Yum! FDM test uses BBQ sauce

    Published July 7, 2014

    After working on it over the holiday weekend, our old FDM (fused deposition modeling) unit is back up and running – re-purposed for a new material and a new function.

    The goal was to make a syringe extruder we can use to print out prototypes of a novel new consumer product we’re working on for a client. In the spirit of Independence Day (but mostly because it was the only thing I could get at the gas station), the tests were done with BBQ sauce. It should be a good approximation for an achievable consistency of the material we're testing.

    There are still some variables that can be tweaked a bit more, mainly surrounding the extrusion rate. Air bubbles in the BBQ sauce caused a bit of inconsistency but hopefully this will go away when we use the actual material. It’s not quite plug and play yet but it certainly looks like it is on track to be a viable option for prototyping.

    Check out the video, sped up to 8x actual.