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A comment on Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable transparent wood.

Re:Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable tr... by oldmanpants on Saturday February 06, 2021 @10:04PM (#26052266)
> Next, they infused the wood with a tough transparent epoxy designed for marine use, which filled in the spaces and pores in the wood and then hardened

so they replaced the wood with epoxy, and called it wood. Like a car where you replace everything but the VIN so it keeps it's identity?

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Re:Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable tr... by michaelbuckbee on Saturday February 06, 2021 @10:09PM (#26052292)
It sounds more like the process that's used with carbon fiber - epoxy is poured around the carbon fiber cloth and the end result is something with properties of both.

The article is scant on details so it may still be bunk, but I still think it sounds like an interesting application.

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Re:Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable tr... by phkahler on Saturday February 06, 2021 @10:27PM (#26052387)
No. The white wood has rough surfaces which make them opaque. Filling the gaps with epoxy effectively removes that roughness.

Not sure how they "infuse" it. That sounds like driving it deeper.

Years ago we had an opaque SLA prototype part. I came in the next day and it was mostly transparent. The M.E. told me they painted it clear...

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Re:Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable tr... by jrockway on Saturday February 06, 2021 @10:31PM (#26052412)
> Not sure how they "infuse" it. That sounds like driving it deeper.

NileRed did a video about preparing this from a different paper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1H-323d838

It seems that you just soak the thing in epoxy in a vacuum. The results were not great, though.

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Re:Solar-assisted fabrication of large-scale, patternable tr... by shadycuz on Saturday February 06, 2021 @11:39PM (#26052689)
Yup, also AvE https://youtu.be/880a_XgvBEo and they both did it 2 years ago.
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