A New Printer Uses Sawdust To Print Wooden Objects (gizmodo.com) 63
A new printer called Forust is using scrap wood to 3D print wooden objects that are as structurally sound as regular carved wood. Created by Andrew Jeffery and a team of researchers at Desktop Metal, the printer prints using fine sawdust that is formed into solid objects. Gizmodo reports: The printer works similarly to an inkjet printer and squirts a binding agent onto a layer of sawdust. Like most 3D printers, the object rises out of the bed of sawdust and then, when complete, can be sanded and finished like regular wood. Jeffrey sees the system as a way to save trees. "Two years ago we started looking into how we might be able to 3D print in new material," he said. "Wood waste was one of the materials we started with early on and realized it could be repurposed and upcycled with 3D printing technology. From there, we focused on building out the process using wood byproducts in order to create real wood-crafted results. We formed the company really to save forests."
Not as structurally msound. (Score:5, Interesting)
But structurally quite different. E.g. prone to brittleness after exposure to sunlight, heat or humidity. Different flexibility properties due to the lack of long fibers, etc.
To a large extent, it's simply plastic. So turning into microplastic with every scratch.
You can have the same result much faster too.
Mix some wood glue with sawdust, and press the resulting mix into a mold. Been there, done that. If you use the right glue, it's even plastic-free and baby safe.
Correction: Not as structurally *sound*. (Score:2)
Oh goddamn, why do I always see a glaringly obvious typo, *right* after submitting??
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Because somebody got wood.
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Re: Not as structurally msound. (Score:1)
Glueboard, also known as flakewood. Without any of the granular structure of real wood.
Yes. (Score:1)
Basically the wood equivalent of sintered steel.
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Is sintered steel really just metal powder with a glue substrate?
Anyone actually like particleboard? (Score:2)
Sorry. Just had to vent. I just hate that stuff so much.
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This new 3D-printed stuff sounds more like MDF than particle board / chipboard.
Re:Anyone actually like particleboard? (Score:5, Informative)
It's good for certain uses, such as ceiling fan blades, since the properties of one piece are identical to the next. Even plywood fan blades need balancing, while particleboard ones don't. It's good for pegboard and surfaces that need to be perfectly smooth, such as drafting tables and chalk boards/white boards. It's very good for countertops, since it's heavy, smooth, doesn't flex, and formica adhesive sticks to it very well.
I hate sawing it, but the stuff does have its uses.
in the line of fire (Score:2)
But as seen in the movie in the line of fire you may only need it to work an few times
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You're correct about it structurally not being wood, but one cool thing about this is they mimic the appearance of wood by somehow changing the color of the grain etc. It looks very much like a part machined from a tree.
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To a large extent, it's simply plastic.
I was going to write the same thing. It's basically wood-fiber reinforced plastic. Which is not to say it's a bad thing, particularly as their press release says the binder is biodegradable -- although *that* in itself is a semantic minefield. If you put "biodegradable" coffee k-cups in your compost they will be intact years later. They have to be separated from the rest of the waste stream and then composted under special conditions specific to that plastic -- in effect put into a specialized bioreactor
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Seems like it's just a different way of forming particle board to me.
Handy. (Score:5, Interesting)
A friend of mine works in carpentry and does a lot of bespoke products, and they have bags of both fine powder sawdust and shredded wood from planing. The sheer amount of wood chips, sawdust, and shavings that gets thrown out or destroyed is a number I would dread seeing.
Re:Handy. (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe for very small operations. For most commercial operations nothing gets wasted. Larger pieces are sold to be chipped up for mulch, smaller pieces for particle board, dust is compressed into bricks for burning.
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Dust is compressed into MDF panels for selling.
FTFY.
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No, you didn't 'fix that'. My friend, who works for a commercial woodworking company, regularly gives me bricks they make from compressing the sawdust. I never said that was the ONLY use for sawdust.
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[in commercial woodworking operations] dust is compressed into bricks for burning.
Or into "stove pellets" - quarter-inch in diameter by random lengths up to about an inch. Sawdust plus a bit of moisture is milled and pressed through holes. The mechanical squeezing causes the lignin to act like glue and bind it together. (Don't let even a trace of water touch it, though, or it turns back into sawdust. It's also used for animal bedding, e.g. horse stalls, for just this reason.)
Pellet stoves are very low p
Re:Handy. (Score:4, Informative)
I know that in industrial sawmills, the sawdust and waste typically gets processed into wood pellets, for use in pellet stoves and as pet litter. . .
Re:Handy. (Score:4, Informative)
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Re: Handy. (Score:2)
Look in Craigslist for free pallets. Thereâ(TM)s always some company that ended up with dozens or hundreds of them and doesnâ(TM)t want to pay to have them hauled as trash.
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Many also just burn scraps and sawdust and use that to help power the sawmills.
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In ye olden days, we made paper from the sawdust and wood chips too.
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Sawdust is sometimes mixed with cattle feed, they can digest the cellulose and the lignin makes their manure more solid and easier to clean.
If your friend ever works with black walnut ask him to save you the sawdust from it. It smells incredible and is a tranquilizer and soporific. My great grandfather used to give it to his descendants to put in the baby's room near the crib.
