Yes you can..lol....have all in one machine

Rob Keeble

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Well someone is gearing up to build the all singing dancing machine.

Rather small work area and limited machining

Snapmaker : The All-Metal 3D Printer, via @Kickstarter https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/snapmaker/snapmaker-the-all-metal-3d-printer

In my opinion the design will only work on small area with single axis rail in each direction. But its a start.

Clever idea to have interchangeable heads but what happens when those get beefed up to do the real deal.
 
Asking my CNC/3D printer guy his opinion. My naive first guess is that alignment when moving between configs will be a pain... but maybe if you don't mind the setup time its ... interesting... At that price point its almost more interesting to have two or three separate machines.
 
That is an interesting machine, probably perfect for someone wanting to prototype small items. I'd agree with Ryan's comment about indexing/alignment, might be hard to swap between tools and be too precise. Wonder if they will open their software up or allow you to use anyone's filament?
 
Couple more points noted by people who know more than me:

Print head is way slow at 400mm/s which is slow (but about as fast as some of the

No shroud, so fume issues for ABS and the laser..

Some of the claims (no leveling!?!?!) seem.. perhaps overly optimistic...
 
In time i think we will get there, lets remember the days of stand alone fax, stand alone scanner, stand alone printer, stand alone copier, now i have a scanner, printer, copier, fax machine, plus some and double sided print and two sizes of paper and wait for it.....wifi connected or hardwire network or usb. So an all singing dancing cnc router, laser engraver, 3d printer in my mind is only a matter of time. Lol
 
In time i think we will get there, lets remember the days of stand alone fax, stand alone scanner, stand alone printer, stand alone copier, now i have a scanner, printer, copier, fax machine, plus some and double sided print and two sizes of paper and wait for it.....wifi connected or hardwire network or usb. So an all singing dancing cnc router, laser engraver, 3d printer in my mind is only a matter of time. Lol

I do agree with you, just look at what they've done with hand power tools and all using the same batteries/attachments. Obviously it's not only a matter of time to adapt, but also a matter of the users catching up to the technology and using them in ways we can't imagine. This past weekend I was watching my grandson, and at 2 1/2 he has learned to use the youtube kids voice search to find what he wants to watch. I'm just starting to use some of the voice command stuff myself, but it seems to be natural watching him do it.
 
Well Bill when i was a kid and Apolo spaceship took Neil Armstrong to the moon, it was accepted that rockets would be disposable.
Then came space shuttle and look at SpaceEx today, where their rocket can come back down in reverse still standing.
For the life of me i could never have imagined that was possible.
 
And I know a college team who has incorporated itself (so they own the patents) that has designed and successfully tested 3d printed rocket engines powerful enough to launch low level satellites and weather monitoring equipment. They are currently working on production issues. They also have already garnered interest from agricultural groups, especially in the Midwest, for their own private and regional weather satellites. This is called the age of possibilities. Down right exciting! So 3 (or more) in one 3+ axis machines that can cut, print, laser, mill, and even weld on the same bed are only a matter to time.
 
In time i think we will get there, lets remember the days of stand alone fax, stand alone scanner, stand alone printer, stand alone copier, now i have a scanner, printer, copier, fax machine, plus some and double sided print and two sizes of paper and wait for it.....wifi connected or hardwire network or usb. So an all singing dancing cnc router, laser engraver, 3d printer in my mind is only a matter of time. Lol

That's just crazy talk! At that rate, we'll have telephones with cameras and calculators on them before we know it! :D
 
In time i think we will get there, lets remember the days of stand alone fax, stand alone scanner, stand alone printer, stand alone copier, now i have a scanner, printer, copier, fax machine, plus some and double sided print and two sizes of paper and wait for it.....wifi connected or hardwire network or usb. So an all singing dancing cnc router, laser engraver, 3d printer in my mind is only a matter of time. Lol

Oh its definitely all solvable, the question is more whether or not its solved yet (and on who's dollar it gets solved and in what timeframe ;)

The one fellow I know who's quite into 3D printing is quite happy he has a multi-head printer than actually works without having to manually re-align the head/bed between heads. In that case the solution was fairly simple but indicative of the nascent state of the technology.

The lack of a shroud and air control is more generally concerning if you were doing any quantity of work with it (again .. fixable.. but how many know?).
 
I guess you could look at it in terms of the combination woodworking machines available from Felder, Minimax etc. If space permitted, you would probably opt for separate machines for each function...sawing, shaping, planing....rather than one machine that took time to reconfigure and zero out to change functions. In an industrial setting, $$$ would drive whether functions would be practical and cost efficient to combine. It will probably happen if circumstances demand it.
 
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