What made you put "solid" in quotes when referring to metal objects? I ask because i was looking at Markforged's "Metal X" printer and thought the final products looked fantastic!
I haven't done any SLS printing myself, but from what I hear the final products are kind of "porous" in a way.
There's the metal bound in plastic that you print, and during the sintering process it removes the plastic, but it can't get all of it out. The parts end up being either slightly porous or still having the binding plastic in it.
I hear they are still extremely solid for most use cases, but technically they aren't completely solid metal.
What you are describing here sounds more like binder jetting than SLS.
Sintering often stuggles with porosity, even using traditional bulk techniques. There is space between powder particles, and some of it likely survives.
