I've been working on the machine for this Friday's STEM+Families event at Van Buren Elementary. Looking forward to inspiring the children! My wife helped out and made vinyl letters: Paint is curing:
Testing has begun on the Pavement Printer. Some unexpected results: Water consumption can be quite high, however when testing random water jets, many are often on at the same time, and at a much higher frequency than when writing characters; so I'm optimistic that water consumption will be less of a concern The pressure needed for the water to fan out from the nozzles at the expected 15 degrees is much higher than I want to run. While getting those larger pixels would be nice, water consumption would go way up, as well as the volume of CO2. Surprisingly, it takes very little pressure to lay down dots, so that is the way i'll run the machine, to extend the consumables Even at low pressures, the water splashes back up soaking the bottom of the frame...so I'll need to get the wood frame painted before I use this too much, so the frame doesn't start warping or rotting Here is the character set I've come up with for the machine: The wood frame ...