I got an email pointing at an interesting site about sculpting
metal by a method analogous to fast-prototyping-in-plastic machines,
but in stainless steel + bronze. See link to exone and description
in the second half of http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/process/ .
Links from exone refer to casting cores and molds direct from CAD.
(Of course, for many molds using a CNC machine shop might be better.)

Briefly, the bathsheba page says, "work up the design using CAD
software", then at exone "the design is laid down, one layer at a
time, in stainless-steel powder held in place by a laser-activated
binder", "the whole model is built up," "extra powder is shaken off,
the piece goes into an oven, where heat drives off the binder and
fuses the steel powder", producing a "porous steel part that's about
60% dense", then the amazing part: "the stems are dipped in a crucible
of molten bronze, and capillary action causes the bronze to wick
throughout the piece" and "the end result is a composite metal that's
fully dense, with properties intermediate between steel and bronze.
It can take a polish or a patina, developing either rust (on the steel)
or verdigris (on the bronze)".

-jiw

James Waldby wrote:

I got an email pointing at an interesting site about sculpting
metal by a method analogous to fast-prototyping-in-plastic machines,
but in stainless steel + bronze. See link to exone and description
in the second half of http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/process/ .
Links from exone refer to casting cores and molds direct from CAD.
(Of course, for many molds using a CNC machine shop might be better.)

Briefly, the bathsheba page says, "work up the design using CAD
software", then at exone "the design is laid down, one layer at a
time, in stainless-steel powder held in place by a laser-activated
binder", "the whole model is built up," "extra powder is shaken off,
the piece goes into an oven, where heat drives off the binder and
fuses the steel powder", producing a "porous steel part that's about
60% dense", then the amazing part: "the stems are dipped in a crucible
of molten bronze, and capillary action causes the bronze to wick
throughout the piece" and "the end result is a composite metal that's
fully dense, with properties intermediate between steel and bronze.
It can take a polish or a patina, developing either rust (on the steel)
or verdigris (on the bronze)".

-jiw


Wow.

That dude did some serious warpage to the space-time continum.

"cavelamb himself" wrote in message
m...
James Waldby wrote:

I got an email pointing at an interesting site about sculpting metal by a
method analogous to fast-prototyping-in-plastic machines, but in
stainless steel + bronze. See link to exone and description in the
second half of http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/process/ .
Links from exone refer to casting cores and molds direct from CAD.
(Of course, for many molds using a CNC machine shop might be better.)

Briefly, the bathsheba page says, "work up the design using CAD
software", then at exone "the design is laid down, one layer at a time,
in stainless-steel powder held in place by a laser-activated binder",
"the whole model is built up," "extra powder is shaken off,
the piece goes into an oven, where heat drives off the binder and fuses
the steel powder", producing a "porous steel part that's about 60%
dense", then the amazing part: "the stems are dipped in a crucible of
molten bronze, and capillary action causes the bronze to wick throughout
the piece" and "the end result is a composite metal that's fully dense,
with properties intermediate between steel and bronze. It can take a
polish or a patina, developing either rust (on the steel) or verdigris
(on the bronze)".

-jiw


Wow.

That dude did some serious warpage to the space-time continum.

Metal rapid-prototyping methods have been around for a while, including one
that's similar to this method, introduced by Extrude-Hone back around 2000
or so. It uses a CAD program (through STL output) to lay down the metal
powder in layers, with a polymer binder, which is then sintered together
into a 3D shape.

As for copper-alloy infiltration of porous PM parts, you may have some of
them in your shop. B&D and DeWalt were making the bevel drive gears for
their angle-head grinders that way at least as far back as 1997. And a lot
of automotive parts are made the same way.

This is not to knock this particular development, but it's not really a new
idea.

--
Ed Huntress

Ed Huntress wrote:

"cavelamb himself" wrote in message
m...

James Waldby wrote:


I got an email pointing at an interesting site about sculpting metal by a
method analogous to fast-prototyping-in-plastic machines, but in
stainless steel + bronze. See link to exone and description in the
second half of http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/process/ .
Links from exone refer to casting cores and molds direct from CAD.
(Of course, for many molds using a CNC machine shop might be better.)

Briefly, the bathsheba page says, "work up the design using CAD
software", then at exone "the design is laid down, one layer at a time,
in stainless-steel powder held in place by a laser-activated binder",
"the whole model is built up," "extra powder is shaken off,
the piece goes into an oven, where heat drives off the binder and fuses
the steel powder", producing a "porous steel part that's about 60%
dense", then the amazing part: "the stems are dipped in a crucible of
molten bronze, and capillary action causes the bronze to wick throughout
the piece" and "the end result is a composite metal that's fully dense,
with properties intermediate between steel and bronze. It can take a
polish or a patina, developing either rust (on the steel) or verdigris
(on the bronze)".

