It's the Leaning Tower of Cheese-A
March 31, 2015 11:20 AM   Subscribe

We've had many leaps and bounds in 3D printing technology over the last few years, but this video finally answers the question which will surely bring us to a new frontier of the industry: what happens when you put spray cheese in it? posted by a manly man person who is male and masculine (34 comments total) 8 users marked this as a favorite
 
I suppose this would work better if they let each layer dry and harden before putting down the next layer, but it would also be more disgusting.
posted by ckape at 11:32 AM on March 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


This is hardly a new thing. The Fab@Home people were using spray cheese in demos 7+ years ago. It's a soft material that stays fairly solid and doesn't require a heating element to extrude, so it makes perfect sense. Plus there are applications for 3D printing foods if you want to make fancy cakes or unusually prepared dishes.
posted by zachlipton at 11:36 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


This printer is bad and it should feel bad.

I wish there was a whole tumblr of sad robots doing things wrong.
posted by GuyZero at 11:37 AM on March 31, 2015 [14 favorites]


everything about this is upsetting.
posted by poffin boffin at 11:38 AM on March 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


MADE
WITH

Real
Cheese!

posted by Sys Rq at 11:38 AM on March 31, 2015


Does spray cheese require period shaking to get it to extrude?
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 11:40 AM on March 31, 2015


Plus there are applications for 3D printing foods if you want to make fancy cakes or unusually prepared dishes.

A cake made of spray cheese would definitely be unusually prepared. Not sure if I'd call it fancy, I'd probably have to taste it first.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 11:43 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Somewhere in New Jersey, Buddy Valastro is having the weirdest boner right now.
posted by cortex at 11:47 AM on March 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


I love spray cheese. Got me through so many childhood road trips.

I'm a little scared that I understood the title reference right out of the gate.

RIP Pauly Shore.
posted by zennie at 11:47 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Does spray cheese require period shaking to get it to extrude?

No it does not.

(Source: I have eaten no less than a dozen canisters of this stuff between the ages of 8 and 12 15 22)
posted by a manly man person who is male and masculine at 11:50 AM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I was trying to think of what type and consistency of cheese would work well in a 3D printer, what qualities would make it workable oh God I'm hungry.
posted by louche mustachio at 11:52 AM on March 31, 2015


My dad used to make an hors d'oeuvre of Ritz, easy cheese and half a Vienna sausage standing up in the middle.
He did it as a funny wink-wink kinda thing, but they always went quickly. Kids love 'em.
posted by lkc at 11:57 AM on March 31, 2015


imagine a world where you're not at the mercy of Big Easy Cheese

I will hear no badmouthing of them: they have the finest selection of Stilton in Louisiana.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 11:58 AM on March 31, 2015 [5 favorites]


A cake made of spray cheese would definitely be unusually prepared. Not sure if I'd call it fancy, I'd probably have to taste it first.
posted by Bulgaroktonos at 2:43 PM on March 31 [+] [!]


Not if you ever expect to make out with your wife again you don't. Gross.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 11:58 AM on March 31, 2015 [4 favorites]


This is actually an excellent, macro-scale model of the issues and difficulties with additive extrusion printing.

It demonstrates the issues with the platen/bed, how gauging the actual height of it is not only difficult to do once, but almost impossible to repeat accurately, at least not without complex sensing and feedback on the printhead.

It also shows how the extruded material doesn't always want to stick properly on the first layer, and why 3D extrusion printers often have to rely on printing a removable "raft" first, or carefully applied crepe masking tape on glass before building the base layers of the model, or why many extrusion printers use a heated platen.

It models the way extruded plastic doesn't really want to adhere to itself, especially as the previous printing cools. It also demonstrates that if the model is too warm, it'll wobble and fall over or massively deform, and that there is an ideal temperature to have enough rigidity per slice but still enough warmth for adhesion. This is handled in 3D extrusion printers by a complex balance of extrusion nozzle temperature, cooling fans, head print speed, extrusion material qualities and melting temps, plastic density, and more.

