F3D DIY food 3d printer with integrated halogen oven

F3D is food RepRap derived DIY 3d printer. YES it will print and COOK your food. It uses halogen bulb as a sort of improvised oven. Food in a form of paste is extruded trough a syringe nozzle. The entire device costs in 1200 £ range.

From F3D homepage:

‘F3D’, pronounced ‘fed’, is a prototype RepRap derived automated kitchen. It was developed part-time over 6 months as a third year project by 4 Mechanical Engineering students (Hillel Baderman, Jacob Watfa, Francis Nwobu, and James Clarke) at Imperial College London. The project was supervised by Dr. Connor Myant.

‘F3D’ can print and cook a multi-ingredient meal using food pastes in pre-filled syringes autonomously. The user is required only to insert the syringes into the machine and ‘press print’.

You can get all the details about the F3D in very extensive PDF report:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/14isxpr78iv4rsj/Final%20Report.pdf?dl=0

F3D homepage: http://www.f3dprinter.com/

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DIY extruder for HDPE aquaponic plant growing strips

Extruders can be used for more than just filament extrusion. Here is a project from Web4Deb that makes growing media HDPE strips for plants in aquaponic or hydroponic systems from raw pellets. Auger based extruder is powered by windshield wiper motor and geared with bicycle gears. You could alos use it for HDPE recycling. Food from plastics ...

Extruder specs:

• The barrel is heated with a length of Nichrome wire and and insulated with what appears to be polyimide tape.
• The auger is a standard 3/4" wood auger bit (bought a set from Harbor Freight) and cut it down to length.
• The auger is driven by a wind shield wiper motor which is geared down with a bicycle chain and sprocket.
• The heating element draws around 16A at 12V (192W) from a computer power supply.
• The temperature for the extruder barrel is controlled with a Teensy AVR micro-controller.
• The die appears to be interchangeable.
• The extruded HDPE is forced through a set of fan cooled rollers.
• Two individual temperature sensors are located on the extrusion barrel.
• The Teensy AVR micro-controller appears to be used to switch one or more relays through a transistor array.

RepRap wiki page: http://reprap.org/wiki/Web4Deb_extruder

Plant growing on extruded HDPE strips. It is the miracle of science :-)  

Web4Debs extruder

3d printing can be used in wide variety of aquaponic and hydroponic systems:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/08/make-low-cost-diy-hydroponics-system.html

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/08/small-diy-aquaponic-system-producing.html

Happy growing!

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Make a low cost DIY hydroponics system with 3Dponics modules and used plastic bottles

As I wrote in previous DIY aquaponics post, I'm researching from my future projects. I discovered 3DPonics which is modular system of 3d printed elements that enables you to create low cost home hydroponic system for growing plants in used plastic bottles.
Growing vegetables in most types of plastic bottles and containers is considered safe.

The system is completely free and open source. I'm huge supporter of open source movement and this is very important point for me. I think it is alos possible to "upgrade" it with a fishtank to get fully aquaponic growth system.

It looks like an ideal setup for small spaces bot indoor and outdoor. Maybe I'll build this for next growing season. I'm gathering plastic bottles for other projects and have seed material for old types of tomatoes and peppers. Growing your own food is like growing your own money.
Maybe next year ...

Check it out:

Kickstarter campaign (probably used as promotion tool) promotion video:




Here is a hydroponic system based on 3dponics on a small apartment balcony:




Here is short guide on how to build the system:




Project homepage: http://www.3dponics.com/

3DPonics Kickstarter:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/3dprintler/3dponics-community-for-crowdsourced-3d-printed-hyd/

You can watch 3dponics system on a balcony via live cam: https://www.dropcam.com/p/3dponics

All instructions and files can be found at: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:376158

3dponics hydroponic system indoors 

3dponics hyrdroponic system on a balcony

3dponics system overview 

You could also 3d print the most of the water pump and make DIY peristaltic pump or other type:

Peristaltic pump 3d printed and powered by standard NEMA motor: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:414192

Go explore DIY water pumps for your aquaponic / hydroponic systems here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/tag:peristaltic

http://www.yeggi.com/q/water+pump/


Here is my first post on using 3d printed parts in aquaponic / hydroponic food growing that also has some introduction videos on the topic:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2013/06/using-3d-printing-in-aquaponics.html

Update (30.9.2014.):

Here is detailed video interview about 3Dponics with Luke Rudkowski, This video describes the system, philosophy behind it and future developments. Open Source everything!

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Small DIY aquaponic system producing food on small aquarium with 3d printed modules

I do have a relatively large food garden at my home, but growing food is time consuming and subject to many factors such as weather and diseases. This year was terrible, we had a very small harvest but we invested a LOT of work. This made me more interested in aqaponics and hydroponics.

I wrote about 3d printed aquaponics before but I researched more and found this small system.
It grows plants as part of small fish aquarium (10 gallon=37 liters) in 3d printed modules.

It loos good enough to start experimenting with spices, herbs and salads. Maybe also as a seed starter.

All the parts are here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:163468

If you really want a small DIY aquaponics system that fits anywhere you can try with this one from Cascaqua that will enable you to grow some salad or spice herbs and features an organic moder design:

Cascaqua homepage with files:

http://avooq.com/product/cascaqua/


BTW:

If all else fails in your garden, Jerusalem Artichoke ALWAYS grow and require no care. They are tasty also and can be eaten raw.

UPDATE:

3DPonics system: http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/08/make-low-cost-diy-hydroponics-system.html

if you want to make your own growing strips for aquaponics, check this DY extruder:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/08/diy-extruder-for-hdpe-aquaponic-plant.html

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