[ChuckInCR]

Hi All,

This is my first post in Rhino. I am a beginner with CAD/CAM and the CADZone forums. I just bought a copy of Rhino 4.0 and RhinoCAM Pro. I make small statues (50mm or smaller) and traditional jewelry items in wax and have them cast in silver or gold. My next step is to buy a very compatible machine that will make the figures with little or no distortion. Accuracy should be approximately 0.05mm. I would also like to limit the purchase price to under $30,000. I don't know if this is realistic. I would very much appreciate your suggestions and recommendations. Thanks.

ChuckInCR

[chmillman]

It's a bit pricey, but you might want to look at the Haas office mill. The advantage is you get a real Haas CNC control, but maybe that would be more for people who already have a full sized Haas machine and experience with CAD/CAM software...

Otherwise, there are many people out there milling wax with Roland machines who are pretty happy with them. Their controls are PC based, I think. Here is their specific-market jewelry model:

http://www.rolanddg.com/product/3d/s...10/jwx-10.html

--ch

[duluthboat]

For your needs you might want to look into "Stereolithography".
Gary

[chmillman]

Stereolithography is probably not an appropriate technique for jewelry making, as the material is not easily "burn-out able". However there are rapid prototyping machines such as the Solidscape which print a model directly in wax which can then be used directly for investment casting.

http://www.solid-scape.com/

--ch

[duluthboat]

SLA is commonly used to produce master patterns for many types of casting.
Solidscape is a SLA using wax instead of resin.
Gary

[chmillman]

SLA is commonly used to produce master patterns for many types of casting.

Yes, true. But it is not favored by jewelry people because the material is not as easily burn-out able, and the resolution, although good, is not as good as a Solidscape. The SLA quick-cast process is more suitable to larger less delicate castings than jewelry.

Solidscape is a SLA using wax instead of resin.

No. SLA uses a laser to harden a liquid photopolymer resin. Solidscape machines are more like inkjet printers - no laser, the melted waxlike material is deposited in layers by a head similar to an inkjet. It used to be that each layer was cleaned up by running a cutter over it to flatten it even more, I don't know if that's still the case. Solidscape claim the process can hold a thousandth of an inch, I have a friend who has modified his machine to do quite a bit better than that (at the expense of speed).

All of this comes under the heading of RP - Rapid Prototyping - of which SLA and Solidscape are but two of the many processes. Others are SLS, FDM, Polymer inkjet (Objet), 3DP (Z-corp), LOM, etc. Each process has its particular advantages and disadvantages. RP processes can be termed "additive" manufacturing - building up of material to form the part. Machining is considered "subtractive", the part is obtained via chip removal.

--ch

[duluthboat]

Stereolithography = 3D printing, that is what I am trying to say in general terms. There are many types, heated wax, laser activated resin, and some now even use powered metal. Ch, I think you would agree that Chuck would benefit from looking into this process before he spends a lot of money on a milling machine.

Chuck any way you go Rhino will help you with design and create the surfaces you will need.

Gary

[jalessi]

Chuck,


There are some important questions that you should be thinking about.

A three or four axis CNC mill will not do undercuts.

A mill might not be the right choice, depending on the organic shapes you want to do.

A Solidscape system would make much more sense, if this where the case.

If you where not going to do undercuts then a mill would be alot less expensive.

I am a jewelry designer by trade and have experience in both systems.

Be sure you see the system you are interested in purchasing actually making your prototypes before you make a fatal purchase!

If a mill will work for you, I dont think you would have to spend anywhere near 30K for a solution.

50mm model size is not a issue for either system.

A entry level CNC machine or the Solidscape will hold .05mm without any problems.

Jeff Alessi
[email protected]

[chmillman]

Stereolithography = 3D printing, that is what I am trying to say in general terms.

Well, no, that's exactly what I was trying to point out in my previous post... I'm trying to keep the information precise. It's amazing how many people lump all RP processes under Stereolithography... Mostly because it's the most well known.

Rapid Prototyping (RP) is the "umbrella" category for all 3D additive prototyping processes. Under that we have (most common):

SLA (Stereolithography - Laser hardening of liquid photopolymer)
SLS (Selective Laser Sintering - Laser sintering of plastic and metal powders)
SLM (Selective Laser Melting, like above, but the metal is actually melted)
3DP (3D Printing, which refers to a specific process of inkjet deposition of a "glue" on a bed of powdered material, originally developed at MIT and now used by Z-Corp and Voxeljet)
FDM (Fused Deposition Modeling - extrusion of a plastic filament to build the part)
Solidscape (Polymer phase change printing - inkjet printing of melted "wax")
Objet (Photopolymer inkjet printing - material is printed and hardened by UV)
LOM (Laminated Object Manufacturing - layers of sheet material are built up and laser cut)

There are also variants, for example the VisionTec system is like SLA but uses a less expensive photo lamp instead of a laser. There are new technologies and developments appearing fairly often.

But yes, I agree that Chuck should look into these systems. Mills are more versatile in what you can do with them (cut metal, for example) and are currently more precise than RP if you have good equipment. However, RP is much faster computer model --> part, virtually no programming necessary, just "print" it. Also they are capable of making forms with undercuts that nobody can mill, even with a 5 axis... That in itself is an extremely powerful argument in favor of RP. --ch