Wax Printer

[Mike Fulton]

Looking for a wax printer that will print low fusing wax that can be boiled out. Has anyone seen such an animal?

 

[rlhhds]

What are going to use this for denture bases, splints?

 

[JMN]

Looking for a wax printer that will print low fusing wax that can be boiled out. Has anyone seen such an animal?

Off the shelf? Nope. If you are seriously nerd you might be able to build one, but thermal management for a soft wax is a huge headache.
Dribble, clog, wax constitunents separting and clogging the port as it melt/burns off while waiting for the next head down and squirt....

Some of the first bioprinters were heavily modified from HP off the shelf.

If I'm off track, I'd love to hear it. This woudl be very exciting for many reasons.

 

[Mike Fulton]

You are on track for sure. Couple of reasons to go this way. 1) The Digital denture format of a white tryin denture is hated by every doc I have talked to about it. Patients want to see the real teeth for goodness sake. 2) Training a new tech to carve wax for a denture is very time consuming.
If we can find a way to print the base out of some material that can be removed from a flask mold by conventional means then processed with conventional acrylic now that will be a winning combination. If you think about it a base that is designed on a computer will be much better than a hand fabricated wax base for many reasons but number one will be consistency the holy grail.

 

[JMN]

You are on track for sure. Couple of reasons to go this way. 1) The Digital denture format of a white tryin denture is hated by every doc I have talked to about it. Patients want to see the real teeth for goodness sake. 2) Training a new tech to carve wax for a denture is very time consuming.
If we can find a way to print the base out of some material that can be removed from a flask mold by conventional means then processed with conventional acrylic now that will be a winning combination. If you think about it a base that is designed on a computer will be much better than a hand fabricated wax base for many reasons but number one will be consistency the holy grail.

Consistency is a fickle mistress.


We can do more, but lets be sure to keep some art in our craft. When was the last ornate door knob you saw? I like the machines and the process and the tech, but I'm a romantic and feel we're slowly sucking something intrinsic and ineffable out of the output without far better tools to interact with the digitized design environment.

 

[CatamountRob]

I’d like to be able to print wax lips or those little wax soda bottles full of Kool aid type stuff. That’s the gold standard.

 

[JMN]

I’d like to be able to print wax lips or those little wax soda bottles full of Kool aid type stuff. That’s the gold standard.

Did you have the grape pistols?