Electromagnet 2

thingiverse

A follow-up to this Thingiverse project (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:904) features a cylindrical design with a spiral channel for printing without internal support material. Successfully printed on a Dimension uPrint, the structure can house low-melting-temp metal alloys to create electromagnets. However, due to its limited turns, performance is poor and it's more of a proof-of-concept than a practical magnet. For better results and similar approaches, check out Malone and Lipson's paper "Multi-material Freeform Fabrication of Active Systems" (http://creativemachines.cornell.edu/publications) and the SpoolHead concept (http://reprap.org/wiki/SpoolHead). An update on metal printing can be found in Rhys Jones' RepRap blog post (http://blog.reprap.org/2011/06/new-approach-to-printing-metals.html), while filling instructions are detailed at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:904. Be warned, working with low-melt alloys is hazardous and should only be attempted by experienced lab personnel. The STLs and Alibre source files are available for download.