3D Printing Comes to Wood
Jul-05-2013 | Comments: 0 | Posted In: | Posted By: William Sampson, Editor of CabinetMaker+FDM Magazine
Manufacturing processes can usually be divided along two lines, additive and subtractive. In woodworking, most of what we do to make and prepare parts is a subtractive process. We take raw material, then cut, carve or abrade it to remove what we don’t want and achieve the finished form. In some cases, we use additive process such as gluing up veneers or stack laminations or the simple assembly of multiple small parts to make something larger, like a finished piece of furniture.
I was thinking about this additive vs. subtractive process when I recently attended a workshop on 3D printing. This new technology has gotten quite a lot of press lately. It uses computer programmed machines and plastic filament to “print” three-dimensional objects. It’s the exact opposite of modern CNC manufacturing in the woodworking industry. Instead of taking a piece of wood and cutting it down to parts using computer technology, the 3D printer builds up fine layers of plastic to create the final part.
Currently 3D printing is mostly applicable to prototype work. It takes a lot of printing time to make a small part. And, of course, it is limited by the materials it can use, most commonly ABS and PLA plastic. But at the workshop I attended, my ears pricked up when I heard there are new materials being developed for 3D printing, including wood fiber based filaments. The whole concept of so-called “engineered” wood could dramatically expand with this technology.
Already, 3D printing is accessible to a wide audience with simple machines in kit form for less than $1,000 and driven by drawings from the free Google SketchUp program. Sophisticated professional machines compare in cost to similar CNC routers. But think of having a desktop machine that could print out a complex wood-like part at the touch of a button much as we now print documents. This could change a lot about how we view manufacturing in the wood industry.