DED Metal 3D Printer - Round 2

Looks like we're starting over..
Development of a DIY metal 3D printer, printing 316 stainless steel. This project aims to establish a cost effective opensource metal 3d printing platform. Subscribe for future developments & announcements.
Forum: www.metalmatters.co
BMAC: www.buymeacoffee.com/metalmatters
Laser Safety Goggles:
www.edmundoptics.com/p/mi1-la...
Artwork/Music:
HOME - Moire Fringes
/ home-2001
Vivacity - Phello
Papers referenced:
"Measurement of actual powder layer height and packing density in a single layer in selective laser melting"
www.sciencedirect.com/science...
"Hot-Wire Laser-Directed Energy Deposition: Process Characteristics and Benefits of Resistive Pre-Heating of the Feedstock Wire "
www.mdpi.com/2075-4701/11/4/6...

[@snapo1750]

i am also developing a "cheap" 3d metal printer :-) and your work and energey gives me the energy to go forward with it! keep up the good work you are my "idol"

[@marijntuijl]

Do you post the progress anywhere?

[@snapo1750]

@@marijntuijl unfortunately i am not a youtuber :-) but when i succeed yes i will make then a youtube video. (but most probably under a different account not my private account)

[@kroan49]

Maybe you guys should do some collaboration and share ideas. It might shortcut the process for both of you.

[@the_normal_guy9308]

@SnApO what technology are you using? powder based, laser, mig welder? And what material are you trying to print?

[@snapo1750]

@@the_normal_guy9308 I did not see that technology used yet, it is powder based and would allow conductive and non-conductive materials with a melting point

[@121Zales]

I'm studying to be an engineer or material science- not 100% sure yet, and am new to being a maker/designer. I am hugely interested in what you are doing and am taking notes with everything I see you do. I hope I can replicate your work one day and contribute to the knowledge pool of 3D metal printing. I can feel your frustration, but I truly, sincerely appreciate the work that you put into developing this project and I really look forward to your progress. Such an amazing goal!

[@alexboesen5985]

Once again thank-you for sharing these ups and downs. It is fascinating to watch and take in. Your updates are always a high point for my KZbin time.

[@petrfiala5344]

Awesome, can't wait for round 3!

[@anotherguy9402]

I've got some bad news from the future

[@IbrahemAlbanawi]

This project gives me hope that a DIY metal 3d printer is achiveable soon and also your energy is amazing

[@dontdiediy7630]

Never surrender (only pivot)!

[@NOTSOSLIMJIM]

You also have to look at the metal transfer. The two basic types of metal transfer you will be seeing, other than at the start of the weld, is either spray transfer or globular transfer. Ideally you will want spray transfer as it will lay down the most consistent bead of metal. Unfortunately, it is difficult to maintain this with your setup. As the power supply heats up, base metal heats, and wire warms, everything will change and the amps and volts that have you the correct settings at the beginning will need adjustment. The best, and most easy way, to counter this is by using a smart welder. Look at miller welding's MillerMatic line of welders. They will adjust voltage, amps, and feed rate on the fly to keep the weld working as intended.

[@benhofstad4593]

Incredible work! this is the type of disruptive technology that gets me excited to see the future. I hope I live long enough to see that every desktop has one of these. This is a huge amount of public groundwork accomplished by one person.

[@STRIKER51337]

A super fast retraction speed can help with ball formation. I'd recommend a high speed recoding to get the speeds at the start and end of a bead just right

[@lumotroph]

Congratulations on the work so far. Impressive perseverance

[@jonse5a]

some of those lines look really promising!

[@keal4825]

I'm so glad you're back, I've been waiting for your videos for a year now

[@operator8014]

That's incredible work! This is the first I've seen of your channel and I'll be eagerly watching your upcoming work!

[@asocialconsciousness8535]

to get rid of extra ball of weld that builds up on the wire at the end of a weld just snip the wire at the end of each weld. you can put a mechanical sniper in your printer and have it snip its self after each pass. Welding robots do this

[@grantballard4362]

Was just wondering what you’d been up to, so great to see the progress! Always inspired by your level of execution and dedication, thank you for the work you’re doing!

[@danmurphy5660]

Awesome stuff mate. Glad to see you back into it, it's a shame to see the end of the slm project but if you are flogging a dead horse then there is no point continuing. That square looks really promising. Thanks for not stopping you are an inspiration to many.