-jiw


Wow.

That dude did some serious warpage to the space-time continum.


Metal rapid-prototyping methods have been around for a while, including one
that's similar to this method, introduced by Extrude-Hone back around 2000
or so. It uses a CAD program (through STL output) to lay down the metal
powder in layers, with a polymer binder, which is then sintered together
into a 3D shape.

As for copper-alloy infiltration of porous PM parts, you may have some of
them in your shop. B&D and DeWalt were making the bevel drive gears for
their angle-head grinders that way at least as far back as 1997. And a lot
of automotive parts are made the same way.

This is not to knock this particular development, but it's not really a new
idea.

--
Ed Huntress




I'm not questioning the technology.

But take another look at that art-part he made!

There is some seriously convoluted mathmatics there...


Richard
--
(remove the X to email)

Now just why the HELL do I have to press 1 for English?
John Wayne

"cavelamb himself" wrote in message
m...
Ed Huntress wrote:

"cavelamb himself" wrote in message
m...

James Waldby wrote:


I got an email pointing at an interesting site about sculpting metal by
a method analogous to fast-prototyping-in-plastic machines, but in
stainless steel + bronze. See link to exone and description in the
second half of http://www.bathsheba.com/sculpt/process/ .
Links from exone refer to casting cores and molds direct from CAD.
(Of course, for many molds using a CNC machine shop might be better.)

Briefly, the bathsheba page says, "work up the design using CAD
software", then at exone "the design is laid down, one layer at a time,
in stainless-steel powder held in place by a laser-activated binder",
"the whole model is built up," "extra powder is shaken off,
the piece goes into an oven, where heat drives off the binder and fuses
the steel powder", producing a "porous steel part that's about 60%
dense", then the amazing part: "the stems are dipped in a crucible of
molten bronze, and capillary action causes the bronze to wick throughout
the piece" and "the end result is a composite metal that's fully dense,
with properties intermediate between steel and bronze. It can take a
polish or a patina, developing either rust (on the steel) or verdigris
(on the bronze)".

-jiw


Wow.

That dude did some serious warpage to the space-time continum.


Metal rapid-prototyping methods have been around for a while, including
one that's similar to this method, introduced by Extrude-Hone back around
2000 or so. It uses a CAD program (through STL output) to lay down the
metal powder in layers, with a polymer binder, which is then sintered
together into a 3D shape.

As for copper-alloy infiltration of porous PM parts, you may have some of
them in your shop. B&D and DeWalt were making the bevel drive gears for
their angle-head grinders that way at least as far back as 1997. And a
lot of automotive parts are made the same way.

This is not to knock this particular development, but it's not really a
new idea.

--
Ed Huntress


I'm not questioning the technology.

But take another look at that art-part he made!

There is some seriously convoluted mathmatics there...

Ha! Yes, it's pretty Mobius strips and Klein bottles, more or less. Very
nice.

BTW, I see that the technology is the one I was talking about. The company
is now called "Ex One." It's the old Extrude-Hone Prometal system. I took a
photo of one of their seriously convoluted demo parts for _Machine Shop
Guide_, I think it was, back at IMTS 2000.

--
Ed Huntress

--Be aware that "he" is a "she"! She's quite a character too. Met
her at the first Makers Faire. She's a brilliant hacker.

--
"Steamboat Ed" Haas : Don't order chardonnay
Hacking the Trailing Edge! : at a pizza parlor...
www.nmpproducts.com
---Decks a-wash in a sea of words---

steamer wrote:

--Be aware that "he" is a "she"! She's quite a character too. Met
her at the first Makers Faire. She's a brilliant hacker.



OOhh, My appologies Ma'm.

James Waldby wrote:

I got an email pointing at an interesting site about sculpting
metal by a method analogous to fast-prototyping-in-plastic machines,
but in stainless steel + bronze.

It works great, too.

I had them make some parts for me from an .stl file.
It isn't a super fine finish, but it does clean up to flat metal quite nicely.

http://www.exone.com/eng/technology/x1-prometal/

--Winston

Winston wrote:

I had them make some parts for me from an .stl file.

How much did that cost and how big was that part (in ccm or such). Got
pictures?


Nick
--
The lowcost-DRO:
http://www.yadro.de

Nick Mueller wrote:

Winston wrote:


I had them make some parts for me from an .stl file.


How much did that cost and how big was that part (in ccm or such). Got
pictures?

