3d print in water?

[Pilcrowdesigns]

curious as to why one hasn't come up yet.
Not sure how easy this would be or if it would work.
But couldn't you have an extruder that can submerge in water as it prints?
The stuff it would be printing is wax or a chavant based clay of sorts.

So imagine the extruder having a 6-7 inch reservoir for the wax to sit in. As it heats up, the wax begins to drip through the extruder on to the base that is submerged in cold water curing the wax almost instantly.

I was thinking if this was possible. It would be a better printer for sculptors, cause they can then refine the forms and details on the wax or clay like subject without
making throw away molds. After the piece is molded, it could be re-melted to be used again.

Good idea? bad idea?

[Generic Default]

So the hotend and effector platform would be submerged entirely? If it could be made waterproof that would work, of course the hotend would have to be thermally insulated a lot so it wouldn't lose all of its heat to the water. And how would you push the wax through the nozzle orifice?

[Pilcrowdesigns]

Good thinking, I didn't even think of the tip being cooled haha.. hmm maybe if the piece that was holding the wax stayed warm and had something pressing from the top to push it out would work.. Or before a print started, if the base was raised slightly above the water and it put down some wax, then the base lowered slowly back down into the water. So as its printing, the tip is barely touching the water maybe have a tip with a metal tube at the end so that is submerged but the main tip itself isn't so it stays hot. Wax melts at I think 78 degrees.. or 86.. I forgot. So if the water was between 60 and 80 and the wax that was being pushed out was 120-140.. I wouldn't think that little tube at the tip would get cold too.. I wish I was smart enough to build my own and try it out.. But all that goes over my head.

But imagine an extruder that stays 12-15 inches high and just moves back and forth, left to right.. the base lowers down into the water as its being printed.. might work.

[Captain Starfish]

Using water to cool a very liquid extrudate is a good idea.

What about a paste extruder which only heats the wax to a temperature where it's soft, instead? That way it's cool enough to retain its shape, warm enough to extrude, warm enough to bond to the previous layer and there's a whole lot less stuffing around with water vs electronics.

Maybe look at one of the paste extruder designs and, instead of using a hot end, work out ways of heating the reservoir and ALL of the paste to a temperature where it will extrude without dribbling.

[Pilcrowdesigns]

I really like that idea too! it could work well with a chavant style clay.. cause once that is warm, it holds its temp for a long period of time. There is other clays that might work even better then that.. I like the idea of either material, even if there is some dripping. It would still be useable as long as the form is there or close enough. Then the artist could refine it and be half way through the build up process. Hope something like that will come out.

[DocHogan]

I bet machinist's wax would be fantastic for this. It's a material I hope to experiment with in my machine at some point.