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A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

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51–60 of 89 posts

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#51

Interesting, but this still has the classic issue where the "printer has to be larger than the object printed." A few weeks back I got a tour of MIT's media lab, where they have a robot arm they're strapping to a bucket truck, in which case they have a mobile, 3D printer with a 100 foot wingspan. This arm has an attachment for a polyurethane foam sprayer, a milling device, and a paint sprayer. In which case they can…

> Then they want to get a series of these trucks to work together in a "hive" format... crazy kids.

The crazy bit is sending that hive to Mars to build accommodation units for settlers.

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You did not watch the accompanying YouTube video where these things are mentioned as being needed and could be accomplished using auxiliary automation techniques. EDIT: They also show visual demonstrations of techniques as to HOW this would be accomplished. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdbJP8Gxqog

Sure I watched it. I was not convinced. Handwaving is not the same as research. It may be true that fixtures could be set into place in an automated way. Its not true that they can be connected. And certainly no existing fixture is ready to be installed this way. Housing construction depends upon massive efficiencies of scale. All the new fixtures for these imaginary houses would be designed differently (for robotic…

"cheap housing for the masses"

I think they may be aiming for something like Katrina homes. Or any other refugee situation. See some more refugees crossing the border, squirt a few extra refugee houses where they fit. Prefab is probably still cheaper.

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#53

Sigh, if this guy had an actual 3D printer he would realize those doors and windows are a no-go :-) More seriously, there are unsolved issues in printing unsupported structures, the current best solution is a second 'support' material that can be dissolved/blown away once the part is completed but that rules out voids which are part of what you hope to make with this sort of thing. Also as others point out this is ju…

If you pay attention to the video, the door and window lentil's are prefab picked up and placed where they need to be and then printed over with additional cement.

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#54
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, wave a wand and say "a robot will do it". That doesn't count as "A printer that can print a 2500 sq ft house". Even imagine the robot exists: how exactly does it just 'plug in' the plumbinb and electrical systems? Currently it takes a person to scramble all over the house, drilling and fitting and connecting. There is nothing being solved here. Just a blue-sky story about an imaginary printer.

I am glad to see your justified skepticism of 3-d printer mania. The real breakthroughs will come when people stop fixating on "printing" (extrusion) and realize it's the 3-d (4-d, 5-d, etc.) gantry that's the super-useful part. Fitted with different tools, such as painting, gluing and sanding tools, a 3-d gantry can be extremely useful. There will however continue to be a "last mile" problem in Computer-Assisted Man…

"I would love to see a 3-d printer friend explain to me how it's going to build a guitar from scratch."

I don't make guitars but I am guessing you could 3-d print most of a factory to make guitars. All the jigs and fixtures ready for use accurate to a 1/1000th.

What I do know about, and am interested in, is 3-d printing foundry patterns. Its harder to make a foundry pattern than you'd think, not just the obvious stuff like bulk material shrinkage and draft angles, but its really hard to handle differential shrinkage (warping, essentially). Its a complicated fine woodworking skill (assuming you're using wood foundry patterns). So you can't 3-d print a cast iron pan or an engine block, but you can print a pattern to be rammed in a sand mold and then cast some iron in the mold and ta-da a perfectly flat pan or perfectly straight engine block or whatever. This isn't a magic tool that'll make any idiot able to do foundry work, but it does mean that any idiot on the planet would be able to share world class pattern designs.

I would be happy to be able to print some holding fixtures for my metal lathe. You can't make crazy deep hogging cuts with flimsy PLA holding the work to the mill table, but you could do "something" at least.

I think people who expect 3-d printers to be magic star trek replicators are going to be very disappointed, although indirectly via one or two levels of indirection they will probably play a huge role in everything, soon enough.

Its just positive machining. Much as people don't use my negative machining traditional lathe and mill, I don't think joe 6 pack is going to be using a 3d printer on a regular basis, although much like negative machining revolutionized the world behind the scenes, sorta, positive machining will also revolutionize the world, again, behind the scenes sorta.

