alt Hacker NewsIf you had a wire feeder with a actuated barrier just past the tip you can fairly easily bend wire into controlled shapes pretty well. If you printed channels for them to sit in, I think they could be placed.
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Aurornis • yesterday at 4:21 PM
CNC wire benders exist, but they're solving a different problem: They bend the wire in free space, not on to a surface. You would have to design the part and the wire such that the part never comes around into the space occupied by the head, which would limit it to only very basic and small shapes.
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When I worked at Markforged we had a printer that could put solid carbon fiber threads into the print using a second extruder (on the same print head), so it's certainly possible. It was $20k, though. Getting this down to something accessible to hobbyists is the challenge. I think it will happen one day, though.