{"id":442,"date":"2014-12-24T00:15:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-24T06:15:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/?p=442"},"modified":"2024-05-01T17:33:07","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T22:33:07","slug":"friction-welding-with-a-dremel-rotary-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/friction-welding-with-a-dremel-rotary-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Friction Welding (with a Dremel Rotary Tool)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-456\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/before_after_makey.jpg\" alt=\"Makey Before and After\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/before_after_makey.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/before_after_makey-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A couple of years ago Fran posted a really interesting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=r0zpqhhcmp4%20\">video demonstrating friction welding<\/a>. Fran used a cheap harbor freight rotary tool and some plastic (styrene) rod from a craft store.\u00a0 Her demonstration showed how strong friction welded joints are.\u00a0 Friction welding has been bouncing around the back of my brain ever since.\u00a0 Lately I have found a couple of applications for the friction welding technique.\u00a0 Having recently purchased a fused filament 3D printer (PrintrBot Simple Metal) I have some failed PLA 3D prints laying around. I also happen to have some ABS scraps and some 3mm injection molded ABS rods from another project.\u00a0 Experimenting with these materials I have found that friction welding works well for both ABS and PLA.\u00a0 As part of my experimentation I repaired a failed Maker Faire Makey figure. The following video captures the process.\u00a0 (I have since printed a successful Makey Robot on my Printrbot simple Metal)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tnnN2sBmPLg\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>After some experimenting with 1.75 mm PLA and 3 mm ABS I have come up with a few friction welding tips:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>3 mm filament can be used in a standard 1\/8 inch collet.<\/li>\n<li>1.75 mm filament can be used in a 1\/16 inch collet (available at most hardware stores. usually in a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dremel.com\/en-US\/Accessories\/Pages\/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=4485\">set of four Dremel collets<\/a> )<\/li>\n<li>You could also use a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dremel.com\/en-us\/tools\/pages\/tooldetail.aspx?pid=4486#.VJndh_8CECA\">Dremel chuck<\/a> to hold the filament if you have one.<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t run the Dremel at full speed.\u00a0 I try to keep the speed as low as I can.\u00a0 If the Dremel tool wants to jump away from the part you are welding increase the speed.\u00a0 (thicker filament requires more speed)<\/li>\n<li>Don&#8217;t let too much filament hang out of the collet.\u00a0 Too muck filament will start to whip around and break off.<\/li>\n<li>The filament will wear away quickly.\u00a0 Stop to extend more filament before the extended length of\u00a0 filament gets too short to grab and pull out with a pair of pliers.\u00a0 Otherwise the collet nut will need to be completely removed to pull more filament out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition to repairing failed prints friction welding can also be incorporated into the assembly process.\u00a0 Smaller parts can be welded together to form larger structures.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hexagons.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-450\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hexagons.jpg\" alt=\"Hexagons\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hexagons.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/hexagons-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>For example I printed 20 hexagons and friction welded them together to form a truncated icosahedron (same shape as a buckyball).\u00a0 In this case the finished part would have fit inside of my printers build volume but the same process could be used to create much larger structures.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ryZeZ4qxEIw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-449\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up2.jpg\" alt=\"Bucky Closeup 2\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up2.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up2-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-448\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up1.jpg\" alt=\"Bucky Closeup 1\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up1.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/bucky_close_up1-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Friction welding is a quick, strong and easy way to join plastic parts together.\u00a0 The great part is that welding the parts together eliminates the need to add additional adhesives keeping the part a homogenous material.\u00a0 Additional structure can even be added if needed for strength.\u00a0 For extra strength prints could even include bevels for strong traditional <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Welding_joint\">weld joints<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The files for the truncated icosahedron can be downloaded here:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youmagine.com\/designs\/friction-welded-truncated-icosahedron\">Youmagine: Friction Welded Truncated Icosahedron<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thingiverse.com\/thing:608201\">Thingiverse: Friction Welded Truncated Icosahedron<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Update 12\/26: Why stop there below is a quick GIF of a <a title=\"Great dodecahedron\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Dodecahedron\">dodecahedron<\/a> made from pentagons.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dodecahedron.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-480\" src=\"http:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/dodecahedron.gif\" alt=\"dodecahedron\" width=\"400\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of years ago Fran posted a really interesting video demonstrating friction welding. Fran..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":447,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442\/revisions\/481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scorchworks.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}