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"Sawdust is sometimes mixed with cattle feed, they can digest the cellulose and the lignin makes their manure more solid and easier to clean."
The Brits put 70% in their sausages.
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Sawdust makes the perfect wood filler.
For my projects where I need to fill in wood holes and gaps. I take the sawdust from the wood I had just cut, mix it with some normal wood glue. Until it is a thick paste. Then apply it. Being that it is made from the same wood, it matches the color very well. And after sanding, and applying some fake grain direction with a pencil. You can hardly tell there was a gap there.
When I saw using sawdust to 3d Print wooden object, I figured they just mix wood glue with sa
2 thoughts (Score:2)
Wow, *frist post*, kewl! Been a long time, if ever...
Anyway, 2 thoughts hit me about this:
1. What is the "glue" made of? Using sawdust is pointless if the glue is poisonous or otherwise a problem. In other words, this is just 3D printed particle board & everything about it seems to apply:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
2. Why stop at sawdust? Why can't we use ground up plastic, paper, even metal filings; at an extreme, could we 3D print ferrites or even 3D PCB's?
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You can already turn paper into paper mache, and metal filings can be melted down into an ingot. Plastic on the other hand cannot be easily melted in many cases and will simply burn or break down into its components. This is especially true of PVC and vinyl which will produce deadly chlorine gas if burned or melted. I could see plastic being used as a filler though.
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God forbid they hear you. What do you mean "who"? Everyone who owns a 3D printer.
I had no idea I'm printing with plastic that "cannot be melted easily". Let me go tear down my 3D printers, they are the work of the Devil.
Re:2 thoughts (Score:4, Insightful)
If you don't know the difference between thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic you need to put your tools away and take a chemistry class.
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We don't need to take a chemistry class! We're Makers!!!1
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So. What happens if "we" don't take a chemistry class? Will the Universe implode?
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Not knowing the difference worked fine for me so far. I also never claimed to have been a chemist, nor to have any knowledge deeper than general in that area.
Re: 2 thoughts (Score:3)
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Yeah. Let's make the statement as vague as possible, so that we'd later say "Well, I didn't mean that specifically".
Such statement ("in many cases") says nothing. Same as "up to X% faster" and "you have the chance of winning X".
Great business opportunity (Score:1)
But we already have this (Score:5, Interesting)
Wood filament spools for 3D printers. It's basically made of sawdust-fibres, glue and plastic. You can even choose what type of wooden fibres you want !
https://all3dp.com/2/wood-fila... [all3dp.com]
Now I'm not saying we don't need competition in this area, because 3D filament is still expensive. But hailing something that has been around for 10 years, as new, seems a little.... Weird.
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Indeed, this process looks more like SLS (without the laser) than FDM.
Farao Ramses called (Score:4, Insightful)
You mean (Score:1)
Chipboard? or MDF?
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Comparing this to carved wood is completely missing the point of carved natural wood.
USCSB anyone? (Score:2)
I've been watching a lot of USCSB's videos recently, and this seems like a potential explosion hazard due to the accumulation of fine particles in the air and on top of surfaces even in the image in the article. I can't wait for USCSB's next recommendation video.
Surprised to see this (Score:3)
I've been casually watching them and MarkForged (the company they've been in lawsuits with that hasn't gone public yet) and read their financial reports.
DM bought a company to make these wood-based printers but I thought they said they gave up essentially because they sucked. Granted I haven't looked it in a couple months - maybe they changed their minds.
who cares (Score:2)
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> I mean, why not just call it Forest?
Presumably because forest is a common word, and thus ineligible for trademarking? Any time you're trying to bring a new product to market you *really* want to make sure the name is trademarked, otherwise you do all the hard work of building a market, and then the big players can swoop in and start selling a cheaper product under the exact same name.
Kind of like how Microsoft screwed up naming Windows, and now has to rely on empty threats and back-room deals to prote
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Say what? Since when does being a 'common word' make it inelgible for trademarking? Ever here of a little company called 'Apple'? The requirement is that the trademark can't be something that is already a generic term in that specific field. This is why some people question whether or not 'Windows' is valid. The USPTO even has a name for trademarks like 'Forest' - arbitrary trademarks. They are defined as common words that have no association with the underlying good. Maybe, if you really stretch, you
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A printer that can print paper! (Score:3)
So ... (Score:2)
Re:So ... (Score:4, Informative)
more like existing wood filament
https://all3dp.com/2/wood-fila... [all3dp.com]
Re:So ... (Score:4, Insightful)
More like an MDF 3D-printer.
Summary (Score:2)
Why so much confusion? (Score:2)
It seems a lot of people posting don't know the difference between particle board / chipboard and MDF. Yeah, both are crap but they're still two different "materials". Heck, if you dig just a little deeper, you'd learn that MDF and Masonite are also made differently.
Wooden? (Score:3)
Right. Wooden. Like particle board or MDF is "wooden." More like plastic with wood in it.
Wood as electrons (Score:2)
Wood as ink will further disambiguation of the product down incrementally until the size approaches the cost to transport electrons!
congratulations you have invented fiberboard (Score:2)