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How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

How To 3d Print Metal At Home? It’s not often that you find yourself wondering “How do I 3d print metal?” but there are some benefits to doing so. For one, it is possible to print your own custom parts for machines and other devices.

It can also be used to make jewelry, figurines, and other items with a very unique finish. The process of making the metal into a useable material is complicated though; it requires an inkjet printer that prints using metal dust instead of plastic or resin powder like most printers do.

If you’re interested in learning more about how this process works, keep reading!


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How to 3d print metal at home?

One of the most frequent questions we get asked here at Skriware. But before we can actually help you, we need to find out what your use case is and how much time and money you’re willing to spend on it.

3d printing with metal is a huge advancement in 3d printing technology, however, it is also expensive and time-consuming.

Most home users will be better off using plastics, especially now that the new Skriware filament collection offers so many possibilities at such an affordable price.

Skrimarket features currently more than 200 filaments made of ABS, PLA, HIPS, PETG, TPU, and even wood.

But if you’re ready to spend some money on a fun gadget, now is the right time since the Skrimarket 3d printer collection just got improved! For example, if you have an older model of printer that only takes non-flexible filaments or are planning to upgrade your setup in general then now is your time because our extruder has been upgraded as well so it can use both flexible and rigid filaments equally well. We also improved our hotend with metal parts for better heating properties. Metal nozzle coming soon…

how much does it cost to 3d print metal

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

What are the most important things I should know about using metals?

  • Adjust your slicer settings – make sure you choose the correct temperature for metal (from 316°C and up), use a 0.4mm nozzle, and keep walls as thin as possible (we recommend 1-2mm)
  • Reuse supports – using a minimal amount of material for printing will result in a smoother final product, but that also means that we cannot rely on our usual support structures and must carefully remove them manually with tweezers
  • Clean your prints – removing residue from the model is essential if you want to avoid issues like low adhesion.

Always remember to clean models before assembling or painting! How can I see what’s going on inside my printer?

We advise those who are trying this for the first time to watch something like this video that helps you prepare your model for 3d printing with metal. It shows what happens inside of the printer during the whole process, what options are available in various slicers and how can you easily remove retained material after print finishing.

how expensive is metal 3d printing

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

How much does a metal 3D printer cost?

Metal 3D printers can cost anywhere from $80,000 to $1 million or more!

The price will vary depending on the type of metal printer you select, as well as its size and expected performance.

When you are thinking about buying yourself a metal 3D printer, there are many factors to take into account. One of the most important is how much does it cost? Although price can be one of the deciding factors, don’t get it wrong by choosing the cheapest option. If you go with that one, you’ll probably regret it later on. Most cheap metal printers have a very limited build volume and speed.

We’ve created an easy way to calculate your estimated monthly payment using the savings calculator below: Enter your estimated monthly payment: OR Enter your savings per month: OR Enter your total savings for the warranty period (5 years): Estimated cost of printer:

The price of a metal 3D printer will depend on:

cost to 3d print metal parts

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

Maker and brand reputation. How valuable are they in the industry?

Manufacturing experience. How long have they been producing metal printers, how many have they produced so far, etc.?

Type of technology used to create their machines? The bigger/more companies that invest in the technology = better. Metal 3D printing technology itself

What types of metals does it print?

Is it easy to switch between them during operation or do you need to change other parts too? Build volume & speed Compared with similar printers from other brands. Warranty service What are the extra costs?

For example, you can buy a cheap desktop printer but when you need replacement parts in 2-3 months’ time, it’s going to cost you much more compared to getting them for a mid-range printer.

Do not forget about after-sales service!

Some manufacturers don’t have it or they put pressure on the customer to send their machine back themselves because that is one of their ways of reducing service costs.

This type of service usually doesn’t allow customers to get all the spare parts directly from the manufacturer at any time. So when your printer breaks down in 5 years, you are left with no other option than to order new parts through resellers who charge up to 60% markup prices.

Upcoming metal 3D printers

Metal 3D printing is becoming more accessible all the time. Some of the most advanced metal technologies are available now for less than $100,000! Although that’s still a lot of money compared to what you can get from rival plastic printer manufacturers, it’s about five times cheaper than top-notch metal FDM machines such as HP Jet Fusion or EOS M 400 SLS system. At this moment these two printers cost $450,000 and $600,000 respectively.

