14 DAY TRIAL // The idea of owning a kiln would come across as outlandish to many people, but it turns out that it's essential if you want to be able to print things from metal at home.
If you were to drop by Indiegogo right now, you'd find a crowd-funding project for a home 3D printer that creates things out of metal.
And not just any old metal like copper and bronze, but steel and gold as well.
That's right, you can build anything from sprockets to jewelry and little figurines. We actually found out about the Mini Metal Maker some time ago, but now it's reached the funding goal.
Unfortunately, as I said, the printer (called Mini Metal Maker) needs a kiln, a thermally insulated chamber, really a type of oven.
There, the “precious metal clay” (used by jewelers usually) is melted down (600˚C-900˚C), burning the binder away and allowing the metal to fuse.
Now if only there was a way to create a mini kiln, this wouldn't be a problem. Sadly, the ones I know of are as tall as a wall.
