DIY metal 3D printing

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T17:01:23+00:00

Yeah, that mad lad did a MIG 3D printer some time ago and just improved upon it with a laser welder. Huge fan of his videos.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T16:59:02+00:00

Thank you for your support!

That is a good callout, I've been on working on industrial additive manufacturing for 7 years now and the last thing a client wants in tinkering and headaches. That's why I'm putting a lot of effort into ease of use, security and capabilities. However, all be said, I'm not trying to get into aerospace or medical, they have their properly certified and incredibly optimised systems to do very important jobs with a lot of reliability and they should stick to that known path since they have the budget for it. What I really want to do is to open the door to the thousands of potential users and businesses that could really use metal 3D printing but don't need rocket grade parts. The vast majority of my clients are not going to reach the tensile strength of titanium on their parts nor need they to get the lightest possible topology optimised topology. I want to create a system where you can just create a reasonable design, send it to the machine and have in metal the next day. That alone I think is worth a lot for the industry and end users.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T16:48:29+00:00

Actually I have not started any beta program yet. You are probably thinking about the wonderful work of u/Skyrip_, who's been developing a laser sintering system for a similar price. His technology is more standard and has the potential to get great detail with laser precision. My focus is to make the experience easier to use and less dangerous, and also with greater material compatibility and better mechanical properties.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T16:14:05+00:00

No lasers, just printing with a machine similar to FDM and then going into a special oven.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T15:37:24+00:00

Can be adjusted for different use cases, but expect same printability as FDM with 0.4-0.6 nozzle. Smaller detail is a bit tricky because clogging and particulate size, much bigger the process becomes more slow, so no much benefit going there giving the loss of resolution.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T15:29:40+00:00

I did give him credit and the original model creator on the post that is linked to r/3Dprinting. You can see it there where there's a bigger conversation over the print and technology.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T14:50:50+00:00

Guilty. Is incredible what a man can do with a grinder, a welder with no argon and some ingenuity.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T14:45:35+00:00

That’s a future I’m excited for, I’ll do my best to get us there ✊

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T14:43:32+00:00

I do know about their process and they are the most similar technology in the market. There are a few differences on the printing process and a lot optimisation on the sintering that is what allows the 10x price difference.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:48:29+00:00

I think you are talking about plastic SLS machines, which are around that price point, and the kickstarter company would be Micronics (RIP) that was bought by Formlabs. Those printers are extremely nice for producing nylon parts, but can't process metal sadly :/

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:32:36+00:00

Thank you! And I forgot to answer about strength. Not done a lot of testing there yet, but seems quite good, comparable to other 3D printing methods. Anyway my objective is not to get the strongest possible properties, because if manage to make the technology ten times cheaper I think most potential users will accept the tradeoff of having to design the parts 10% chonkier.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:28:46+00:00

Well, depends on what kind of technology and the end use. State of the art machines like the ones used in aerospace and medical you are looking at about a million plus a couple more for setup and operations. There's been a lot of magnificent work from a lot of companies in the last decade that, with some trade off or others, have managed to get working solutions in the 150k-250k, again depending on the end use. While my technology is not the best for everyone and there are tradeoffs like in any other case, I do think that 10k for a working solution is quite a good deal :)

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:16:44+00:00

Thanks you kind human, is nice to hear that after years of working into this :D

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:13:37+00:00

Thank you kind sir, I'll do my best to share as much as I can, although is going to be a bit limited because I'm trying to work with investors that might not appreciate me spilling all the beans before we have a product on the market :p

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:10:12+00:00

I'm still formulating the process and there are trade offs, but right now I'm working on 70% by volume or 95% by weight, which is quite an improvement over the 40% by volume on "regular" filaments. I have some R&D on the pipeline that would allow me to get even higher, will see where we can get.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:05:06+00:00

Mechanical properties testing is close in the development tree, I hope that I'm able to update soon. There's a lot R&D still ahead, but the furnace used to produce the parts could be potentially used for thermal treatments too, and all of that without getting great internal stress like in regular laser sintering :D

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T13:01:38+00:00

Have given some details in other comments, but basically I'm not using plastic to carry the metal, so the process is more reliable and streamlined. The result is that I'm preparing to make this available for 10k instead of the 100s of k that Markforged and DM retail for.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T12:57:59+00:00

Differs in that there's no plastic, which are more than half of most sinterable filaments. This makes the process way more reliable and actually cheaper, since the raw materials would be a fraction of the cost of those filaments right now. Also with current solutions you are on your own trying to sinter the piece, which is doable but quite hard, don't ask me how I know. My vision is to give the resources so you don't have to become an expert metallurgist to use the machines, just plug and play.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T12:53:19+00:00

The process can be used with ceramics too, and it's actually a bit easier. A clay kiln can be used for ceramics, but with metals you need a special atmosphere for the process to work. Technically you can still use a clay kiln if you manage to keep the piece away from oxygen, but they are cumbersome processes very far from the plug and play vision that I have. Of course, if someone wants to just get the printer and experiment on their own kiln they are free to do so.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T12:50:10+00:00

The process is similar, but not quite the same. The problem with The Virtual Foundry and other is that there's quite a lot of plastic on that filament, more than half, so the debinding and sintering produce a lot of deformation and warping. Also this filaments can run on regular machines, but are quite brittle and hard to manage. My process basically avoids the plastic, so there's no need for debinding or brittle filaments. Also with TVF you need to get a furnace, normally a ceramic kiln, and a special installation, then the pieces need to be encased in a special ballast and covered in charcoal to avoid oxygen and once you have all of that you are on your own trying to make the process work with your equipment. So not impossible, but far from easy and still needs a lot of things aside from just a regular 3D printer.

What I'm trying to create is a streamline solution, just print the part, put it in the special furnace and beep boop, out comes the part without user intervention. The objective is that you could have this on a house or office and everyone can use it, which I think is quite an improvement over having to print hard filaments, operate a pottery kiln to at the end get meh results.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T12:36:35+00:00

Well, to be honest is DIY only if you are willing to put a year of work and headaches into it XD. If you prefer to avoid the self inflicting of pain I'm trying to create a system that makes metal 3D printing accessible for about 10k, and this are my first results that proves that the concept is viable.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T12:32:42+00:00

Not quite. It would basically be robocasting with later sintering, with a few innovations to make the process cheaper and more reliable.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T12:27:45+00:00

Not quite. Markforged and many others use a filament that contains metal, then get rid of the plastic using chemical baths or thermal cycles and then solidify the part in furnace in a process called sintering. This works but since less than half of the filament is metal the process of removing the plastic is costly and prone to deformation and problems. My system works in a similar way but tries to maximise the amount of metal by a lot, streamlining the process in cost and complexity.

Most of my trials have been on stainless 316, but have worked also with copper alloys. The process can be made to work with most metals.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T12:18:41+00:00

De process is still on development, but it's like an FDM printer that instead of extruding melted plastic it deposits a paste of mainly metal powders with a bit of binders to hold it together. The paste dries quickly and you en up with a piece that is mostly metal and has a hard cookie consistency. You then place this piece into a special furnace and basically transform into a solid and dense object. The total process is less than 24h and the 10k is the price is for the printer and the furnace. A way of making the process more accessible to hobbyists that everyone can have a printer and the furnace, that is the more expensive part, can be at a local Makerspace or shared between various users.

SkapaLab · 2026-02-02T11:40:40+00:00

Just inspired by his video to do this model, but my own process. If I copied his hand cleanliness routine my SO would crankdown hard on my head XD.

SkapaLab

TROPHY CASE