Shorewood Man Builds Concrete Castle With Homemade 3D Printer
SHOREWOOD, Minn. (WCCO) – You've heard the saying that a man's home is his castle.
In Shorewood, there's one man who has taken that to the extreme.
When Andrey Rudenko couldn't find a tree large enough to construct a fort, he took to building a 3D printer.
But it's what he did with the printer that is truly something to behold.
"It was my dream to build someday castle," Rudenko said.
Rudenko is a contractor by trade, with a passion for computers and architecture. But he also has quite a mind for invention.
"So the extruder is supposed to be right here," Rudenko says pointing to the steel framework laying in the grass.
Captivated by 3-D printers, Andrey designed his own. Using steel rails, chains and motors, he built an extruder that spits out layers of concrete in whatever pattern he programs.
"Actually, it's almost the same as a regular printer but much, much bigger in size," Rudenko said.
To extrude the concrete he had to get the mix just right.
So he used a mixture of play sand, cement and additives to create a mix that would flow evenly through the extruder head.
After the layered walls of the castle were complete, pieces of the turrets were printed out and stacked into place.
"And I just got an idea about how I can use it to print houses," Rudenko said.
That's right!
Rudenko is dreaming of yet larger projects by simply scaling up the size.
He hopes to someday soon, build something to live in.
"It's not just someday, I can print a house in like a couple months," Rudenko said.
This king of the castle is setting his sights on the real world of modern construction.
For more information or to view Rudenko's castle, visit http://www.totalkustom.com/.