I need some help here.
I work in a french rocket propulsion lab and I want to buy a 3D printer to experiment with printing fuel gains in either paraffin or ABS, PLA and the like (PE or DCPD would be great!). There for I’d like to buy a printer that I can tweak. What would be a good printer to buy knowing that I’d need a kit (my company is not happy with me buying parts from e-bay)
Thanks for any input,
Jouke
Hi Jouke . In general I’d recommend the Ultimaker, the new version looks to be the new benchmark for open source printers. Plenty of other options out there if the price tag is too high but you get what you pay for with these things.
You could also game a look at the leapfrog. But i prefer the ultimaker. Maybe you can get the first Version for a good price.
@Daniel_Young I looked at their web site and it gives 180 mm as the printing height ?
What I meant to say is that in order to print paraffin I might have to modify or change the printer head and feed system.
I got the first version of ultimaker, can only say “bang for the buck”. Its definately a good benchmark for 3D printers since their first version already kicks many printers out when it comes to speed and layer height (can print at 20 microns).
I see that you are working with hot gasses and stuff. Note that 3D printers are made for mock-ups and small statues, and can have error margins of around 100 microns or more. If this is not what you need, i would recommend companies that specialise in laser sintering for the functional models.
@Julius_ter_Pelkwijk I’ll only print fuel grains so precision is not a real issue. 0.1 mm is more than enough.
@jouke_hijlkema If you are looking to use paraffin for lost wax casting, PLA seems to work just as well. http://hackaday.com/2013/05/10/update-lost-pla-metal-casting-the-movie/
@Daniel_Young Hardware tweaking is what we do for a living 
@Tim_Rastall not lost wax casting. Paraffin makes for a great rocket fuel but it’s a pain to cast so I want to try to print it
hah, awesome!
Casting paraffin requires something similar to the chocolate extruder @Jelle_Boomstra is using at Protospace. They use the V1 version of the Ultimaker and a lot of experimenting…
@jouke_hijlkema sounds cool, bit is paraffin hard enough to survive being pushed through a Bowden tube by an extruder gear? Even if was direct drive, could it survive being pulled by the extruder gear? I’m wondering if it would just smear
@Eric_Moy I wouldnt recommend using a bowden tube at all. Like I said in my other comment, better is to use a chocolate extruder that heats up the parrafin to a liquid state and deposit it.
Ah, my bad. Good thinking. As an old friend once said, machine all your practice parts out if chocolate, so I’d you mess up you can eat it
There are commercial printers doing Wax and even combining 3d printing and milling it.
Quite expensive and intended for jewellery and dental work.
Another hackable kit: http://reprapsource.com/en/show/6878
I wonder if, rather than printing individual grains, you could print the whole fuel block in a grain simulated… lattice?
@Jelle_Boomstra thanks for the info and yes I’d like to get in touch with Joris (sounds Dutch, like you … and me)