Wow - it’s here at last!
A 3-D printer that can print in any media at hand - plastic, metal, wood .. anything it finds!
If you are reading this - you are one of them! You are the ultimate 3-D printer!!
(no edit required)
Really? Sit yourself naked in a bare room with a pile of media - say, plastic pellets. Then tell us what you can “print” with them. You may be able to squash them flat by pounding them between your head and the floor, but that doesn’t make you the ultimate hammer.
Tools are handy things. And a printer is a tool. You are not.
You really are making me go there, aren’t you. 
Uuummm, don’t go there.
Hmmm? Might depend on the type of plastic pellets. A friend brought over some polycaprolactone pellets last Thursday evening. It becomes elastic at about 120 degrees, - tap water is enough to do the trick. We had some fun making little figurines like we were molding clay in kindergarten. Not exactly 3D printing. And we were not naked … or in a bare room.
Looking into the PCL stuff for prototyping, low temperature molding, etc. - without the printer.
Feadoggie
Yes, the whole continuum of tool and user becomes an issue when dealing with the interface between potential and discharge.
For instance, I print pennywhistles.
To begin with, I had to research the design - and part of that had to do with how the discharge cascaded in just such a way that I could continue to print whistles.
The original design was all to do with the cascade.
When the time came to initiate the discharge, things became seriously interesting.
You see .. there is another layer between potential and discharge.
In that space a lot of documented, but not understood, dynamics occur.
My initial design was influenced by a continuum of means which back-propagated through the design until discharge insertion saw a completely different beast get printed.
This was part of the unforseen constraint of the printer itself (machines) and a bonus opportunity on the cascade durability.
The thing that makes a human printer superior is the number of cascade iterations can be designed individually PLUS the additional cascade potentials that can be designed socially.
I am very pleased with the result.
I would like to have a mechanical 3-D printer that also does the design .. but .. well .. we already have one - it is called “culture”.
It all has to do with iterations of the cascade of discharge .. we are far better at that than any machine … because a machine will always remain a tool.
But atomised and separated, we are no more than machines. It is at that point we become tools.
I’m don’t think I want a whistle made from “discharge.” I had one of those once. It wasn’t pretty.
C’est domage – I thought we were going to see a sub-contrabass flute or recorder being printed.
A weapon in the hands of a craftsman is a tool. A tool in the hands of a tool is a weapon.
Any chance for a photo ?
trill
Some metals could be fun to play with too.
http://scitoys.com/scitoys/scitoys/thermo/thermo4.html
Neat! Yes, that is very interesting. It’d be fun to bring to a party … of material engineers. Guess this compound alloy?
I’m sticking with PCL for the time being though.
Feadoggie
Bismuth, tin, and indium it is a non-toxic Wood’s alloy. But it is not cheap.
Thanks. I did look into Wood’s and Field’s alloys from your previous link. PCL is less expensive. It seems to meet my needs so far. We may still use a 3D printer initially but low temperature casting with PCL is something we are looking into as an alternative.
Feadoggie
[quote="Feadoggie"PCL is less expensive. It seems to meet my needs so far. We may still use a 3D printer initially but low temperature casting with PCL is something we are looking into as an alternative. [/quote]
I’ll get into 3-D printing when they make a shot tower for aluminum cans, glass or plastic bottles, or steel and use that as feedstock.
Here’s an interesting thing:
Beat the drum - but watch the ripples.
Why would anyone beat a drum if they were not interested in ripples?
In some circles - it’s called “sonar” bit not all waves are compression waves in gasses or liquids.
There are other media.
I thank you for your reflections .. it reminds me that this medium is differential - not algebraic-linear.
I don’t think he means “printer”. I think he means “Von Neumann Machine”.
Something like this was in my physical chemistry text book.
Put flour on a drum head and tap to see the results.
Tools make things. I am fine with being a tool. I don’t understand how it has become a pejorative to be called a tool when you produce. A Mazak in my hands produces safety equipment. I just don’t like…
…something is wrong when being called a tool is an insult.
I’m pretty sure that the first time I ever heard “tool” used in that insult slang sense was at MIT back around 1970, and it was common currency on campus (along with “wonk” and “smoot”). I don’t know the origin; I suspect a physics or engineering joke or story that has been lost to us as the context. But there was definitely a sort of affectionate connotation as an insider joke or jargon.
Not too far from there, they take it a step further: I went to college with some people from Acton, MA, who used the pejorative “wedge”: the simplest tool.
But the tool doesn’t produce; its wielder does. In that sense, my take on the pejorative includes the implication that someone called a tool is only of any use under the constant direction of others; without that, left on his own he simply fills space and can do nothing at all, unless it be as a paperweight. And that too would require direction. As an identity, “tool” also suggests the mindless tender bits, akin to “schmuck”, “dork”, “putz”, and the rest. Which leads me to note that I’ve only ever heard “tool” applied to men.