[@Flare1107]

Excellent work! Since you have resorted to wires now, and with shielding, please take a look at "coaxial electrospinning needles" they are axially integrated needles. I came across them to attempt powder injection to my hho torch (printing with aluminum/chromium oxide) setup. With wire feed directly through, you can have your shielding gas feed directly over your wire. There's plenty of cheap-ish sellers.

[@metalmatters]

Thanks for that, I'll have a look into it. The very first design used a coaxial feed for both the feedstock and shielding gas (basically the thumbnail with a hole in the base, hence the screws) but wasn't well thought out, so I went with something more conventional.

[@daveopenz]

i just stumble across you my fellow antipodean. you are a garage genius!......subscribed

[@TMS5100]

Bridging is going to be interesting.

[@ByDesignation]

This is such good work. I can't tell you how much we appreciate this.

[@techdesign2832]

Amazing job and good luck to get your final results as expected. Its still a journey of testing and development. 👍👍👍👍

[@TheZombieSaints]

Keep it mate, that's brilliant!

[@drewgossage8842]

Always amazing and fascinating to watch you work through your process👍👍

[@Vez3D]

Very nice project !! Im following your work with a lot of interests

[@wyattutz]

Metal printing VZbot next?

[@stocky9218]

Another Video!!!!! Love your stuff man, was just checking your channel a couple days ago for an update, what great timing 👍

[@ExSheriffFattyBoySkinnyArms]

Fascinating build, thx for sharing your trials and tribulations

[@Pr3da70rl0rd]

You are crazy - the world needs more people like you!

[@Witajciewmoimswiecie]

Good job. Keep it up!

[@tootaashraf1]

OMG FINALLY!!!! I was waiting for this for so long!!!!!

[@TheBenenene10]

Niiiic, that's quality hobby research!

[@serta5727]

Very good Progress

[@see.be_games]

Big fan of your work and perseverance. Looking forward to when you get a prototype up and running

[@kroan49]

Very cool project, excited to watch your progress. Subscribed!

[@stefanguiton]

Excellent Work!

[@designersmind3140]

You are the definition of perseverance

[@jeremywansbrough237]

absolutely incredible, high quality video, high quality project

[@metalmatters]

Thanks!

[@jarodhohl861]

Fantastic work.

[@tignition]

unreal work mate. Kia kaha!

[@keal4825]

NICE , i alway wait your project ♥

[@benjamin_f_gates]

Sometimes it makes sense to just start anew - keep pushing!

[@rjward1775]

Very good so far. I feel that to contain the argon, you'll end up printing inside a can so the Ar doesn't diffuse away. It will matter more as you get to higher layers.

[@educationalpurposesmostly]

Love following your channel. Good job!

[@iBlue0riginal]

Looks very promising.

[@Rcmike1234]

Thanks so much for posting this! Super interested

[@hackmakestuff]

Nice Stuff! looks promising!

[@WirelessDude569]

As for gas coverage I'd recommend using TIG gas lenses. They provide laminar flow and are dirt cheap. Keep up the inspiring work! Edit: It seems like 27 gauge needles have a nominal ID of .21mm, which could be of use centralizing the wire as it goes through the nozzle?

[@metalmatters]

I have some 27G syringes and they are very flexible. I'm sure you could sleeve them but you do need a reasonable clearance to avoid jamming.

[@marijntuijl]

Very fair, you learned a lot and it's better then falling into the sunken cost fallacy

[@ivprojects8143]

Really great work! Thanks for sharing.

[@SLcompany_watch]

really getting there!!

[@wktodd]

Feed co2 into the wire feed to eliminate air leak

[@RaphaelRema]

Great progress 👍

[@onebadmoth]

Wowee, bring it on!

[@Scrogan]

Really cool!

[@CharlesVanNoland]

Great work and thanks for sharing! :D

[@3sanomitsipe2]

You could use a Handheld Welding System With Auto-Wire Feeder and modify it !!

[@FreedomAirguns]

Something that could print pewter or zamak like a standard FDM would already be astonishing. For this hypothetical setup, in my opinion, the trick to make it happen would be a laser constantly heating the layer on which the metal gets poured. That would be far more cheaper but I understand why you're investing so much on your project: steel would be a revolution. Another approach could be a powerful induction heater that melts the very tip of a metallic filament and an ink-jet style technique, where micro drops of filament are poured one by one. This could make a general purpose metal FDM printer cheap and versatile, given that the only setting to change for a given metal/alloy would be the power output of the induction heater. Varying the height from the plane, the power of the laser that heats the layers already made and the temperature of the gas may also be parameters that one may use to tune the printer. Free public knowledge here, if anybody finds something useful, feel free to use it.

