That is a big question. And usually a great disability.
I was lucky that I was stupid and did not know that this can not be done – inventing the multiplanet technique.
Notice
I heartily recommend reading the introduction:
https://quantumidea.tech/2020/08/23/the-technique-of-multiplanet-species/
I am grateful for Kerry Stevenson from Fabbaloo that led to the writing the text below. He motivated me to write the answers that were needed to create this article:
As a Pole, I still have to apologize for my English… 😉 And now we can start!
Who
My name is Michał Baran, I live in Poland and for over a quarter of a century I have been a jeweller, a humble craftsman. I like when something is impossible to do. I specialize in such cases. [behance.net/mkjb]
I fell in love with my profession because thanks to practicing it, I can discover reality extremely effectively. I learned my job by scrubbing my nose on display cases in museums.
Until the end of my life I will continue my studies – admiring the flight of bumblebees, the lightness of fish swimming and the invincible strength of grasses.
Why
When I first heard about 3d printing, I was standing in line at the post office. And this information was given on the radio. So I didn’t see what these new, magical machines look like.
On the way home, I began to imagine a device that consists of an aquarium filled with a photopolymer. Three laser beams enter it, each from a different side. A single beam is too weak and nothing will happen until they all cross at a given point, polymerization takes place. After some time I found out that these magical machines (from radio news) work in a completely different way… I was terribly surprised because I knew that “my” method was obvious and it was better…
Many years have passed. My impatience was growing, I couldn’t stand it and started looking for people who would like to implement the aquarium style solution. I talked to many and asked for help. In the end, one guy, a laser show specialist said, it was actually quite simple… I asked if it could be done in the garage and how much money would it take? He replied, that no problem, £1,000 is enough… Lets say I had a garage then, but I didn’t have a free thousand pounds… What’s worse, he was living in the UK then and he couldn’t come… Tragicomedy…
Then the next long months passed. Maybe years. Finally I posted information on an internet forum. It was the end of 2013. Of course the comments were that this is not possible… Several years have passed again…
And finally I read this message:
https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/3/12/eaao5496
Four years difference. But it’s an illusion. Because I had nothing, only bla bla bla. And they just did it! Anyway, at first moment I felt a great relief, finally the solution is shown and it will be possible to use it. I was consoled that I did not have billions in budgets and a staff of thousands of engineers. Interestingly, this situation shows how far one fool can gallop when he doesn’t know he can’t do such serious things… But these are minor issues. It is frightening how powerfull the inertia is. It would seem that the solution is served on a tray but is still not in common use…This is not happening.
Turn
This story was a great lesson for me. I decided to correct myself, draw constructive conclusions.
First of all, I noticed the needs for a new, the main technology of fabrication, that would change the whole technique for the better, still remains… Bah! It is even greater, because the wonders of the media message about “3D printing” turned out to be incompatible with the actual state of affairs. What exactly are the facts? What is our situation?
Unfortunately, we are already very much accelerated on the downward slope. We have gigantic needs, bigger and bigger ones, but we implement them using extremely primitive methods. We have computers but still use hammers and nails.
The overwhelming majority of technologies and technical solutions, machines and devices are extremely ineffective. We recognized it as a canon, as good practice that it must be so, beacuse we have no alternatives. Unfortunately, the reality is screaming to us that we can no longer function in such nonsense. Whatever we do, is only in a small, significantly smaller part, working. The rest, most of it, is bad – it is waste, loss, cost. I began to wonder what would happen if we had adopted the opposite rule? Could the trend be reversed – always gain more than lose!
Because I didn’t know anything, I started looking for experts in this topic.
Once upon a time I met a bumblebee and asked him what do we have to do? He replied:
– Bro, finally someone sincerely asks us about it! The answer is very simple – start comparing how we, birds, trees and intoxicatingly beautiful dolphins are different from the things you humans make… Note that we are mostly made of nothing, the main ingredients are air and water… Dude! Your body also built that way! Never forget that you yourself are the best model for what you’re doing. Additionally, notice our topology! This is crucial! Proper topology is key to everything. You won’t find a single point, straight line or right angle anywhere in nature. So why you even drow these wickedness?! The effects of human activities are like a cancer against the reality that surrounds you. Change it!
He told me this and flew away, I have an old pear tree as a witness. I was shocked. For the first time I realized where the causes of the problems were and how much we have gone astray. We are doing everything upside down. Seriously! If aliens came to Earth, they would be non-stop surprised.
– Guys! Why are these skyscrapers are so silly shapes? Why don’t they look like redwoods or termite mounds? Look! Their females are so beautiful, rounded – why do they force them to live in hideous, angular houses?! What is going on here, on this Earth?!
Go
I started to analyze everything in terms of what Mr. Bumblebee told me. I changed my mind about many things. This process is so painful but salutary.
For example – that laser aquarium. It turns out that it is not so great… First of all – why do I have to always use more material in the process than will be in the existing object? Again – this inverse, annoying dependency! Let’s also look at it completely prosaically. It is unpleasantly to buy a lot of expensive resin to do even small things. Okay! I can make a smaller aquarium for smaller things. But that will be an additional cost again!
Anyway, why this strange rule that the machine should be bigger than the items it produces?! Does it have to be like this?! This question is very confusing.
Next – why do we always have to do everything twice?! This is probably one of the most irrational principles we use. In this case – the aquarium. Why?! Generally, it is always the case that we apply the idea of form. In many variations. For example, when we build houses, we use formwork. Great! When the concrete is ready, we dismantle the formwork. So let’s summarize – we build scaffolding, formwork and the house. So we do three things to do one… Let us remember – when we were born, did someone skin us? Yes, this example is unpleasant. However, even more unpleasant is the information that we are running out of sand for construction…
We can print any amount of money. But we can not print clean water, fresh air and new sand. We really need to change a lot. We have a backlog of several thousand years. Fortunately, there are chances of getting out of this situation. It doesn’t matter who will handle this terrifying challenge. The only important thing is whether the presented solution will start to bring positive results.
The friendly enemy
Long story (quite) short…
For the above reasons, and for many others that I can present, I am not a fan of “3D print”.
Yes, the key postulate, adopting the method of additivity, is correct.
However, it was abandoned somewhere along the way. Please explain to me why suddenly the institution of support is accepted?! This is glaring subtraction! Another, even more malicious question – why can’t the supports be the other objects we want to print? Why do they mandatory have to be waste? When it comes to sintering metals, this is clearly barbaric. By the way, these problems result from the fact that we force to make objects with traditional shapes resulting from old technologies.
Of course I am an ordinary sinner… Therefore tempted some black friday I bought cheap DLP. It is proper to be close to your enemy… I used my lovely enemy literally five times, to calibrate 😉 It stands and gets dusty… But! It’s doing me a huge favor! Every day it reminds me of what needs to be improved. Besides, I use the resin that was included in the kit for my crazy experiments… Moreover, in the meantime it turned out that what I wanted to achieve with this device, I will do much better using the methods that I am developing. So I actually admire “3D print” because it motivated me to act!
next part: https://quantumidea.tech/2020/08/23/by-what-miracle/