Printer is amazing. My grill is eight veneers of gold @ .45mm
I have made many now, for employees and family.
Imagine a Gold coping, now take off three axial walls, then multiply by eight.
You'd get around 2.7dwt, or at least that's what I got..
You wouldn/t believe this, but I have printed a coping 20microns thick!
I'm serious. It looks like a soap bubble. We broke it trying to get it into a box.
It's worthless for Dentistry, but I just wanted to see if printer would do that.
I have called around the East Coast. Seems some lab owners bought this machine not knowing much about the technology or computers, and the lab considered it a failure. I told them to never unplug it or turn off. Do not place near cold window, and keep machine hot. Those labs did none of that, and machine broke. These things have a very bad reputation for breaking. And the company tried to get a new start by calling the printers a new name. Old name was InVision, new name is ProJet. Same machine inside after the covers are off. I have taken mine apart three times. We have run about 100 prints and I guess eight had problems. The whole job was finished and there were "rows" of teeth that mis-printed. "White" support wax was too cold or print head got clogged. I purged the material backward manually, and cleaned everything.
I believe Glidewell bought one a few years back, and they gave up too soon, and focused on milling of wax. I tried that first and hated it.
I love mine! I'm shopping for another as a backup/parts.
More and more labs will get some sort of software to design something that we could print. Either a RPD framework, or metal, or pressable patterns.
For Dentistry, 3D Systems wants us to buy a ProJet DP. It's around $90k and then you need a scanner and software, materials to print with, and you need to come up with a post processing station. A Year service agreement is around $11,000/year or as I see it....$50/day! Ouch! I think I'll pass on that one and figure it out myself.
I bought a dual french-fry warming light, and a food warmer (serving warmer for big meals) Food Warmer is BIG metal box, water bath inside, and three shallow sections for warming food with lids. Keeps temps under boiling with large knob. Great temp control around the 160-200f range. Fry pan too hot.
I have the light right above the warmer. First section, I have Parafin wax, next section is corn oil, next section is soapy water. We use strainers.
All this is on top of large cooking sheets to keep the mess contained.
We can post-process very fast with minimal human work. 150 copings can take a few minutes to clean up.
I have two space heaters set-up by wax-printer to keep warm at night, because I had to place by window.
We are getting around 1000 copings for each $250 tube of material.
I'm using a non-Dental material, that is the exact same, but different color (blue, not green) that material is half the cost. If you soak either in oil overnight, they turn white. Soak in soap overnight, and both turn clear.
We have tried to break down the printed material with M.E.K., Acatone, Monomer, Alchohol, cyanoacrylate solvent, etc.....none had effect. Very durable material!
The magazine "Medical Design and Technology" shows all the little pieces that go into a big medical machine, and where to order. I get my own motors, encoders, guide rails, hall-effect switches, heating elements, thermocouples direct from manufacture. Fok the Dental supply people who rip us off 10x over.