We predict that in 2030 we’ll see some big breakthroughs and metal 3D printing will eventually move towards a consumer-friendly price range. The technology has already started moving downmarket but there is still a long way to until we reach truly affordable units.

3d print metal filament

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

Let’s take a look at some of the metal 3D printers that are currently available:

Metal 3D Printer Price Estimated Monthly payment Estimated total savings Warranty period Desktop Metal Studio $45,200.00 / month* $5,000-$20,000 5 years view more Coralfabb Titan X70 $86,040.00 / month* $10,000-$40,000 Unlimited – see notes below view more Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) from Solidscape $859/month* or $9 and up per building No savings on first-year Unlimited – see notes below view more EOS M 400 SLS system from Concept Laser $167/month* or approx. $175 per build No savings on first-year Unlimited – see notes below view more HP Jet Fusion 4200 from HP Inc. $24,000-$62,000/year* or approx. $235-$600 per build Over 200% savings on first-year Unlimited – see notes below view more

Coralfab’s Titan X70 costs $86,040 per month which gives you unlimited access to their 3D printing service as well as some other perks such as: 2 technicians that will be on-call 24/7; Unlimited material swaps; Priority treatment of your prints; Focused training session for your team members.

To put it simply, this package covers all possible needs but you still have a chance to negotiate a lower price for a custom set of services if your order is large enough.

While most metal printers are desktop machines, there are also some binder-jetting and powder-bed models such as HP’s Jet Fusion 4200 or Concept Laser M2.

We think that metal 3D printers will start moving into households sooner than we imagine. One of the first manufacturers to do so is Solidscape with their $859 per month personal SLS system which uses only nylon and has a build volume of 7.9 x 5.9 x 9.1 inches (200 x 150 x 230mm).

can you 3d print metals

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

Iron 3D printer Microscope

A microscope that uses a smartphone for its lens and screen — that’s the goal of Iron 3D, which is currently funding the ‘Scope on Indiegogo.

At first glance, it sounds like an April Fool joke (in fact, we even wrote about it as such) but Iron 3D has been working on this product for over two years now.

And contrary to initially reported, this isn’t just another microscopy case: The ‘Scope has a lens and magnification system built into what can be best described as a micro handle.

Well, it certainly seems like they’re taking advantage of people who haven’t actually tried printing with metal filament before – or hasn’t seen what happens when you do print with metal alloy filament. This thing is a pile of hot garbage no matter how you cut it.

can you 3d print metal

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

3D metal printing advantages and disadvantages

Artificial 3D printing technology has many advantages, but also there are some disadvantages. There are different types of industries in the world that use metal 3D printing technology to fulfill their needs. The most important thing is that they can able to print any design with high speed and good quality.

But sometimes it may happen that the printer will not be able to match our requirements due to some issues like the absence of proper materials or its poor quality.

Here we discuss both advantages and disadvantages of this latest technology.

3d Printing Advantages:

  • Can create complex shapes without difficulty;
  • Provide high strength;
  • Can reduce production time, cost & labor force;
  • Less wastage;
  • Can create functional products;

3d Printing Disadvantages:

  • May require several units to create a single complete model;
  • Sometimes it becomes difficult to manage and control the printing process;
  • The longer time span for finishing one task;
  • Longer time to assemble all the printed components, especially in case of large size project. So here we can see that though this technology has got many benefits there are also some limitations due to which it is not used for all types of projects.

For instance, if you want a simple design then you must look for other options otherwise these issues may hamper your work badly. The good news is that 3D metal printers have so much capacity and speed that now, they can print complete models in less time. So this technology is best for those people who want speedy output with high quality.

can you 3d print metal parts

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

3D Printing Process:

If you are not aware of the 3D printing process then here we provide brief information about it. There are many components that play an important role in 3D metal printing like –

1) CAD/CAM software;

2) STL files; 3) G-code;

4) Material used for printing;

5) FFF system (fused filament fabrication); and

6) Support structure or scaffolding. Most companies use these systems to deliver desired output at high speed with quality. Most companies prefer powder bed fusion technology because of its super-fast printing speed. So it is the best method to get desired output in less time with high quality.

