pellet printer, did anybody ever used/purchased one?

[christof]

Hi

My workplace is considering getting one of these:

https://www.algeos.com/voxelcare-vxc3dp-pellet-cube-3d-printer

Does anybody have hand on experience with this printer, or a clone of it?

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

I've only seen 1 Pellet machine in person - it was at MakerFaire in NYC - around 2016 - it was a CNSeeMe machine - like 25 feet tall Delta - with like a 9 foot tall build volume - and thus printing layers at like 1/4 Inch thick. But, the sculpture I saw printed was WILD!!!!

I find it odd - on the website - they show variations in Shore values by making bigger and smaller infill type layers. 

I will say - you probably won't find anyone in the forum who has hands on experience with a Pellet type machine - as they are not very standard. But, you might find one person here who has - maybe...

-K

[LukeH]

It looks amazing, but probably pretty niche. 

I never really thought about it, but I guess using a palletised system would make it easier to print really soft flexible and elastic materials reliably. That said, I notice that the company (Voxelcare) sells an otherwise identical machine that uses filament spools. I guess it would just depend on how much you print, since you would probably have to be spending a ton on consumables to make a pellet printer worth the fuss - the reason filament printers are so popular is there is less mess, they are less complex, and require less maintenance.

[Randy Zimmer]

I made my own years ago and it's the best way to print if you can deal with the limitation of crappy retraction since it works on pressure. It took two years to get it to work right.

I was working on a consumer model but some German guy was selling one that he was selling for less than I was willing to charge.

I make things I ship all over the world and need to have control of my plastic supply because come-backs are expensive.

I was having string made from my own resin and it's a big added expense since resin can be had for ~$1 / pound.

The big advantages over cost are: 1st melt of the resin is the strongest with the best layer adhesion,  any material in a pellet is available to use, like I said, material continuity because some purchasing agent doesn't change the stuff in the box you've been buying for years to save money.

Disadvantages: retraction, also, most printers aren't X/Y bed movement with Z fixed to raise or lower in place since the extruder and hopper are heavy and zipping them around isn't the best. The German has a flex hose to feed the resin to his and I wish him luck with that. The extruder with the screw is still much larger and heavier than other normal designs. I wasn't ready to sell a whole machine from top to bottom. Can't think of any more.

[Lee Foulkes]

Nice. Gosh it’s scary how easily hypnotised I am by this tech. I’ve done a bit of work with a plastic extrusion manufacturer. They would love that i think.  

[Kurt The 3D Printer GUY!!]

I remember you posting Years ago - of you making REALLY Massive parts with your Pellet printer design. Are you located in Utah??? Just checking to see if my memory serves me correctly...

-K

[Randy Zimmer]

The largest of my brake cooing ducts is 5 X 15 and I'm in Buffalo, NY

I've been at it since we went to a trade show and saw my first printer and thought it would be a good way to make molds.

I was making my parts in carbon at the time and molds were the worst part of the whole process.

The printer was the size of a microwave, only could make pieces 3" tall (if that).

The salesman suggested I could glue the parts together and that I should buy the service contract (because it broke down all the time).

It was $25K and the software to run it doubled that.

There was a guy in the next isle with a contact plotter. All the stuff added to 90K to even get started.

Six months later, I woke up with the idea of making my own from scratch and found Makerbot's open source ecosystem which made it possible.

My friend Mike and I went from the excitement of getting a bird's nest to an actual part in just one night.

The parts needed to be dipped in acetone to make them strong enough to attach hoses to them with the plastic welding rod string I located.

This was all around 2011/12.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Awesome!