CNC guys...you gotta check this out...

[4cylndrfury]

Casting without an actual pattern. Prepare to have your minds blown!!!!

[Wayne]

CNC sand molding. Was bound to happen..... Wonder how soon before some hobbyist does it?

Wayne

[4cylndrfury]

CNC sand molding. Was bound to happen..... Wonder how soon before HARRY does it?

Wayne

fixed that for ya

[Harry]

Not for me, I want the 5 axis arm though for carving stone statues

Seems like their would be some market out there for one off pieces like that but I would think the money is in making parts over and over plus the finish quality suffers. That was really cool though.

[GypsyTinker]

That is very freakin cool. NEVER thought of it...

I think they will come up with ways to improve the surface finish too.

[Wayne]

Not for me, I want the 5 axis arm though for carving stone statues

Seems like their would be some market out there for one off pieces like that but I would think the money is in making parts over and over plus the finish quality suffers. That was really cool though.

You've seen the 3D printer that prints with sand, right? Kind of the reverse of what that thing does...

Wayne

[Harry]

Yes, the sand printer suffers the same thing though when talking about making a mold that will be used once. They just take far too long to make a one off mold unless you are only going to be making one of something and when you consider all the time in creating the model for a part then running it on a machine it can be considerable.

For sand casting patterns we always look at being able to pull the pattern from the sand, this could get around that by being able to carve an undercut to some extent.

It should be pointed out though what they were saying about pattern development costs, this is a very valuable skill in this craft.

The whole 3d printer field looks like it is getting ready to explode, I keep seeing Makerbot featured but there are quite a few home brew type solutions out there. This I think is going to be a small foundry staple before too much longer.

[OddDuck]

Kind of an uber modern take on using sweeps, same idea, creating the void without an actual pattern. I don't think it would be very hard to set up to do, come up with a cheap version of pepset or something for the sand, and a vaccuum setup for the cnc to suck up loose sand. (or do it upside down somehow so the sand just falls away) The biggest issue I could see from it is the sand would probably destroy the bearings in short order, you would have to figure out how to seal up the moving parts of the cnc somehow. Purty cool.

[Rocco]

Along those same lines, I too am wondering what the tool life is like only not the bearings but the cutters, there's no way of protecting them from the abrasive effects of the sand, they must get dull rather quickly

[Nudge]

Now that is just too cool
I think if I was to use a baked sand in a box it might work!

I may have to give this a go