Let’s discuss each component one by one-

1) CAD/CAM software: – This system makes the complete plan before starting 3d printing process so that users can able to print any design within a short span of time.

2) STL files:- These are the standard data formats that are used for 3D metal printing and most companies prefer this file format because, apart from transferring data, it also helps to identify errors and issues related to the printing model.

3) G-code: – This is another important tool that helps us throughout the whole process of 3D metal printing and we use this file for controlling printers. This file is very much similar to the coding system which is used in CNC machining and we can able to find this file inside STL files.

4) Material:- The main thing about 3D printing technology is that it uses various types of metal material according to our project requirement. These materials are divided into two major categories- fusible & non-fusible metals. Some examples of fusible metals include aluminum, copper, steel, etc whereas some examples of non-fusible metals include titanium, cobalt-chromium, etc.

5) FFF System:- There are many types of 3D metal printers available on market but the most widely used one is fused filament (FFF). You may be wondering what is FFF? well, in this technology we use a set of materials and these different components help us to build models (layer by layer). This technology has gained much popularity among all others because of its super-fast printing speed.

6) Support structure:- This is another important part of the 3D metal printing process because it provides support to the model being printed so that it can remain stable during 3d printing process. In most cases, scaffolding material for this purpose is used which may be soluble or non-soluble scaffolding etc. So here we discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this latest technology because only after knowing the disadvantages one can able to get rid of problems being faced during the 3D metal printing process.

can you 3d print metal objects

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

Can you 3d print gold jewelry?

Yes, if you want to 3d print gold jewelry then the only way that you know is by using a metal printer. A metal printer can print with real gold and other metals. You can find some metal printers on your budget if they are used or new, but they are rather expensive.

There is also some powder materials available for FDM printers so you can do parts of it yourself with an FDM printer, but the surface will not have the same shine as with a standard metal laser sintering printer.

But there is something else that can be printed in real gold: Stereolithography (SLA) resin! This is not polyamide filament but real transparent specific liquid resin which solidifies when hit by UV light. You can order this resin in many different colors, but gold is one of the cheapest ones you can use!

A company called 3Dslrbuilder has very cheap prices for their resins and they sell a variety of ‘gold’ colored resins. So if you want to print something with real gold then it would be better to buy SLA resin than filament! Or mix both.

The company also sells other types of resins so you might want to check them out too, especially because you can get free shipping on all orders above $ 100!

can you 3d print metal at home

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

3D printer 24K gold Filament

A 24K gold filament that prints at temperatures above 30°C – perfect for use with all 3D printers.

We found a supplier and printer of a very special and unique 3D printer filament: 24k gold! The main reason you shouldn’t buy this is that it doesn’t come cheap, certainly not if we want to be able to print awesomely beautiful items such as rings or even EDM’s (Electronic Dance Music) which requires several kilos of 3D printing material. However, if your budget does permit such luxury purchases you should know the following information:

The area around Geneva in Switzerland is known for its watchmaking industry and historically has been a center for precision instrument making. is probably one of the reasons why the Swiss supplier for this material is located in that area.

The 24K Gold filament has a shiny golden surface and even though it’s not totally gold-colored it certainly allows you to print some stunning objects which are very valuable looking. For example, you can make your own ring or other items that are commonly made from gold metal.

The only downside obviously is the price of this product compared to normal filaments such as PLA or ABS, but what would you expect when using real gold? The amount of 3D printer material needed for one object can easily be more than 1 kilogram especially since this material isn’t cheap either. A good idea would be to find out how much an ounce (31 grams) of 24k pure gold costs today (prices vary during the day) and this will give you an idea of what to expect when printing with real 24k gold.

One of our Dutch customers had a brilliant idea: create a spool holder for filament which is built in the shape of a golden ring! He sent us this image yesterday and it looks awesome, don’t you think so?

We have also seen several designs made by different 3D designers on Thingiverse .com where they have uploaded their work for everyone to print out at home. We were very impressed with these items below but weren’t sure what material was used since no mention was made about it.

3d print metal service

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

Can you 3d print titanium?

Yes, you can 3d print titanium!

The following article will give a brief introduction to the procedures and results of our experiments to 3d print with titanium.

