I had another nutty idea all of a sudden. Would cable ties work as a precision track? So I rolled a very funny-looking gear by hand and found it might. I put a section of it in the jig we use for making Darwin gears, and it came out a little strange but definitely worked.
As you can see, I didn't break the jig or anything - the polymorph (yes, I dyed it black with candle soot) was just a little too cold. Stabbing it with the wrong size screwdriver for a shaft didn't help either. However, it is getting late and I must away. And soe once more to bedde...Vik :v)
This makes me think of how specialty extruder heads could be made. A ridged wheel placed near the orifice could intercept the emerging soft plastic and emboss it with whatever pattern you want. You've already got the extruder head, you just need an adapter for the embossing wheel. The wheel might need to be driven by a stepper motor but you've got all that sort of thing covered already too.
ReplyDeleteCould using a cheap lighter grinding head work with cable ties?
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