Homebrew stereo Lithography

> From: Jon Elson <jmelson@...>
>
> Elliot Burke wrote:
>
> > From: "Elliot Burke" <elliot@...>
> >
> >> It was described to me as plastic coated metal particles, which are
> > injection molded. The result is considered a green part, which is fired to
> > make a solid metal part. The metal used include titanium and other hard
> > stuff.
>
> > If it could be made to come out of an inkjet type nozzle, what fun we could
> > have!
>
> Yes, something close to that has been done. There are at least a couple of
> rapid prototyping processes that result in a metal part.

Has anyone built a homebrew machine to do Stereo Lithography
(ie building up a 3D model from wax/polymer/powdered metals etc)?
Microstation Modeller (a CAD program) exports STL files for this purpose.

I was reading about a commercial machine once which had a vat
of light-sensitive liquid polymer, and which was hardened (to the layer
underneath it) by an overhead XY laser. When that layer was done,
the part (sitting on a scissor elevator) was lowered fractionally further
into the liquid, so that a tiny film of liquid again covered the part,
and so the process repeated.

Possibly this could be approximated with a liquid glue dispensor on
a CNC controlled milling head.

Doug Fortune