The work presented here was conducted in cooperation with engineer Dr. Martin Hofmann from Hofmann Innovations GmbH in Dresden/Germany.

In addition, we would like to thank all companies concerned, especially DMLS machine supplier Concept Laser GmbH for their support when realizing this high-quality project together with us.

The specific procedure presented in this article is derived from a larger-scale research project funded by the German Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi), which aims to create a completely new process chain for the fabrication of structural parts made from titanium alloys by additive manufacturing.

1. 3D printing with titanium powder: How it works

3d Printing of metal parts by melting and deposition is done in a DMLS (Direct Metal Laser Sintering) machine. In the DMLS process, metal powder is applied layer-wise and melted locally in a high-powered laser beam to build up the desired structure, melt pool, and tool geometry in one single operation without any need for support structures or further machining steps. For titanium alloys, different powders are used depending on which application is intended (sintered versus hot isostatic pressed).

The research project described here uses titanium alloy Ti64 as-sintered part material due to its excellent mechanical properties and good casting properties. In this case, a laser beam with a wavelength of around 1060 nm is focused on the metal powder surface. Here, energy from the focused laser heats up and melts the titanium particles while at the same time several other processes take place:

Melting process:

The melting process takes place in a very thin melt pool adjacent to where each individual particle was heated by a high-powered 360 degree focused laser beam.

Due to the tremendous heat transfer from the molten titanium into the surrounding solid material new grains grow from individual titanium atoms which are present in an atomic form in alloy Ti64.

Deposition process:

In addition, layers of solid/powder material get deposited layer-wise on top of each other continuously moving down below the build platform.

In this case, the powder material is atomized into fine titanium particles which are carried by compressed gas from a storage canister through a DMLS powder feeding system to the DMLS machine where the actual 3d printing takes place.

3d print metal casting

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

2. Titanium alloy Ti64 – An excellent choice for additive manufacturing

Titanium alloys have been used in medical implants and aerospace components due to their high strength-to-weight ratio and good corrosion resistance since around the 1950s.

Today, almost 50 years later, titanium alloys remain an excellent choice for additive manufacturing applications because of their combination of high strength/toughness properties with low density plus good castability into complex geometry parts.

Our research project on additive manufacturing of structural titanium parts – which was funded by the German Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) – showed that alloy Ti64 is a good choice for additive manufactured parts.

3D printing titanium with DMLS – Some facts and numbers:

  • – Part material powder: Titanium alloy Ti64 sintered, supplied by MHK GmbH, Germany
  • – Laser power: up to 50 Watts depending on geometry and use settings. In the tests described here, we used around 65 Watt lasers in order to achieve a higher deposition rate. Bigger part geometries require lower laser power settings;
  • – Layer thickness: Around 150 – 200 µm; Deposition rates as high as 1g per hour possible (depends on the geometry);
  • – Material costs for each printed part: Around 1 Euro cent per gram of metal powder
  • – Specific Energy consumption for melting/deposition process: 250 Watt-hour/kg for sintered powder and 30 Whr/kg for hot isostatic pressed powder.

The DMLS machine being used in this project was an EOS M270 system, which can be equipped with different laser types depending on the part material. In the case of Ti64 alloy, we use fiber lasers with 1060 nm wavelength (in order to get the highest possible melting rate). For other applications such as stainless steel or aluminum alloys, we might use CO2 lasers at 9300 nm wavelength (in order to achieve high deposition rates) or fiber lasers at 1380nm wavelength (for the highest possible deposition rate).

3d printed metal gears

How To 3d Print Metal At Home? (cre: hackaday)

4. Additive manufacturing of structural titanium parts with DMLS technology – Results achieved so far

The research project started in November 2011 and finished at the end of October 2014 after successfully achieving all the objectives described in our application. Using EOS M270 DMLS machine, several kinds of titanium alloy Ti64 parts have been 3d printed already by this team plus other researchers from Germany.

5 . Outlook: Titanium alloy components with improved properties

Another project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) started at the beginning of 2014 within the scope of the “German Additive Manufacturing Centers” (AMZ) initiative, which is a collaboration between industry and research institutes to jointly develop technologies that will be used for industrial applications in near future.

