A really simple really cheap really quick 3D printer that has a resolution of like .5 centimeter, that prints in playdough.

You could sell a million of these to schools and makerspaces. You could also integrate squishy circuits.

Actually, this shouldn't even be electronic. Just make it lo-tech so the kids could work from a template for each cross section. As long as the resolution was big enough each cross section wouldnt take them too long. there could be a copying component, so the kids could put an aiming mechanism over a grided picture of a cross section and pull the trigger on each dot, which would suirt a dot of playdough on the build.

Or maybe have a lo-tech and a hi-tech version, because it would be important to have the experience of designing a shape on the computer and having it appear magically.
-- JesusHChrist, Nov 29 2012

The_20Delicious_20S...ot_20of_20Liquorice liquorice printer version [xenzag, Dec 01 2012]

You could also load it with the type of clay that is later fired in kilns to make pottery.

I suspect your concept would have problems because clay has to be pressed together, and pressing on top layers compresses and deforms lower layers unless they are supported on their sides, and I don't see how that can be done here.
-- Kansan101, Dec 01 2012


Paraffin wax would work well. A cheap, relatively safe material with no "grain".

Shrinkage might be an issue.

Lost-wax prototyping can produce quite good metal positives.
-- 8th of 7, Dec 01 2012


Maybe the lower layers could be frozen or something. Have a clay that has a waxy fluid component to the clay that solidifies at any temperature below 55 degrees.

At what temperature does play dough get hard? Maybe it would work for this already? Tempted to buy some play dough to experiment with.

I wish I had gone to the 4 hour presentation titled "RHEOLOGY OF PLAY DOH: SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS TO DEMONSTRATE THE EFFECT OF VISCOSITY CONTRAST ON STRAIN ANALYSIS RESULTS" that was given for the GSA in 2008.
-- Kansan101, Dec 01 2012


How about using a tiny amount of heated playdough to adhere subsequent layers?
-- ArchimaX, Dec 03 2012


I like the electronics idea - if you could find materials that were squishy like playdoh, but which exhibited pnp type characteristics, low-resistance conductors, etc, you should be able to print integrated circuits that you could quickly try out, and then smoosh once their usefullness has passed.

What is the maximum working size of a pnp type semi-conductor transistor?
-- zen_tom, Dec 03 2012



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