Stupid Idea, Possible??

[DavidF]

I was just thinking of the resin based printers while sitting here staring at my Rostock and got to thinking (dangerous) What if you mounted a lazer to the bed and sat a vat of resin above it (both in fixed position) then put a plate on the effector for a print surface? Would the resin just congeal around the point of light or would the effectors movement be enough to keep things mixed up for lack of better terms... Just thinking of crazy stuff while waiting on a e mail LOL

[Jimustanguitar]

We have different definitions of dangerous Try it!

What about putting the mirror and vat holder on top of your heated bed, shining a projector at it, and just moving the build platform up and down with the effector? I have some major thinking to do because this idea just hit me, and it actually seems feasible... Scary.

[DavidF]

I might just give it a go, just have to find out what wavelength for the laser and price it.
If its not too terribly expensive ill try it.
I like your idea too am I'm sure you would get much faster prints that way.

[DavidF]

I can see a rostock add on accessory in the making LOL

[Jimustanguitar]

I mentioned this to Oly last night at makerspace...

His first impression is that we'd be toeing the line on layer height by using belts instead of a lead screw. The layers are measured in microns, and they're very close to the approximate positions that you'd get out of a single microstep on a belt. That's why their DropLit uses a leadscrew, it's gear reduction to increase positional resolution essentially.

[DavidF]

Hmm, no doubt, but if you compaire apples to oranges and figure only a .1mm layer height, using a laser, and keeping the g code for a fdm print then maybe you would get lucky?? To me its basically the same and you could adjust the size of the laser beam and set it as the nozzle size in the slicer. Im thinking outloud mostly. I did price a laser and its surprisingly cheap, just need to figure out what iris. The one printer I looked at had a zero appature iris, so I figure thats what I need...