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Registered Member #54030
Joined: Fri Dec 19 2014, 06:16AM
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Posts: 8
Hey guys, I am returning after a long hiatus from the forum. I started a family since college and I have been working on a SLS/SLM 3D printer. I finally have a working prototype and I attempted to start a business based on it, which is struggling to say the least. I would love to answer anyone's questions on the project/printer and would really appreciate any feedback the forum has to offer. My wife and I started an indiegogo campaign to sustain operations until we can find backing, or opensource the entire project in the very least. If you're curious, I am providing a link to the campaign. There, I have also posted a picture of the prototype in addition to an example of what it's capable of printing at the moment.
Registered Member #54030
Joined: Fri Dec 19 2014, 06:16AM
Location:
Posts: 8
That's one of the things I want to try with my laser welder if I ever get it finished, well, with metal instead of whatever you are using.
Hi Macona! Do you mean laser welder as in welding plastic sheets together? That's fantastic! How far have you gotten on it? I bet some of the stuff we came up with would be helpful for laser marking and welding. We're currently using PA650 because in order to use metal, we would have needed to include a gas purge in the very least. I'm actually curious how Matterfab does it.
Registered Member #54030
Joined: Fri Dec 19 2014, 06:16AM
Location:
Posts: 8
macona wrote ...
No, laser welder as in welding metal together. It is a 400W average power pulsed yag, runs on 220v 3phase at 60A and makes the lights dim.
WOW!! OK yeah that's a beast of a laser! I almost think you should strap it to a B1 bomber and turn some professor's house into a gigantic popcorn popper!
Registered Member #54030
Joined: Fri Dec 19 2014, 06:16AM
Location:
Posts: 8
mister_rf wrote ...
Hi Joshua, That's a nice project. I look forward to hearing back from you and learning more about your project.
Thanks, mister_rf! We started off with a very similar design using a diode laser like Sintratec. We found that dying the build media weakened the parts, so we decided it would be a great idea to incorporate a CO2 laser to avoid the need. We had no idea just how difficult making that step would be. We had to learn all of its quirks to get a proper power calibration. It requires water cooling and special optics because nearly every substance on earth is opaque to the laser's 10.6 um wavelength. The power output was so high that we needed to incorporate a scanning galvanometer setup to keep from burning the PA650 (powdered nylon.) To top it off, we were having problems with new layers warping as it the laser was scanned over it, so we had to incorporate a sophisticated surface heater system to combat it. Since the chamber gets well over 130 C inside, we also had to make special drive mechanisms that kept the drive motors out of the heat. The whole development process was insane.
Registered Member #65
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
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Posts: 1155
In general, people are just adding a true z-axis to open-floor laser engravers for SLS. 40W to 120W CO2 China tubes and replacement kits are under $2000USD delivered.
Issues: 1. Not a unique design, and thus an attempt to compete on retail price point 2. Retail price point is set by production cost 3. Production cost is a barrier to market entry that has been ignored
The trouble with academic Meritocrats is they tend to be blinded by their own notion of what’s important to themselves, and expect society to pay off the moral hazard. After reviewing the web page, it seems the creators have some personal budgetary management issues prior to even starting the project. To be blunt, wantrepreneurs are unaware that getting a production line started for even a toothbrush may exceed $800k.
I'd recommend starting with something less complicated like a z-axis kit for a popular China laser cutter.
Registered Member #54030
Joined: Fri Dec 19 2014, 06:16AM
Location:
Posts: 8
Carbon_Rod wrote ...
In general, people are just adding a true z-axis to open-floor laser engravers for SLS. 40W to 120W CO2 China tubes and replacement kits are under $2000USD delivered.
Issues: 1. Not a unique design, and thus an attempt to compete on retail price point 2. Retail price point is set by production cost 3. Production cost is a barrier to market entry that has been ignored
The trouble with academic Meritocrats is they tend to be blinded by their own notion of what’s important to themselves, and expect society to pay off the moral hazard. After reviewing the web page, it seems the creators have some personal budgetary management issues prior to even starting the project. To be blunt, wantrepreneurs are unaware that getting a production line started for even a toothbrush may exceed $800k.
I'd recommend starting with something less complicated like a z-axis kit for a popular China laser cutter.
Best of luck, Rod
Hi Rod,
I am not sure you're aware, but you're actually talking about me and my wife there We're those academic Meritocrats you're referring to. I just want you to know we're not trying to get society to pick up the tab for our business failures. We're new at business actually. We did do quite a bit of research beforehand to see that people would want the product we're making. We're also aware that it costs upper mid six figures to even hope to have a contract manufacturer on board. What we were surprised by is that we couldn't get to seed-A after getting a basic prototype up. I think it's a good thing that you didn't realize you were talking about us. It allowed you to be really honest, which is what we need right now. It's just really sad we come off that way. We don't feel entitled to success- we're absolutely willing to work hard for this. Can you please help use come off differently? How can we approach this differently? We're actually real people with good intentions.
Registered Member #65
Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 06:43AM
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Posts: 1155
@Joshua Dickerson, The nature of my professional life is isolated from my hobbies, but I can offer some advice:
* learn how to clearly define a finish line (what you are trying to do) in under 10 seconds. If you can't do this, than there is a 96% probability of failure. i.e. Your video should have had 10 seconds highlighting what the product can do with video proof, than spent the next 20 seconds in showing customers how easy it is to apply to various markets. * you can't file $30k legal process for pending IP... with nothing unique... it means you have to compete with China labour costs, and due to communist subsidies that is $0 for some companies. Competing for $0/hr is not a business, and hence you'll only have about 2 months of market time. * if the project does not gain traction, change the message/product/context
The hardest lesson is learning how to fail gracefully: * mitigate risk, or how many things need to go right for your project to succeed... * most people don't care about other peoples' problems, because they have problems of their own (don't take this personally, but try to think about your customers perspective)
Everything you need to know about resource management in 1 page: Note, this is why I recommended changing your project scope.
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Selective Laser Sintering/Melting 3D printer project
