For the heck of it one afternoon, I decided to build my own laboratory style hotplate. The concept was simple enough: Take some scrap aluminum plate, and a cheap PID controller from aliexpress, along with two 400 watt 120V heating cartridges and make a simple but effective hotplate. I quickly determined I also wanted stirring capabilities, so the project was reborn, and all fit into an elegant Radioshack project box, with a pulse width modulator (PWM) controller to control the fan speed to a high degree of accuracy, and also allow very low RPM's. The result after a few hours of work was a simple, effective, and accurate hotplate and magnetic stirrer. The max temperature right now is set to 400*C, but I will be raising that another 100*C or so. Components used: PID controller kit from aliexpress (the SSR type) Scrap Aluminum plate 12v wall charger -to provide power to the PWM - to power the fan Cheap 12V 10amp PWM from eBay Project box Old PC fan I had laying around Hard drive magnet and heat-sink made on lathe (used high temp epoxy to secure to fan) And an assortment of wires, nuts and bolts. Total cost was around $65, since I already had many of the parts sitting around. Check out my Chemistry section at www.DoranAerospace.com ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6mOZeyTi84

For my senior project we were tasked with building a 3D printer which could print both plastic and a metal of some sort. After much research, we settled on a low melting point allow of Bismuth and Tin. Indium added to the alloy would likely dramatically improve printability, however we could not source a manufacturer. We are using a stock E3D V6 with a smaller Teflon sleeve added to for the 1.22mm 'filament'. The alloy is Sn42/Bi58. It seems to like settings similar to printing with PLA. In this case the heated bed was set to 60*, and the extruder to 190*. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSzz7jWRlkQ