[@ryelor123]

I have an idea of how to do this easier and better: have both a MIG welder and a TIG welder set up on a 3D printer scaffolding. The MIG welder will lay the bead and the TIG torch will re-heat the bead so that it looks better. Basically an Instagram trick.

[@gigiopincio5006]

Inspiring

[@bArda26]

Hats off to you sir

[@DC_DC_DC_DC]

time for more videos!!!!

[@damen1575]

we need a consistant reliable metal 3d welding printer, for the future of self reliant 3D printing.

[@matthewweinberger7023]

cant wait!

[@lavericklavericklave]

This is great! Thanks

[@Yutaro-Yoshii]

It seems like a lot of problem can be attributed to instability of the print head setup. Maybe it would be better to move the print bed instead of the head.

[@bartekburmistrz8679]

Have you ever wondered about the possibility of being called the father of affordable metal 3d printing in the future. How does such a thought make you feel?

[@dannapert4199]

Been following this build for a while now, always excited to see your videos pop up. It seems like you're having issues getting precise parts, I dont know how impractical shipping would be since I'm in the states, but I'm willing to make you parts if needed. I have a 3axis cnc, a mill, and a lathe

[@metalmatters]

Appreciate that

[@alanALAN-bl2db]

Hello, man! Can your machine make motorcycle engine parts

[@alycapo3391]

never give up!

[@bowieinc]

Amazing!

[@Tachikomaster]

this is just too cool ;)

[@mosseon3456]

dude, get rid of the gas cup and make a chamber for it. even if it has leaks you'll still use less gas. Use an oxygen sensor to keep it filled. less weight on the system, less gas usage, better gas coverage which will be especially important for variable speed and changing directions abruptly.

[@ColeHajek]

Thanks for all the work you do on this! It’s amazing to watch and the possibility of a working prototype at the end, even if I only ever see it through a screen, is tantalizing. How difficult would it be to add some shielding to the components from heat and reflected lasers? I imagine such shields and sheaths would get in the way but would the safety be worth it?

[@trading7000]

I would love to progress to a metal printer, but considering all the big boys have gone down the route of SLS of metal powders I think for the hobby level of printing, doing it in resin first to create a mould and then using that mould to create your metal part is the cheaper option that produces higher quality metal parts than you would get from any setup like this.

[@metalmatters]

I've gone back to working on an SLM printer. That should be able to yield a respectable degree of precision. Still a little more work ahead though.

[@SamChaneyProductions]

0:09 Holy shit is that THREE fiberoptic lasers!?

[@SynthRockViking]

Lol i though thought the thumbnail was three lense in handcuffs xD Like an artistic statement about the more cameras/or whatever, the more I limit myself🤔

[@Sullabe]

Thanks for the time you put in to the vids. A few thoughts in exchange: have read of Invar powders being V good for low-porosity SLS (L-PBF). About the excess metal at the start/end of lines, maybe you could have overcome that by more passes at lower powers, to sort of pre-heat the powder, then final pass. Another Idea: by starting and ending each layer at a sacrificial/waste piece, to be trimmed off at the end. Or perhaps the start of each line had a something like an overlapping movement, sort of starting along the line a few mm with lower power, then building up to nearly full power at the line start, then back along? Sort of an intuitive thought. Hopefully you return to the project some day (dig it up?). Re the wire printer: when you mentioned the wire pushing through melt-pool I imagined the build plate being a 4th axis, turning so that didn't happen. Maybe an Invar wire would have interesting properties? Similar to another commenter: why not have a sealed chamber instead of gas flow? Even if not a 100% sealed, there could be a positive pressure from gas to keep out oxygen. Last thought - I read about Atomic hydrogen welding using an arc in hydrogen shielding gas. Perhaps this could be an interesting method of 1: producing the gas on demand using electrolysis of water. 2. Doing away with the inherent difficulties of working with lasers. Perhaps the arc is created between wires that are fed in? Anyways, this welding can apparently melt tungsten - using that with a tungsten powder in a kind of synthesis could be interesting?

