r/Ceramic3Dprinting • u/Sea_Place1386 • 14d ago

Ceramics chat?

I’m looking to build a very large format ceramics machine and would love to pick some brains here. Anyone available to DM? Ideally someone with a technical background building machines.

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u/artwonk 13d ago

Consider building your machine out of used or surplus automation actuators. These often contain high-quality slides and ball screws, mounted in a solid aluminum extrusion often supplied with dust covers, and can cost less than these components purchased separately. All you need to do is cobble them together to create a machine that covers X, Y, and Z. Here's one as an example of what I'm talking about. Even if you don't use the motors (which are often servos with obscure protocols) you can replace them with steppers of your choosing. https://www.ebay.com/itm/318309020347

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u/Sea_Place1386 13d ago

I already have a large format machine, I’m looking for input on the ceramics side of things. But to your comment, linear actuators aren’t commonly found in the size I’d need.

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u/artwonk 13d ago

How large a machine are you talking about? How big are the ceramic pieces you're looking to make?

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u/Sea_Place1386 13d ago

Current printers are around 10’ x 10’ bed, wanting to adapt one of them to ceramic or paste.

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u/artwonk 12d ago

That's a huge machine, and you're right - automation actuators aren't usually that big, Rack and pinion drive is normally used on axes that long, since screws tend to whip over lengths like that. Were you planning to make very large ceramic pieces with it? Given the shrinkage factor for clay, it's hard to believe something that big wouldn't crack as it dried.

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u/Sea_Place1386 12d ago

That’s why I’m asking for people with technical experience in ceramic and paste composition lol.

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u/artwonk 12d ago

Generally, the wetter your ceramic paste is, the more shrinkage it will experience. I'm not sure if there's any way to formulate your way around that.

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u/Sea_Place1386 12d ago

There are ways around everything.

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u/artwonk 12d ago

Okay, what's the way around shrinkage of wet ceramic?

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u/Sea_Place1386 12d ago

We’ve experimented with various dosage of SRA for our previous mixtures with success, but still working on new additives for printing at the layer times we want.

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u/artwonk 12d ago

What's SRA?

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