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#55

Sigh, if this guy had an actual 3D printer he would realize those doors and windows are a no-go :-) More seriously, there are unsolved issues in printing unsupported structures, the current best solution is a second 'support' material that can be dissolved/blown away once the part is completed but that rules out voids which are part of what you hope to make with this sort of thing. Also as others point out this is ju…

Just read the info on the "Why Blu" page as the photos look intriguing, but as soon as the page mentioned "pre-fab", it became a non-start for me in the SoCal market. The problem is that pre-fabricated or pre-manufactured homes are a very specific category of homes and require specific disclosures when selling and financing. It's basically a derogatory term used to describe cheaply built structures that are a step ab…

Prefab and preamnufactured homes are different. Premanufactured homes are also known as mobile homes. There are probably a lot of prefab homes around you that you never knew about.

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#56

Sigh, if this guy had an actual 3D printer he would realize those doors and windows are a no-go :-) More seriously, there are unsolved issues in printing unsupported structures, the current best solution is a second 'support' material that can be dissolved/blown away once the part is completed but that rules out voids which are part of what you hope to make with this sort of thing. Also as others point out this is ju…

Just read the info on the "Why Blu" page as the photos look intriguing, but as soon as the page mentioned "pre-fab", it became a non-start for me in the SoCal market. The problem is that pre-fabricated or pre-manufactured homes are a very specific category of homes and require specific disclosures when selling and financing. It's basically a derogatory term used to describe cheaply built structures that are a step ab…

We toured their factory they set up at Mare Island. The 'pre-fab' thing is interesting. They design them so that their components unfold, and they can be shipped by truck. The primary use case seems to be places where there are short building seasons (cabins in the mountains for example) and where on-site work is cost prohibitive. A friend of ours bought one and put it up on land near Johnsville in the Sierras. It neither feels nor looks like a 'mobile home' or 'prefab' home, but of course it was prefabricated. It took less than a week to go from prepped foundation to cosy house. That was pretty neat.

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#57
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Even for just houses: consider framing, or doing roof work--walking around on joists is not really safe.

Is it more dangerous in terms of injuries, or in terms of deaths? I would expect injuries to be very frequent, but frequent deaths would surprise me.

First google result I found was in the .uk they're 5% of workers and almost 25% of worker deaths. So yeah pretty bad.

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prefab needs a factory to make the prefab sections. Also, you can lay down multiple materials by making the head swappable. I would also say plumbing and electrics are nowhere near as complex as they used to be. Everything is available as clip-on fittings these days, which is perfect for automation.

You don't even need to be a plumber to do plumbing; PVC the whole thing.

Pex pipe [1] might be a better choice than PVC because of its high pressure tolerance and the fact that it isn't brittle/prone to cracking. It does require nonstandard tools to work with though (ie. burly pipe cutters, special fittings, etc.)

But your point still stands. A master plumber might not be required for every part of every job today.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#59
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't even need to be a plumber to do plumbing; PVC the whole thing.

Pex pipe [1] might be a better choice than PVC because of its high pressure tolerance and the fact that it isn't brittle/prone to cracking. It does require nonstandard tools to work with though (ie. burly pipe cutters, special fittings, etc.) But your point still stands. A master plumber might not be required for every part of every job today. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-linked_polyethylene

Thanks for the correction with regards to material.

I do tech/IT by day, but have a welding certification as well. Its extremely easy to braize copper tubing together for plumbing once you've practiced, but feels like its work that isn't necessary when there are easier ways to do it (ie the pex pipe you suggested).

Coincidently, I'm replacing two toilets in my home tonight. Wish me luck!

Re: A Printer That Can Print a 2,500 Square Foot House in 20 Hours

#60
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Even for just houses: consider framing, or doing roof work--walking around on joists is not really safe.

Is it more dangerous in terms of injuries, or in terms of deaths? I would expect injuries to be very frequent, but frequent deaths would surprise me.

Here's the website for the UK Health and Safety Executive.

http://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/index.htm

There are not so many people mining, and there are ridiculously strict regulations around mining. (I used to build, inspect, test 'chock interface units' which can be thought of as 'active walking pit props'. A cutting head removes a long stretch of coal, which falls onto a conveyor. That new section needs to be pit-propped, so this first line walks forward with the cutting head.)

Farming has many accidents - busy people, lots of opportunity for accident. Also a high rate of suicide. (Again, access to means and methods. Farmers are one of the small number of people allowed to own guns in the UK.)

It would be interesting to see the number of deaths per 1,000 workers for each sector, to try and get a better comparison.

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