I have created a 3D printer that can
print metal at home for just a 100 bucks. With it I've already made Motors Jets
and multi-layer PCBs and all of that is just a glimpse of what's
possible with this printer! In comparison , if you want to buy a machine
that can make the same types of parts today, it will cost you at least half a million dollars! And yet the $100 price tag of my homemade solution
isn't even the most significant thing about it! but, before I tell you what that is, we need to know how it works, and
more importantly how it's made! For that I need to tell you about electroplating;
a process that dissolves a piece of metal in fluid with the help of electricity
and then deposits that same metal on the other side of the electrical circuit,
where it can create a solid metal layer. Until now if you would have wanted to
electroplate a part with this process you would have needed to fully submerge
the part in electrolyte, the problem with this is that the metal particles can kind of
go wherever they want to in the electrolyte and because of that it's very difficult to
get an even coating across the whole part. So when you try to make a thick
Metal Coating you end up having entire regions of your part uncoated,
while other parts look like this: eww.. But don't worry! at this point I
had the idea that will make you go: "damn it, why I think of that!" If we only submerge a little bit of
our part in the fluid then we have only given the metal one place to go
and thereby we know exactly how much metal we have deposited exactly where.
then we just repeat this process and go around the part in small segments
to ensure a nice even coating. and I designed a 3D printer that does exactly
that! with the help of surface tension it can create these electrolyte bubbles wherever we want,
and by combining this system with a traditional 3D printer and some conductive filament we can: first
print, then deposit metal onto that, and then print on top of that again and repeat the cycle as
many times as we want, with no human interaction! Right away this lets us make multi-layered
printed circuit boards at home but, why stop there? I have already made Motors and
even ionic thrusters with this system! jJust look at this printer that uses a fully 3D printed
ionic truster as a part schooling fan! People! if this doesn't make you subscribe, then what will?
anyway, these things have a lot of cool features, but we'll talk about them later, because the
real magic is in the machine that made them. you see this is not just about printing metal, from the start this was intended to be a
part of the self-replicating 3D printer, and because of that, every part of it has
to be printable by the printer itself! not because we want the system
to be cheap or easy to build, but to enable it to reproduce
and to multiply on its own! Giving one printer the power to become a
factory that can produce anything, anywhere! to save us all from the faulty supply
chain, the middleman, the scalpers, to be a gateway to the Stars by letting us
build infrastructure structure on other planets! that is why this is not just a 3D printer, but
the heart of the new Industrial Revolution! now you know why it's so
important to make this thing work! and to do that we need a 3D printer with the
additional ability to manipulate electrolyte as well as do the electro plating
anywhere within the build volume. for that we need a tube that can move around and deposit these electrolyte bubbles
wherever we want to electroplate. the metal that needs to be
dissolved is called the anode. And this also needs to be able to move
to wherever these bubbles are placed. that is why I simply combine the two! the pipe that transports the
electrolyte is also the anode! And to make things even easier, the print head of our normal 3D printer
can already move in all directions! so we can just attach this pipe
onto it and call it a day, right? well... almost. the problem is when you're
printing plastic the nozzle needs to be at the lowest point of the print head. and when Electro plating, the anode
needs to be at the lowest point. otherwise the printer will crash. The traditional solution to a problem
like this would be to use a tool changer, but that adds a lot of complexity in electronics. so instead I made this
bi-stable compliant mechanism! just attach it to the print head
and when you need to toggle between Printing and electroplating, just
bump it on the top of the printer! I'm really pleased with this solution!