[@metalmatters]

Thanks for suggesting Invar powders. I'll have a look into them. I'm amidst reassembling the printer. I'll have a chance to play around with preheating as this time I'll be using a galvanometer. I have to admit, I'm not overly fond of the idea due to how much heat will leak into the powder bed and how it will affect the metal, but I think it's worth trying. The wire based effort didn't use a chamber due to the expense involved in purging it and how much additional effort it takes just to do some basic experiments. I played around with an arc based process but found it to be too poorly constrained in terms of heat and deposition control. I don't want to rely on any form of milling as a post processing step.

[@BlueJeebs]

You could look at linear advance forthe bulging (happens with plastic too, although probably for different reasons).

[@tobyn2994]

if retraction is making the pooling at the end of the extrusion more thats gotta be from the wire puIIing the pooI of metaI during the retraction because unIike with plastic the metaI doesnt break tension with the retraction. The probIem stiII is that its on the nozzIe and wiII be deposited at the beginning on the next Iayer. maybe if you wait Ionger before moving to the next Iayer for it to cool or even extruding a bit of wire then retracting to give the metaI in the nozzIe and the nozzIe itseIf space and time to cooI and alIow it to cIeanIy break off the extrusion.

[@zebedie2]

I wonder if for the wire feeder you could use a 3d printer bowden extruder such as the Mobius M4 which is mostly 3d printed parts and a few metal bits from amazon for cheap, since it's geared down and has adjustable tension with a spring. You might need to replace one of the metal rods with teeth (since there's two in the kit) with something that allows for a smaller filament size.

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

Amazing journey pal! I don't know nearly as much as you about the engineering but what about using aluminium wire in a machine with similar topology to the automatic soldering machines ?

[@clkbateman]

This chap needs funding, could spur into something great.

[@cyrex686]

Wow, seeing all the work you put into the old printer just to have to chuck it in the bin. That's such a hard decision. Your new square looks great however.

[@farbodjam8973]

Dear sir, Im sorry but I dont know your name, I following your portal from several years ago, because I'm engineer I find some of your issues in any cases that you have. I give you some advise in below texts to help you and other guys. Please try to use standard electronics board same Mach3 cnc board I use that and it works perfectly and simple. Calculate termal extension in any parts that have contact with laser beam. The powder bed ned to redesign because of termal expansion and heat reformation. You need to fix the powder bed with fixture technique dont let that to rotate or re placing. You need to remove air aound the poweder wen its busy with sintering, you know that oxidation dident let the new melted layer to joint on previous layer you can use clused chamber with argon gas or co2 gas, dont forget that you doing Sintering or welding and not cutting. You need to cooling the actuator and other plastics bodys as well, dont forget to cool down the lens or lenses frames. Finaly when you use the powder tacke care that poweder stof have 0,00004 mm as max. sizes please let the machine working more on each layer , you need to use the section layers closeer to each others and dont put blaser beam for long time on one point. I want to visit your website but its out of access, I dont know whay. With my best wishes for you and your familie. Farbod.

[@metalmatters]

Hi Farbod. Thanks for your insights. Many of the above issues have been addressed. The system is semi operational now. The website was taken down due to inactivity. Hopefully I will have together a video for you all soon.

[@glodigit]

Very interesting stuff. I'd like to attempt to compute a solution but I'm currently persuing a safer, multimaterial way of printing in resin. I'm looking to add continuous fibres too to reduce the amount of parts that would need the physical properties of metals. Maybe some kind of atomised metal embeded resin is possible and a $1500 printer + $3500 sintering oven workflow could be a solution.

[@vremster]

Trying to think outside the box, what if you put the printer inside a box? Empty the box of air, as much as reasonably possible, with a vacuum pump. Then fill with CO2, so you don't have to worry about gas flow over the weld. It might be worth it just as an experiment.

[@TheRkgallery]

I think this is right way

[@NOBOX7]

Jeeezzze man , freekn guy could build a satalite in his closet

[@JohnDoe-rx3vn]

The ball on the wire could be mitigated by pulsing both the laser and the wire feed, intead of always on laser and constant feed rate. some of the trickier TIG welders i know will pulse welds to make them look better (at the cost of strength). if the pulses were spaced closely enough, strength shouldn't be an issue. Perhaps the answer to a difficult to control feed is precisely controlled steps that resemble a steady feed?

[@metalmatters]

Maybe so. I'd like to keep the hardware to a minimum and pulsing those lasers without killing them might involve quite a bit more work. It might just be easier to let the joint cool and separate the wire and weld by treating it like a fuse. There could be problems with this method as well though.

