From: Bathsheba Grossman (sheba@bathsheba.com)
Date: Thu Oct 09 2003 - 20:32:55 EEST
On Thu, 9 Oct 2003, Blasch, Larry wrote:
> If you pack the part in fine sand (or clay, talc, or plaster) and vibrate it
> to compact it around the part, it will produce a fine nest to hold the part.
> The problem is with the material shifting and the part being put under
> stress.
>
> If you pack the sand around the part in a bag, and vacuum seal it, you will
> end up with a stable brick of sand that is relatively immune to damage.
I found this method to works OK as regards breakage, although with
parts for casting it's necessary to use a burnable packing medium.
I've used cornstarch and flour with Solidscape parts. The trouble was
that afterwards the stuff had to be cleaned off the parts, which is an
annoying and risky chore that most customers prefer to avoid.
Also the recipient has to remove the parts from the powder with great
care, as with a dense medium it's easy to overstress the parts while
lifting them out.
Not that it isn't a good idea -- maybe there's some material that
would work better than what I tried.
-Sheba
-- Bathsheba Grossman phone (831)429-8224, fax (831)460-1242 Sculpting geometry bathsheba.com Solidscape prototyping protoshape.com Protein crystals crystalprotein.com
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