It shows how printhead nozzles can deform or squash the extrusion if the layer slices are too thin, or adhesion won't happen if they're too thick. Or if the feed/travel rate is too high, it'll pull or distort the printed layers or draw out and stretch the extrusion, oro if it's too slow it'll pool and blob, especially on corners.

Even advanced 3D printers deal with these issues every time they print, and when they make a successful print, it's a delicate balance and dance of all of these issues being solved or managed, and it's a wonder that they work at all.

And you could totally print with spray-can cheese. The inventor needs to work on the nozzle control and printhead heights and speeds, and then rig some kind of blast chilling system and chilled printing platen. Maybe a liquid nitrogen jet that follows the head to chill and firm the cheese.

Now I want a cheesy 9th order Sierpinski cube.
posted by loquacious at 12:01 PM on March 31, 2015 [26 favorites]


/r/oddlysatisfying/
/r/oddlyenraging
posted by Fizz at 12:01 PM on March 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


Goddamn it I had this same idea a year ago.
posted by edheil at 12:05 PM on March 31, 2015


It's not a new idea, really. People have been doing with chocolate and doing "powder deposition" style 3D printing with powdered sugar for a few years now. There's a couple of commercial 3D food printers.
posted by loquacious at 12:14 PM on March 31, 2015


But can it print Pikachu?
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:14 PM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I feel like that video would be half as long with the addition of one rubber band.
posted by potch at 12:31 PM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


Show me SLA printing with a fondue pot and then we're onto something.
posted by JoeZydeco at 12:53 PM on March 31, 2015


GuyZero:
"I wish there was a whole tumblr of sad robots doing things wrong."
shitty robots
posted by idiopath at 1:07 PM on March 31, 2015 [3 favorites]


Did someone say a food robot gone wrongright?
posted by plinth at 1:10 PM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


I, for one, welcome our new cheese smearing overlords.
posted by smidgen at 1:20 PM on March 31, 2015


Cheese. Earl Grey. Hot.
posted by dhartung at 1:29 PM on March 31, 2015 [7 favorites]


I mean, I assume this is just the next step in evolution from the people who brought you the Stuffed Crust Pizza: now, the Extruded Cheese Pizza - a pizza with crust, cheese, and toppings entirely printed out of cheese product!

(Stuffed with cheese.)
posted by ilana at 1:42 PM on March 31, 2015


But can it print the non-firing portions of a gun accompanied by the cheese-frothed screams of 'LIBERTY!'?
posted by FatherDagon at 1:55 PM on March 31, 2015


It's not easy, bein' cheesy.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 2:00 PM on March 31, 2015


This part is a cheese-based simulation of what happened when my cat pooped in the middle of the floor while the Roomba was running unattended.
posted by jjwiseman at 2:32 PM on March 31, 2015 [5 favorites]


Pretty positive this is now the next big fetishism. hOt RoBoT eAsY CHeEsE aCtIoN.
posted by Nanukthedog at 5:07 PM on March 31, 2015


a cheese-based simulation of what happened when my cat pooped in the middle of the floor while the Roomba was running unattended

im upset about how hard i laughed at this and for how long i did so
posted by poffin boffin at 5:20 PM on March 31, 2015 [1 favorite]


It's not a new idea, really.

The person who built this may not have had serious commercial applications in mind.
posted by escape from the potato planet at 4:08 PM on April 1, 2015


ilana: "I mean, I assume this is just the next step in evolution from the people who brought you the Stuffed Crust Pizza: now, the Extruded Cheese Pizza - a pizza with crust, cheese, and toppings entirely printed out of cheese product!

(Stuffed with cheese.)
"

I will brook no criticism of stuffed crust pizza.
posted by Chrysostom at 11:35 AM on April 3, 2015


Cheese Robot, Part II, the user interface.
posted by idiopath at 7:49 PM on April 5, 2015


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