[@MrFaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa]

have you considered a brute force approach to the beading on the wire after welding? clip the wire after every end of a weld!

[@patrickfle9172]

Nice work as always! There are wire feeders for tig(!) welders with resistive heating, you seem to have outdone those in terms of precision. Have you considered using a tig torch instead of lasers? This might work better than a conventional mig/mag with your precision wire feeder

[@metalmatters]

Thanks, and yes I have. That's actually how I ended up with the MIG wire feeder and TIG wire delivery kit. There was just too much waste heat at too lower speed for it to be practical.

[@blw0rm]

Nice job! Hopefully, this version turns out to be a great success. Can you please share what laser module model is that?

[@metalmatters]

200W, 915nm, 200um fiber is all you need to know. They're fairly common. If you do decide to pursue this make sure you buy your safety *goggles* from a reputable Western vendor, realistically at least OD 7.

[@Omey731]

great work! hows is your project going ? also have you considered using a mig welder to print ? I've seen few example it def has potential

[@metalmatters]

Progress isn't too bad but slower than I would like it to be. I briefly experimented with a TIG welder for the sake of 3D printing, too much unfocused heat imo.

[@Omey731]

@@metalmatters keep it up! I meant the mig welder not tig, as in the one that already has a wire inside and it melts the wire on contact, it’s got potential but needs alot of experimenting

[@lovemacom3448]

Nice

[@Blazah99]

Positivize Pressure caused you to scrap the other model/design? OK, what about using negative pressure with like magnates, would that work?

[@aaronveale6402]

Hoping you don't completely drop the slm project. It would be cool to see the pros and cons of slm vs ded.

[@metalmatters]

I've actually dropped the DED project. Too many compromises had to be made and I still had some overarching issues which I couldn't resolve. I have been working on the SLM project however: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p3-pZJdvbq-ea68. Dealing with some mechanical issues at the moment. Will have it up and running soon.

[@naasking]

Why the lasers instead of an electric arc? Seems like you're using the arc for preheating, so why not go all the way with that?

[@deepaksoman135]

Great Job! I operate two DED laser wire metal printer in our lab at IIT Bombay. If I could help in any way please let me know.

[@marz.6102]

I wonder if you could use some thin sheet of metal so that it's cheaper to get it off the 3d printing bed and place a different sheet, kinda like using glue to cover the bed so the filament sticks to the thin dried glue instead of the printing bed? My guess is to try different thin metal sheets, maybe tin foil(I don't know)

[@andrewyork3869]

Heated Copper would be by first guess.

[@pengjinpan8293]

Have you ever tried to hack into those 20-30W fiber laser engraving machines? They work using Galvanometer and do one-layer at a time scanning, just need to build a z axis descending table and work out a way to output each layer scanning control codes and integrate into the z axis movement. Those machines are available 2nd hand about $1000 only.

[@metalmatters]

I actually bought a Nd:YAG laser from an earlier generation of engraver with the intention of exploring galvanometers. I don't think implementing a laser system is the difficult part. For me, the difficulty arose from trying to build a pressurized chamber that was both economical and safe. There are too many dangers around handling metal powders in my opinion.

[@pengjinpan8293]

@@metalmatters Does pressurized chamber necessary? I thought you just need a heated chamber and regulated inert gas inside. I'm looking forward to seeing both printer projects but personally really want to see the powder bed project working to some extent. By the way, your forum is down？

[@metalmatters]

@@pengjinpan8293 To the best of my knowledge, yes. The most effective way to deal with the issues brought about by the plasma plume is to use a pressurized atmosphere. I won't be working on the powder printer beyond this point for the reasons I've stated here. I took the forum down due to inactivity.

[@tw60407]

Any progress in the last 6 months? Your videos are awesome

[@metalmatters]

@@tw60407 A lot has changed in regard to the mechanical aspects of the printer, and there is still yet more to do. It's stopped me from working on the process itself and therefore I've little to show for it in terms of output, hence the lack of videos. Things are moving along though. Thanks for the feedback.

[@carlosponce1474]

once its finish will you print out a metal mario?

[@andrewyork3869]

If you decide to go back to a center feed could you use a servo or stepper controlled flexture to aline the beams and feed?

[@metalmatters]

I've since redesigned the head, allowing for independent control over each beam. I've been playing with the idea of returning to a central feed design. We'll see what becomes of it.