It's plague time

Actually I believe that the bulk of current oil recoveries is coming from dead protoplankton - there weren’t nearly enough dinosaurs to make all the oil we’ve extracted. OTOH, plankton used to blanket the planet for millions of years more than the dinos wandered around.

Is there a geologist in the house who can be authoritative on this?

Not sure how plankton fits into the food classification world of the kosher folks.

1 Like

I think that Entwined is just another filled PLA, it’s extrusion grade pla, based on the same sources, mixed with a filler. for entwined it’s hemp, spent coffee, or spent brewer’s grain… so the environmental impact is almost insignificant.

(note to self: develop matzha-filled filament…)

1 Like

Not according to their info, both entwined and buzzed are listed as made from those materials. The coffee is a filled novelty filament and just gives a nice smell of roasting coffee to your printer. I was an original tester for entwined and th3y specifically claimed it was mostly hemp. Although their new site mentions inego pla as well so not sure if they’ve changed since the company got bought.

1 Like

I don’t think you were around for this post:

wow, I did miss that one… I’m not kidding I was actually thinking of splitting a matzah perfectly down the middle with the GF… show up with that at the seder and get the kids to argue on the bigger half…

2 Likes

frankly, it’s not that big deal either way for me, but I asked them and this was their response:

"our hemp filament is hemp-filled PLA. It has a percentage content of Industrial Hemp byproducts that give it a great look and feel, but it is not a Hemp Bio-plastic. We hope to have one one day that is made 100% from Hemp, but we’re not there yet. "

Being in the plastic business myself, I know that generally it’s easy to be an extruder or a molder, where you buy a resin compound and you mix it with colorants, additives etc. and extrude it or mold it, but it’s much harder to be a primary compounder who catalysts resins. aside from the multinationals who would never bother with the small exotic 3D priniting market, there are few small companies. many of them experimental, and it would be hard to do it at an affordable price.

but PLA is relatively environment friendly. And my pet peeve about home 3d printing has always been that 99% of what’s being printed out there is chachkes and trinkets that didn’t need to be printed in the 1st place!

3 Likes

Back in the day (circa 1975) I did a lot of 3d printing but without the aid of a computer. At that time there were many sources of casting wax as almost all was cast into some metal mostly gold or silver, and casting wax needs to not leave any residue that will leave pits in the casting.

In any case I ran into a wax that was like hard rubber. Where most waxes would shatter if dropped these would just bounce without harm. In the years since the computer 3d printers have come of age but the wax technology that was commonplace before seems no longer to exist. As I even had a wax pen as far back as 1975 I understand the limitations as it was similar but the valve was operated by hand instead of a solenoid.

Do you know of such material available today?

1 Like

can’t help you, sorry but lost wax casting is alive and well and I’m sure some with experience in jewelry making will have some better advice.
My wife’s grandfather, who is a master watchmaker, has also an extensive experience with casting. 50 years he invented a method where he would embed precious stones in the rubber molds so that when you cast the precious metal, the stones are already set. (or so he claims…)

I like how you refer to that as “3d printing without the aid of a computer” :joy:

3 Likes

I made a Lion head where I embedded white gold strips into the mane, but a diamond setter pave’ ed it with diamonds. getting the stones in would not be a problem for diamond, corundum, or beryl, but getting them to look good would be a trick.

I do lost wax casting with moldlay filament and castable resin on my SLA printer.

1 Like

Well, mine gets here Tuesday so I’m not in much better shape this year! :wink:

And that make it Carrion which is strictly forbidden anyway (unless the plankton were killed in a kosher manner)

1 Like

That was my personal experience. But then I stumbled across eNable and found a good use for my printer :slightly_smiling_face:

2 Likes

Cool, I guess that makes me a 1-percenter! You will normally find my printer loaded with CF reinforced nylon. And nobody prints trinkets in that stuff…

3 Likes