

Solar-Powered 3D Printer that Prints Glass from Sand - seven
http://thisiscolossal.com/2011/06/markus-kayser-builds-a-solar-powered-3d-printer-that-prints-glass-from-sand-and-a-sun-powered-laser-cutter/

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pittsburgh
I'm running a startup that 3D prints custom eyewear. When I explain 3D
printing to somebody who isn't familiar with it, I usually show them this
video of a wrench being made: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW0NZgcq9yA>

Goodbye, wrench video. I'm going to start showing everybody Markus Kayser's
SunCutter instead. Not only is it cooler, but I actually think the video of
him printing the bowl in the desert helps you see what's happening more
clearly.

His SunCutter is a demonstration of SLS (selective laser sintering) which
traditionally uses a laser (or in the above example, focused sun beams) to
fuse small particles together.

We're using SLA (Stereolithography) to print the glasses, which uses a UV
laser to cure a liquid resin which turns it into a solid. For a good
demonstration of SLA in action, check out this video of one of the printers we
use:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&t=1m46s](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTWFWh1x-yo&t=1m46s)

Finally, some shameless self-promotion... we're about to launch the private
beta for our startup and we're actively seeking beta testers to kick the tires
on our eyewear-designing software. If you're interested you can sign up at
<http://www.oyoglasses.com>

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pittsburgh
This seems like a great way to build structures on the Moon.

Imagine if we landed robots on the Moon to gather up moon dust into piles, and
then satellites orbiting the moon could capture sunlight and direct that
energy in the form of laser beams pointed at the moon dust. The robots would
periodically brush away the excess dust, or add more to the pile.

This idea might sound far fetched, but back in 2005 some guy actually sintered
moon dust in a microwave oven. ( [http://science.nasa.gov/science-
news/science-at-nasa/2005/09...](http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-
at-nasa/2005/09nov_lawnmower/) ) This, combined with the op's article form a
good proof of concept for 3D printed lunar homes.

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fishtastic
That was a great use of a huge magnifying glass. If he can somehow mass
produce this, it would bring the cost of making planting pots to almost
nothing.

One problem with this design is that the light would deflect off the center
particle and melt other sand around it. In the video, pretty much everything
in 1cm radius gets melted. Unless he can somehow make it print in greater
details, I can't think of a better use for this other than producing planting
pots.

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pyrhho
Scale it up and build a solid stone building? Anything else medium to large
and stone, really. Giant statues?

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cowkingdeluxe
I'm curious about this as well. I wonder how effective it would be at building
a strong home cheaply.

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tzury
That is all nice, amazing and innovative.

Yet I think it is time to stop calling devices which create something and
connected to a PC via USB a "Printer".

Printer, print a material which you read. Anything else, is a robot which does
X or Y.

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blhack
Do you consider it a printer if it's photos? A friend of mine owns a print
shop that does very large scale advertising photos (like, building sized
stuff). Should I inform his industry that they should stop referring to
themselves as "printers" because they're not producing text?

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russell
I think of printers as devices which produce hard copy 2-dimensional images.
Star Trek coined "replicators". I think it fits pretty well even if the
current versions are only 1.x of a pretty big n. "Robots" better fits the
advanced articulated milling machines.

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dhughes
I thought maybe lithography but instead of lithos(stone) maybe a general term
for the prefix such as Dimiography or something like that.