it's so simple, yet so elegant! something that wasn't as simple to make, but is probably the coolest part of the
printer; is the pump for the electrolyte! to transport electrolyte we need a peristaltic
pump. this can precisely dose electrolyte from the bottle to the print and then back again
multiple times during the printing process. it's perfect for our application! except there's a problem: the pump works by squishing this: a silicon tube! which is not 3D printed and thereby
it's it's not easy to replicate! it works! and actually, it works perfectly
well!, but we want to change the world, right? hence why I created the first
ever print in place pump! yes not only is it the first
ever fully 3D printed pump, but it actually requires no assembly
at all! print it and use it! it works by replacing the Silicon tube
with this thin walled membrane that can flex and pump liquids just like the Silicon tube! even even hard and brittle
Plastics like PLA can be used. anyway, since you cannot print a
part that is already in tension... well.. you know, usually... the lobes on the pump are not
touching the membrane during printing, but that means there are three
points during a single rotation where the pump would not be engaged with
the membrane and back flow could occur, but if you stack two of these things
together: like this with the Lobes staggered, then you can make a pump that is always engaged! and thereby stopping all backflow and even being
able to create even higher pressure than before! at this point I would not blame
you if you were thinking that you would never have to buy anything ever again! but let's be honest, sometimes getting up from the couch and turning
on the printer is the hardest part of the process! in which case you should check
out today's video sponsor PCB way! from whom you can order all your manufacturing
needs without having to get up from your couch! While we all love to make stuff at home,
sometimes we have to admit that we're not able to 3D print everything we need
for all our projects, at least not yet. but don't worry PCB way has your covered! 5axis machine parts, flexible pcbs
or even 3D printed titanium parts for your next project can be in the
mail within just a couple of days! and as a cherry on top, you can even have your
parts shipped fully assembled and ready to go! so what are you waiting for? go check out the link in the
video description! and find out how PCB way can help you with your project today! and thank you pcbway for sponsoring this video! so, before we move on to the last, but
still very important, part of this printer. (where I will also explain what I'm doing here) let's have a look at some of the parts
that I have already made using this printer to show you what it can do,
and what possibilities it can enable! this is an ionic fan! and for now all you need to know about it is
that the more electrical charge you're able to push through it without getting
a spark, the more air flow you get! in other words we have to try
different shapes to find the best one! and with the metal 3D printing attachment, it
has never been easier to try new designs quickly! so, while I wanted to tell you about
both this Print in place version, and this one that has a parabola shaped receiver. I quickly realized that I would like to talk a lot more about this than what
would make sense in this video. so I will instead make a full
video on this in the future, and maybe even pick up the race with a guy
who's objectively wrong about tomatoes. Welcome to the Ion Thruster War, SunShine. this is an electrostatic motor! and it's essentially the simplest
type of motor you can build. I'm showing you this part because
some of the commenters on my last video said they would eat their
shoe if I actually printed a motor! but no, actually,
I'm showing you this because I used a different method of plating
than what I showed you earlier with the PCBs. instead of using these bubbles
to control where Metal is placed, we submerged the whole part in
electrolyte by printing a cup around. it then we move the anode around
the part to ensure that all sides of the rotor are equally exposed
and thereby avoiding buildups! anyway, the eagle-eyed among you will surely have noticed that one of the paddles
on this motor is not coated. remember how electroplating works: the metal is deposited on the other
end of the electrical circuit. that is why only the parts that are
printed in conductive filament get coded, but it also means that it has to be
a part of the circuit for it to work! I chose to do this by printing the conductive
filament onto a conductive build plate. And the easiest way to get
a conductive build plate, is by just flipping over the one you already have! easy! Well turns out there's a reason why
we don't usually print on that side. the prints do not stick very well to that surface! and that is why the paddle was not coated, because
that one piece unstuck from the build plate! to solve this, I decided to roughen up
the surface in hopes of better adhesion. I tried sanding, electrode-etching
and many other things, but ultimately I ended up
immersion-electro-etching the surface with salt water. after all that the build plate
looked like the surface of the Moon! but it still was a struggle to make Prince stick! For now, it works. but I'm sure that Community will find solutions that work a lot better than
what I could come up with! and if you want to contribute,
or just join the conversation: there's a Discord Link in the video description! people there have already made great progress on
the printer that I introduced in my last video! the printer that can print onto itself, the Infinity-Z! the plan was to hook up everything to a single control board and have it
working fully autonomously. but I didn't want to release
this video any later than it already is so I have not done that part yet,... But! don't worry! because I did validate the process
with a SunShine bio-computer!... which is essentially me pushing buttons
on the printer that could have easily been automated if I'd only had
a working micro USB cable... Now, I have been working on this
project for a long time and it is not something I can condense into
a single 10-minute YouTube video. so for that reason: I will upload
a longer video where I will be answering your questions and telling you
about a lot of the technical details! that video is going to be available on
patreon, and if you're already a member: thank you so much for supporting me!
This would not be possible without you! anyway if you enjoy this you might
want to check out my other videos too! oh and don't forget to subscribe! and thank you PCB way for sponsoring this video! I'm Sunshine thanks for watching bye!