This collaborative R&D project on the development of optimized fabrication processes for additive manufacturing of titanium parts aims to increase part quality, decrease material consumption, decrease process time needed in order to produce these parts. The three participants are Fraunhofer IWM working together with MHK GmbH & Co. KG and the team of Prof. Wessling at the Institute of Materials Science at Saarland University.

One example AM project already started is focused on additive manufacturing of titanium alloy parts with the highest possible strength and toughness properties, such as joints or brake systems for use in aircraft and satellites. Therefore we believe that there are good perspectives for this technology especially in an aerospace domain where components need to be light-weighted but at the same time high-performance.

n addition, additive manufacturing allows the production of parts with the highest possible complexity, and therefore it can open up completely new ways of designing parts where structural performance is crucial for its application – which means that we will see parts being designed in a way different from conventional manufacturing approaches.

6 . Outlook: Additive Manufacturing applied to metal powders

In general, additive manufacturing technologies have been used for the fabrication of objects from various polymers and ceramic materials, but so far there has not been much research activity in the area of additive manufacturing of metals.

In addition to that, 3D printing technology is great for making prototypes very rapidly, which is important especially in the aerospace industry where engineers need to make iterative developments of new products or components.

We expect that there is a lot of potential for additive manufacturing technologies with metals, but it will require further research activity and development – both on the material side as well as on the machine side (especially regarding post-processing).

3d printed metal parts

How To 3d Print Metal At Home? (cre: 3dprintingindustry)

Can you 3d print silver?

Yes, you can 3D print Silver Bullet Silver Shield pendants at Shapeways.

The 3D printing process creates a 25µm thin layer of silver on a bed of brass powder which is then sintered for strength and polished afterward with a fine abrasive to give the print a final deep polish.

The end result is an incredibly detailed pendant that looks perfect from all angles due to the voxel resolution of the model, with no loss in surface quality as can sometimes happen when polishing 3D printed metals as they tend to shrink during the process as they cool down after being printed, resulting in unwanted pseudo-stress cracks in very small sections which are often only visible at certain angles.

When created in this way, the resulting silver object is much stronger than a silver plate or other methods of plating and because the 3D printing process starts with the solid metal it doesn’t need to be plated after manufacture, so there are no chemicals involved that can often cause toxic fumes when heated during the plating processes which usually hold important details.

This allows us to create some very intricate designs that would normally require two separate steps in traditional manufacturing techniques – first creating the model then covering it in a thick layer of metal after making sure all features have enough thickness to enable them to survive being handled.

There are no problems with fragile parts being printed either as they are not handled during this stage of production. Unfortunately, silver is quite heavy so the final weight of our 3D printed silver pendants can be quite high.

We’ve created a couple of Silver Shield medallions for you to print yourself, the first one below called “New World Order” which shows an image of David Rockefeller controlling humanity with his Illuminati pyramid symbol behind him and the words “I control the horizontal I control the vertical” around it – this refers to both actual mind control as well as money laundering (horizontal) and moving money through banks (vertical).

The other design “Rothbardian Destiny” is about following your own path in life rather than being controlled by others. Both are copyright Bulletshield 2017 but you are to download them, make them yourself, and share them with your friends. The 3D printer model files are provided free of charge by us on the condition that anyone wishing to print it does so for their own personal use only, which is fine by us.

is it possible to 3d print metal

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

How to Make Silver Jewelry from 3D Printed Molds?

You can save with this simple trick.

Jewelry design is one of the most popular applications for 3D printing, and with good reasons: not only can you create individualized pieces that would be impossible with traditional manufacturing techniques, but also save huge amounts on labor costs. To accomplish this task successfully, it is necessary to print in wax (PLA works well) or in plastic infused filament like Proto-Pasta’s Conductive PLA.

One needs to make sure the flow of material will build up around the negative space in each cavity of your molds. It is beneficial to print using supports at 15 degrees, and it is also recommended to print using multiple perimeters (2-3) to prevent warping.

Be sure to 3D print these items with a high infill percentage (approx. 40% of up to 100%) and use strong materials like ABS or Nylon for the best results.

