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Since the mind searches for an easier way, I want to make a flexible rubber widget without having to generate a mould print and then casting.
I propose an ink ( I have no idea what the molecular makeup would be) that goes through the 3D printer and comes out as a hard print of a widget. The widget
is then washed and voila, a flexible rubber. No fuss, no mess. Well a little bit of a mess.
Sweet idea, no?
[link]
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Silicone. Consider the stuff as found in tubes of caulk/sealant. It is liquid enough to be squeezed, but it contains something that keeps it from "hardening" (well, some, not a lot), until the silicone is out of the tube. (I think I once read that that 'something' is acetic acid, basically vinegar, so the silicone de-liquifies as the stuff evaporates.) |
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To get silicone through the nozzle(s) of a 3D printer might require a much soupier version than found in a caulk/sealant tube. But if the environment of the 3D printer was hot, say 100 Celsius, evaporation and "hardening" should be rapid. |
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I wonder if you could make an artificial eggshell
material. Contains a calcium solution, which hardens
nicely on loss of solute. Remainder of the printed
matrix is a flexible substance. Upon soaking in
vinegar (or some other weak acid), the calcium is re-
dissolved. (I assume you've seen that trick with an
egg...) |
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[Vernon] Hard plastics give the detail. Soupy silicone would lose form on printing. |
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[lurch] nice, maybe a plastic polymer with calcium bound side groups that take space when printed but then can be dissolved out of the material. |
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Ideally this idea needs an additive that is removable after printing for the current 3D printed plastics. Less crossing linking should give more flexibility. |
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[wjt], the droplet size matters. The hard plastics of course harden quickly after melting, and do it faster when the drops are smaller, and the printer environment is cooler. I'm saying that small-enough liquid-silicone drops in a hot environment can experience rapid evaporation, and consequent equivalent rapid hardening (since silicone is notably temperature-resistant). |
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You could always just print the mold as normal, then
fill it with a castable silicone or similar. |
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Surely... yep, you're right. |
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Most of the information has precipitated out or evaporated
away from that chem class I last took in '83. Or maybe it's
the brain it's all supposed to be stored in. |
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