
Show HN: Metal 3D Printing at 1/10th the cost - dpain250
Http://fabric8labs.com
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convolvatron
I have a friend who worked for a while in electroforming, where you make a
shape in something easy like styrofoam, cover it with a conductive paint, and
electroplate the styrofoam.

The results looked alot nicer than this link, since its a uniform deposition
and my guess is that they are trying to apply a localized current.

The real question I have is disposal. My friend had to quit, since even though
he never dumped his solution, he mistakenly registered with the federal EPA
and they wanted to see his solution disposal paperwork.

The best plating processes seem to involve the nastiest chemicals (i.e.
cyanide). Is this a process that wont require me to get special licenses or
worry about poisoning myself, my dog or my tomato garden?

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Iv
> electroplate the styrofoam.

Doesn't that produce hollow pieces?

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convolvatron
yes, it certainly does. the pieces i've seen always had a void or a hole to
extract or burn out the base form. but unlike most other plating i've seen he
deposited a couple mm of copper, so the result had plenty of strength

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pavel_lishin
Interesting, but the videos of their prototype are ... rough. It resembles the
shape it's supposed to be printing, but is very bumpy and imprecise.

It looks like you get 1/50th the quality for 1/10th the price.

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dpain250
OP here, the video is of our proof of concept prototype which we built to
prove the process. Our next prototype will have approximately 100x finer
resolution.

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pavel_lishin
That is very reassuring! I think y'all should make a note of that on the
video; otherwise it looks pretty rough.

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cordite
Hard to tell what is going on but it seems like a similar application of
lithography in plastics... Though they don't look "atom-by-atom repeatable"
sphere stalactites.

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EJTH
Looks promising, but yeah the resolution is way to low, but you know that. :)

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TaylorAlexander
Cool! Are you folks hiring? I've got some highly relevant experience for a
place like this. I'd love to help take metal printing to the next level.

[http://www.tlalexander.com/portfolio/](http://www.tlalexander.com/portfolio/)

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sharemywin
I hate websites with no prices.

