What a world we live in! This came home to me (again) when I learned that a 17 year old video gamer, entrepreneur, high school senior and maker still has enough time left in his life to tackle something that the entire world would like to get its hands on: a desktop based metal 3D printer.
Not satisfied with co-founding and running Coolmath3.org, a flash game review website, Sagar Govani decided he would use the website’s revenues to undertake an open source project. Not just any project: he chose to modify a RepRap 3D printer’s extruder to be able to use it to melt a metal alloy composed of 95.8% tin, 4% copper and 0.2% silver.
Sagar calculated that the filament – which is basically tin-based soldering wire – would melt at 235°C, a temperature supported by certain desktop plastic 3D printers. Also it would stick to copper but not to stainless steel so the 1mm nozzle for the hot end would be made of stainless steel while the print bed would be a scratched up copper sheet.
Last May, Sagar bought the plastic RepRap extruder: he designed each part in CAD to get it CNC’d out of stainless steel. The first trials resulted in parts that were too brittle, so the ingenious student/gamer/entrepreneur devised a system that would integrate another nozzle to deposit liquid flux after each layer, helping the solder to “cling” by removing oxide buildup,while a fan would blow dry ice vapour onto the piece to cool it properly.
All in all the final version of the system would cost about 1000 dollars to build and be the same size as most desktop RepRaps. While Sagar recognizes the complexity and the time required to take on this project, he can count on the support of the open source hacker community, for suggestions and ultra-specific information on the requirements (and issues) involved.
The entire process is being documented on Hackday Projects, a hardware hacking website that, among other things, awards a trip to space to the person that achieves the coolest, most functional and most revolutionary hack. If Sagar comes through, the desktop metal 3D printer has got my vote.
Mine too!!