DIY 3D printer utilizes hot air, sugar to craft random objects

Just when you thought a $5,000 3D printer wasn't such a bad deal after all, the zany gurus at the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories have put Desktop Factory's iteration to shame. The CandyFab 4000 is a homegrown printer that utilized a bevy of miscellaneous spare parts around the lab as well as the same sort of CNC hot-air control mechanism that we previously saw in the text writing toaster contraption. Their selective hot air sintering and melting (SHASAM) method allows the printer to begin with a bed of granular media (sugar, in this case) in which a directed, low-velocity beam of hit air can be used to fuse together certain areas repeatedly, eventually working the remaining grains into a three-dimensional object. The creators claim that while their CandyFab machine only ran them $500 in addition to junk parts and manual labor, even starting from scratch shouldn't demand more than a grand or so, so be sure to click on through for a few snaps of the fascinating results and hit the read link for the full-blown skinny.

[Via MetaFilter]

[aeo @ May 10th 2007 11:07AM]

Sweet!!

[Rohit Kapur @ May 10th 2007 11:12AM]

lol... SHASAM...

You know, say what you want, but nerds and geeks have the corniest sense of humor.

I love it!!

[tchiseen @ May 10th 2007 11:26AM]

you know they worked long and hard on making the device capable of being named 'shasam'


also, there's a typo in the breif -

"low-velocity beam of hit[sic] air can be used to... "

looks fun though

[quiwiz @ May 10th 2007 12:07PM]

Very cool (erm... hot) They also have a link to their CNC toast machine (using the same hardware):

http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/cnctoast

[Ayle @ May 10th 2007 12:27PM]

I wonder if you could make a gummy version of this thing?

[iamhoff @ May 10th 2007 12:52PM]

Shasam. Heh. Nerd humor FTW!

[Dah Cheet @ May 10th 2007 1:24PM]

I wonder how clean you can make the lines or if everything is rough edged.

[Tom @ May 10th 2007 3:05PM]

Some little boy with cancer is dying right now. We will use decades of scientific research to provide a candy screw to console his heart, and his stomach.

[Ed @ May 10th 2007 3:12PM]

Eric, stop plugging your website please.

[James @ May 10th 2007 4:33PM]

I imagine the "print-out" would taste terrible, 'cause you have to caramelize sugar very carefully to keep it from tasting burnt. That said, I think that if you're going to invest in making a CNC machine, you're better off making a RepRap that can put a bit more fine detail into the part.

Of course, you can't beat this one for material costs...

[darter9000 @ May 10th 2007 5:08PM]

Sadly, the website that put up the mechanical concoction says the candy isn't edible. D'oh! >.

[Tom @ May 10th 2007 5:14PM]

Not two comments later, some douche plugs his site as well. If you can't get visitors by running a decent gig, you're not going to get visitors by plugging your site with no regard to the topic at hand in the comments section of a tech blog. Kevin, we hate you too.

[Grant @ May 10th 2007 5:59PM]

bah,
guess we killed the site with all the traffic.
come back up! i wanna see!

[George @ May 10th 2007 7:12PM]

Ooh... speaking as a culinary school student looking into the pastry field, this thing would be AWESOME for centerpieces... of course, that's only so long as it doesn't always have those ragged edges. Hopefully, this device will be seized upon by a mad scientist/chef, and we'll have a centerpiece revolution! Viva la isomalt!

[AustynSN @ May 10th 2007 8:18PM]

To the GENIUSES who created this, PATENT NOW, before some big company steals the idea.

[rafael.ct @ May 11th 2007 8:39AM]

I think that if you put that printouts in the oven for a little while the rough edges will melt and you will get a pretty bright caramelized screw to show up. It's not a perfect process buuttt..

Make them edible pleeeeeeeeaaaase! hehe