Is it Possible - Inkjeting with Acetone into ABS Plastic Powder

Acetone is a solvent not a glue.

Hey Mathew

I would check out this link http://www.protoparadigm.com/blog/2011/12/abs-glue-weld-cast-texture-and-more/.  They are doing essentialy what you are trying.

Nate

I don't mean to make a glue.

I don't mean to extrude anything.

I don't mean to do injection molding with it.

I mean is it possible to use just enough acetone to disolve a small amount of powdered ABS plastics in a build box of abs powder, let the acetone vaporize out of the powder, and then add a layer of ABS powder to repeat the process making a pure ABS printed object without a secondary adhesive and to do it in hi resolution?

I don't think you could get high resolution from it.  If I understand your idea, you would inject acetone into a powder bed to dissolve/meld a skeleton, then add the next powder layer and repeat.  How fast does the acetone work versus evaporate?  I imagine the evaporation isn't a controlled process, this is where the resolution would fail.  I don't know.

I'd think a laser to melt the powder might be easier than figuring out how much acetone it take to dissolve just the part you want, without getting extra material, & how long you have to wait for it to evaporate.

I do like the idea Nate Chapman pointed out as it is similar to your idea, but explained in a way that made more sense to me.

I also don't know if the 3d printer patents for the powder based printers has expired yet. If they haven't I'd hold of on making one so you don't have to fight about a patent in court or be ordered to pay massive fines for patent violation.

Interesting idea!

Acetone is not glue, correct, but it can act as glue.

It "dissolves" pieces together.

And you'd always keep your print head clean!

There is a Powder Printing and Selective Laser Sintering group at reprap.org (http://forums.reprap.org/list.php?153). I've seen some DIY powder printers using ink-jets so I know it is possible. I even purchased a special ink-jet cart and controller board to use in a prototype device I was working on but didn't go much farther on it because the powder can be really messy to deal with.