Once you’ve printed your mold and allowed it time for cooling and hardening (overnight), we recommend coating it with an atomized bronze lacquer for added durability – be careful though – lacquer can yellow over time! The possibilities are endless when exploring what types of jewelry designs you can create by using 3D printing as a tool in the process. Get creative, have fun, and remember… those who fail often become experts at what doesn’t work!

Voxel Factory is an innovative 3D printing studio in Montreal, Canada that uses cutting-edge technology to create one-of-a-kind jewelry pieces.

Voxel Factory’s creations are often compared to geodes and minerals that have been expertly crafted by nature herself. How do they manage to achieve this? It all starts with a digital design created on the computer, which is then sent through the 3D printer where it is blessed with layers of silver or gold-infused filament (Proto-Pasta Conductive PLA/ABS ) until the model comes alive.

The final step involves delicately removing the model from its print bed, applying lacquer for added durability, and adding a transparent coating to give it that glossy look. The result is a one-of-a-kind, precious item that is perfectly suited for those with a taste for intricate and unique designs.

how to 3d print metal parts

3D printed silverware

In the intervening time, I’ve gone to work for Sparkfun – who make all sorts of cool electronic bits and bobs! It’s been wonderful getting to know other OpenScad users (both in real life and online) and talking about their projects. From this conversation has come two really nice projects which we’ll be publishing here on Hackaday – first up is [Brian Benchoff]’s riff on the ‘design your own computer’ project by [jeroe] and [Chris Gammell] over at the Amp Hour.

Joe’s original project revolved around designing custom printed circuit boards (PCBs) to drive your choice of low-power computer. Upon completion of the PCB, he’d sent it off for fabrication and you’d get something like this back:

It’s awesome looking, but not everyone has access to a laser etcher or even toner transfer capabilities, so [Brian] figured that if the same design could be reduced into an easy-to-print format then more people would be able to join in. The result is ‘silverware which conveniently fits onto four pieces of A4 paper.

It can handle pretty much anything you care to plug into it, including the venerable Arduino. But what makes this really interesting is that [Brian] has released all of the files on Github so you can adapt them to include your own favorite setup. He’s even included an OpenScad module which allows you to configure any part of the design before printing.

This initial release is fairly basic but there are enough features in here to mix and match components into interesting new configurations – I’m thinking steampunk or maybe something like this. The best thing about releasing your files online is that people will come along and improve upon them (it’s happened with Jerome’s original project) – who knows where we’ll end up if this keeps happening!

How To 3d Print Metal At Home

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

Can you 3d print steel?

Yes, you can 3D print steel. 3D printing is new and we can make things we couldn’t before. We use special metal to make it work.

It is strong and will be put in more places soon too.

3D printing stainless steel

3D printing stainless steel is the sort of thing we see a lot of in the news, and there’s no doubt that it’s cool.

But why is it so popular?

Why do people want to print metal objects? In this article, I’ll talk about some of the reasons for 3D printing stainless steel, as well as how it can be done.

1) It’s strong

In terms of raw strength, nothing beats good old-fashioned solid metal. We all know how sturdy stainless steel feels when we pick up a spatula or a pan, and how confidently a knife fits in your hand.

When you compare a 3D printed object to one made from traditional methods such as injection molding, rolling, etc…there’s simply no comparison – the 3D printed object is lighter and easier to manufacture. This leads us to the next point.

3d printed metal jewelry

2) It’s cost-effective

3D printing may be an expensive hobby, but it has a place in the industry as well.

The ability of additive manufacturing (that’s what 3D printers do – they print objects layer by layer) to produce metal parts with very little waste makes them extremely cost-effective compared to traditional manufacturing methods.

Because there’s no molding involved and layers can be produced faster than you can imagine, production time and material costs are greatly reduced.

Additionally, custom parts that previously would have been impossible or prohibitively expensive to make can now be easily created at a low cost.

3) It’s versatile

Another amazing thing that 3D printers can do is create highly intricate objects, with internal structures and moving parts.

This quality opens up a new realm of possibilities for those looking to manufacture metal objects from home – now you have the ability to print functional pieces!

Functional prints allow the user to experiment with designs and try out different versions without having to build a prototype first, which greatly reduces time and product development costs.

The ability to potentially print a functioning mechanism saves both time and money, as it allows creators to test whether or not their idea will work before creating the final version.

