Fellow Shenzhen/Hong Kong maker, Alex Hornstein, had an interesting idea of how to dispense voxels in 3D space using food coloring and corn syrup, something he calls “3D painting”.  To put it simply, he added color to corn syrup inside a syringe and dispensed it into a plastic cup filled with transparent corn syrup.  Since they have the same density, the colored voxels will not sink or float, just remain in the location they were dispensed.

Alex decided to repurpose a euclid deltabot to do all the motion control for his project.  This is a perfect example of how the framework is useful to an individual with new ideas.  Without a lot of prior knowledge with 3D printers, he was able to focus on designing a new tool-head and apply it to the existing, fine-tuned motion control. For the cost of a small compressor, dispenser, corn syrup, plastic syringes, and a 3D printed holder, he was able to prototype within days.

Pneumatic dispenser sits on top of the deltabot, wired to a free pin on the motherboard, allowing precise control of the syringe

3D printed holder attaches to the end effector and holds the syringe in place.

Some of the results came out really interesting!  The need for high pressure with small diameter needles, and viscosity moving the medium around with large diameter needles made a fun challenge to play with. For his Makerfaire demonstration, the gcode commands were sent in real time using a Leap Motion tracking device for booth visitors to control. You can read more about the process on his blog.

3D painted sphere

Mind-bending 3D painted contours