3DPW: SteamPUnk'd Mini Molder

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

What cooler way to show how innovative 3D printing can be by printing a unit that itself can be used in 3D plastic molding. Here’s a cool Mini Roto molder concept with a little steam punk flavor to it. A 4 gear drivetrain is used to spin the inner frame while the outer frame rotates on the opposite plane. These motions combined make for 360 degrees of even, spherical rotation, allowing for an even coating of any two part pourable urethane or epoxy plastic such as Smooth on or Poly-Tek. The parts produce in this molder will be hollow and light weight. The maximum build size is approximately 4”Lx2.8”WX2.3”D, preferably using a 2 part silicone or urethane mold. The molder features adjustable holding plates with built in grips, to hold and allow for the centering of the mold. To maximize build size and meet the build size requirements, the manual spin handle was designed to be printed in the upright position, it can be rotated out once the filler is dissolved.

NOTES:!!

I’ve included the nuts for the 4 clamp “bolts” in the lower frame in the .stl. When the filler material is dissolved, you will be left with 4 loose nuts to be used to clamp down the plates. I felt this would be the best way to do it as printed with the nuts in place on the bolts might prove really difficult.

If there are issues with the whole “nut and bolt” system, I’ve included, a second .stl with the “printed” nuts and bolts left out. This way, you can use four M8 bolts from the hardware store and washers or spacers to clamp everything down. It just provides a second option of doing things.

Funny enough, there was another similar entry using the basic roto-molder concept that showed up earlier today. As I commented on the designers page(Louis Cordoba), I even had in mind to color it the same color as he submitted. We in no way had any communication about this. It’s a testament to how similar design thinking can come about given certain criteria, the color part was a little weird though :P. But I think it’s important to note that our ideas are separate, we didn't copy each other in any way, we just so happen to be using the same basic machine principal. My design took a few days to complete, due to being sick, I was delayed in posting the project. Hopefully all this can be considered. Both great projects, no copying done ).

A fellow GC member was able to do a 1/2 scale test print, as shown in pictures. So far, the design seems very feasible.

the backdrop image in the "realistic" materials render is from kayaksailor.deviantart.com.

Thanks for looking, Jon.