzle.

Another interesting material to print is wax, not just to make candles but also to print molds as we will see in the following chapter.

A lot of work is still underway to solve paste extrusion issues, and it looks like every material has its own set of properties and problems, which usually makes it hard and messy to use for now.

Printing a mold and/or lost wax casting

The final object is not printed directly, but it is cast in a mold which is itself built with a 3D printer.

To read more on this topic, check this separate blog. It was getting too long a chapter here a bit off-topic. But a 3D printer really opens the way to homemade semi-industrial silicone or aluminum objects, beyond artistic sculptures.

What else ?

I will add more material and refine this post with time.

What I really would start playing with is a filament maker/extruder, because it provides a lot of liberty to mix unexpected compounds. Paste extruders are something else, but a bit off my needs for now. Still I would gladly print candles for the next weeks :)

Addendum: where to buy ?

There are very important variations in the plastic quality and dimensions which may ruin your day: you should definitely double check your selected supplier in the forums before you buy. To start with something, you may peek in the amazing list of suppliers at Reprap as it includes location, price and a short review (all of which may be obsolete!).

Now, there are obviously a few mass-producers for a lot more resellers .. I once found some top-quality filament from an unknown seller on eBay  The guy happened to be quite close to the Chinese manufacturer that produced the filament for a well know German reseller  their brand name was already printed on the spools I received...

Now, for sure, Chinese suppliers may be less reliable or trustworthy, but at least I know the quality of the plastic of this brand (ie. very good). Whether short-cutting the system is good or bad is another topic I guess, but my idea is not to trust people that dismiss Chinese material as such, while some of "our" best brands just get it from them in the first place.