Taking A Good Thing Too Far?

[Jccarlton]

6 axis 3D printer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... GyiXFGvkqE
I'm not sure if there aren't easier ways to get to where these guys are trying to go. This seems too complicated.

[hanelyp]

I see a few special cases where the extra degrees of freedom are useful:
- building around an existing object.
- extruding minimum width wires.

This looks like an extrusion machine with a fairly large minimum feature size.

But for most 3D printing a 3 axis scan is sufficient.

[Jccarlton]

I was thinking that you could get the extra axes, if you needed them, with a chuck and rotary table. This thing is really too complicated.

[kunkmiester]

A fourth axis would be useful though, especially with FDM. The adhesion between layers is a big limit on the strength of a part. If you can control that--say, make a cylindrical part with circular patterns, and holes in the sides are done circumferential to the hole, you can the strength where and how you need it much easier, meaning more useful parts with a less complicated technology. Five axis might be nice too, but I'm not sure how this thing can help.