I just uploaded the pix and a description.
Pardon the lousy picture quality.
I haven't bought a macro camera yet.

http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/SmallSTLPart.txt
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/SmallSTLPart1.JPG
http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/SmallSTLPart2.JPG

I just checked my records. It looks like the folks at prometal.com
forgot to charge my credit card. I cannot guarantee that they
will make your prototypes for free but I still recommend that you
upload your .stl file to them for a quote.

--Winston

Winston wrote:

I just uploaded the pix and a description.
Pardon the lousy picture quality.

Nothing to pardon! I say thanks for taking the time.
Not very smooth surface, but you say that its getting smooth very quickly.
Looks a bit fuzzy.

What's their minimum charge? I didn't find it on their page.

WOW! I just saw that they do have a company in Germany.


Nick
--
The lowcost-DRO:
http://www.yadro.de

Nick Mueller wrote:

Winston wrote:


I just uploaded the pix and a description.
Pardon the lousy picture quality.


Nothing to pardon! I say thanks for taking the time.
Not very smooth surface, but you say that its getting smooth very quickly.

On the third example, I used successively finer grits of abrasive paper to
bring down the back side which is flat. It turned out nice and shiny.
I expect that some time with Cratex wheels would polish the concave surfaces
very nicely.

Looks a bit fuzzy.

My old scanner had a much deeper field of view than does my new one.

What's their minimum charge? I didn't find it on their page.

Officially U$500. but I did mention that they didn't charge me, for some reason.

WOW! I just saw that they do have a company in Germany.

I will be interested if you decide to have them make parts for you.

--Winston

Winston wrote:

What's their minimum charge? I didn't find it on their page.

Officially U$500. but I did mention that they didn't charge me, for some
reason.

Oh, a hefty entry fee!
But the prices at the artist's page gives some clue how much it costs. Minus
50% and times two for bigger runs or so. :-)


I will be interested if you decide to have them make parts for you.

I'm not in need for that right now. I do remember that the link to the
artist was posted about two years ago in RCM (and I lost the bookmark).
I'm more interested in the technology and playing mind games where to use
it.


Nick
--
The lowcost-DRO:
http://www.yadro.de

Nick Mueller wrote:

(...)
I'm not in need for that right now. I do remember that the link to the
artist was posted about two years ago in RCM (and I lost the bookmark).

http://www.bathsheba.com/

--Winston

Winston wrote:

artist was posted about two years ago in RCM (and I lost the bookmark).

http://www.bathsheba.com/

I should have written "I lost and found that link again in this thread"
The original posting contains it. :-)


Nick
--
The lowcost-DRO:
http://www.yadro.de

Nick Mueller wrote:
Winston wrote:


artist was posted about two years ago in RCM (and I lost the bookmark).

http://www.bathsheba.com/


I should have written "I lost and found that link again in this thread"
The original posting contains it. :-)

Now you're allowed to visit her site twice as often.

--Winston

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:43:49 +0000, Winston wrote:
Nick Mueller wrote:
Winston wrote:
artist was posted about two years ago in RCM (and I lost the
bookmark).

http://www.bathsheba.com/

I should have written "I lost and found that link again in this thread"
The original posting contains it. :-)

Now you're allowed to visit her site twice as often.

Another sculptor using exone services is Vladimir Bulatov (Russia),
http://bulatov.org/metal/index.html who writes: "I build a computer
model to represent this mathematical idea in 3D world", "Next I apply
custom algorithms to give the model nice body and organic look. I write
all software I use for this process", "The file is sent to 3D printing
company in California who uses state of the art technique to build real
piece from thin layers of steel and bronze composite", "When I got my
"green" pieces back it have rough surface. I hand polish pieces and
burnish them in tumbler with stainless steel shot for about 24 hours."

-jiw

James Waldby wrote:

On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:43:49 +0000, Winston wrote:

Nick Mueller wrote:

Winston wrote:

artist was posted about two years ago in RCM (and I lost the
bookmark).

http://www.bathsheba.com/

I should have written "I lost and found that link again in this thread"
The original posting contains it. :-)

Now you're allowed to visit her site twice as often.


Another sculptor using exone services is Vladimir Bulatov (Russia),
http://bulatov.org/metal/index.html who writes: "I build a computer
model to represent this mathematical idea in 3D world", "Next I apply
custom algorithms to give the model nice body and organic look. I write
all software I use for this process", "The file is sent to 3D printing
company in California who uses state of the art technique to build real
piece from thin layers of steel and bronze composite", "When I got my
"green" pieces back it have rough surface. I hand polish pieces and
burnish them in tumbler with stainless steel shot for about 24 hours."

That's gotta be a talented guy, to write 3D CAD software *and*
create those 3D paperweights too.

Very cool.


--Winston