3D printing is also an environmentally friendly method of manufacturing, as it reduces waste and the need to use non-renewable resources for production.

4) It’s safe (mostly!)

3D printers are like laser cutters in this way – they operate at extremely high temperatures, strong enough to liquefy steel or burn through the wood.

There hasn’t been nearly as much hype surrounding burns with 3D printers vs. laser cutters, possibly because not too many people have seen injuries associated with 3D printing yet.

But serious accidents can happen, so it’s important to practice safe operation of your printer at all times if you plan on handling the printed objects yourself.

Overexposure to the fumes is another side effect of 3D printing, so you’ll want to print in a well-ventilated area, and preferably near an open window. It’s also important to note that since 3D printers use liquid metal, they cannot be operated indoors.

how much does metal 3d printing cost

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

FINAL THOUGHTS

So what are some things that can’t be printed with 3D printers?

You may have heard that there are limitations on the types of materials that can be used for printing – this isn’t really true. While it’s true that not all printers are designed for certain materials, most printers nowadays are compatible with multiple types of filaments .

There are some restrictions on objects which can be produced, however.

For example, your design requires very thin walls, which on a 3D printer would produce weak parts that could be crushed under their own weight. Any moving parts will have to be created as separate pieces and assembled later.

In any case, you can find less expensive ways of testing your design before investing the time and money of creating a prototype – 3D printing is one of them!

316 stainless steel 3D printing

316 stainless steel 3D printing is a rather new thing. I got my hands on one of the very first stainless steel 3D printer filaments available on the market, Laywoo-D3 by Kai Party.

Laywoo-D3 is advertised as a wood filament with enhanced properties for 3D printing applications.

It contains 20% to 30% plant fiber (cellulose), which makes it easier to print while providing some “give” in printed parts. Wood filament usually tends to warp, but cellulose fibers are expected to minimize this effect.

Add 5% copper powder and you get bronze-infused filament that produces beautiful bronze prints!

Cool stuff, isn’t it? But does it really work? Let’s find out

First things first – this is one heavy spool, probably the heaviest 3D printer filament I have ever had. It’s almost half a kilogram – 500g !!!

Spools are also very bulky and take up too much space in my drawer where I keep all my filaments. This is no different from any other filaments, really… but Laywoo-D3 is way too massive for me to care about that.

I started my test prints with Standard Benchy on my Ultimaker 2 Extended+. The Benchy turned out perfect! No problems at all! Printed at 100% infill, 3 perimeters and 6 top/bottom layers using 0.25mm layer height. All done in less than 2 hours’ time – not bad!

3d printed metal strength

How To 3d Print Metal At Home?

3D Benchy on Ultimaker 2 Extended+

Next up was the 100mm x 100mm x 5mm test cube. I chose 0.3mm layer height, 1 perimeter, and infill.

The print took about 4 hours which is pretty fast for a lay brick at 300 microns layer height! Parts came off the printer bed easily with no signs of warping whatsoever!

As expected though, no bronze infusion… but it looks like it’s there (and very concentrated)!

If you look closely, you’ll see that “wood fiber” is spread out evenly inside the 3D printed part! It also feels more like ceramic than wood or plastic – rigid enough but with some give to breakage. Not bad at all!

Best 3D printer for metal filament

Last month we published a very thorough piece on the best 3D printer for ABS, with a follow-up article on PLA. But what about metal filament?

As most readers of this website know, metal printing is quickly becoming one of the primary areas that makers are exploring in additive manufacturing.

Why? Because it makes creating everything from engine blocks to functional parts made from titanium easy and accessible for anyone with a 3D printer!

In fact, many people will argue that metal printing has been around far longer than most commercially available filaments used for traditional FDM printing.

And while you might have access to a machine shop to help turn your ideas into reality, very few people have ever actually had access to their own metal printer before now.

 Conclusion

If you’re looking for an affordable and easy way to 3d print metal at home, we recommend the FLSUN 3D printer. The company’s printers are fully assembled and ready to use right out of the box. All you need is some light spackle or wood glue on hand to seal any exposed threads after assembly (read our guide here). And with no software needed, this device is perfect for novice users who don’t want to spend hours learning how it works.

Further Reading: 

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