Propeller Hats!

A picture post showing the latest delivery from Shapeways.  Joris just posted guidelines on stainless steel printing so I thought I’ll post some photos to show what tiny detail can be achieved.

Fits quite nicely on the shirt cuff...

Back side of the cuff

Blurry cam of a shirt that obviously needs ironing

The various rings from Shapeways next to a Ponoko test card

The ‘thin wire one’ (can’t think of a name) has never been printed before.  It was first dreamt up in the shower , I’m surprised how well a scribble on the fogged up glass of the shower turned out printed in stainless steel!

Lets have a better look

Stainless steel and bronze rings

Stainless steel and bronze rings

Hey look, there’s my invoice.  $1.32 USD for the ‘thin wire one’ (have to think of a name…or have to remember what I named it  on Shapeways…) – great price eh?

The print quality is very good though it appears (not sure) that some post processing (polishing?) was done.

Nothing much else to say!  Have to move on to the next post…Ciao!

Softbank Phone Ringing with Clear Detail Material

My prints from Shapeways have arrived!  Yippie, more photos after the break (i.e. click read more).

Another Shapeway parcel arrived in record time.  This time is a couple of phone covers for a girly Japanese phone

All the photos below are basically the goods as they’ve been unboxed without any touching up such as polishing as demonstrated by Peter Paul of Shapways here.

OEM Cover, Clear Detail Cover, White Strong & Flexible Cover

The white cover on the right is upside down when i took the photo…oops.

Clear Detail Cover

Phone ringing again with different LEDs

Kind of pretty with the girly flashy LEDs

White Strong & Flexible Cover

WS&F is kind of translucent...

WS&F again with different LEDs

Knowing the WS&F material being so translucent is useful for future projects…

The filler order…”Robust” and “Detail” material rings

I had to bump up the order to meet the minimum order so I ordered my Heart Rings in all the other Shapeways materials just to compare the materials.  Feel free to buy some hehe

Cream Robust & the 3 other detail materials

Forgot to include the WS&F and I’m too lazy to add it, but here’s the various rings stacked up ontop of each another to make comparison easier.  The empty photo frame behind is from Ponoko that costs $3/4 to make…unlike Shapeways postage is another matter

Heart Rings stacked up in-front of a plywood photo frame from Ponoko (Hi-Res photo if you click in)

Shapeway’s Great Dedicated Staff

A special thanks to Frank Geven at Shapeway’s!  You see Shapeway’s has an automated validation that checks if your model is manifold, not impossible to print etc.  One of the criteria is that the model can not be too thin which phone covers must be, so I had to add a tiny hack of a piece onto my model to fool the validation.

Frank was kind enough to E-mail me warning that the WS&F’s matching ‘hack’ piece might not print properly (I suspect it would would print but difficult to find within the unsintered material) and offered to print it in the clear detail.  I replied confessing the evil deed i’ve done and explained those tiny pieces weren’t needed at all… so boy was I surprised when I got an ‘empty bag’ in my parcel!  Looking closer…

Shapeway's (Frank G's) dedication!

Next is going to be polishing the covers and rings and seeing how they turn out!

The heart shape rings came out in perfect crisp detail!

Photos after the break…

One quick photo to summarise the result :

Iris blades painted with Rub 'n Buff without the buffing...

The finish is pretty good for a 20 second rub on.  I only used tissues to apply the rub n buff because i couldn’t get my hands on any decent cloth and I didn’t want my fingertips all silver again.  With some experimentation I noticed that it is much easier to apply the paint along the ‘grain’.  Keep it mind that using this paint could get a bit messy so remember to work ontop of some tissue/newspaper!  (I used tissue ontop of this very laptop I’m typing on now).

Give it a try!

Here are some photos with some explanations/captions :-

The Heart Shape Ring

What is it meant to look like?  See here : http://www.madox.net/blog/2008/12/03/cute-colourful-heart-rings/

What its meant to be like...

Lumpy rings...

More rings together...Notice the inconsistencies in heart shapes and that there is excess material within some of the heart cutouts

A close up of the 'silver' one where I used some 'Rub & Buff' silver leaf paint applied using my fingertips. A lot of hand-washing afterward. Notice the ring just on the right and the 'blob' of excess material on the right side of it.

Showing the deformation on the other side of that blob.

Rings in a line. Notice the two right most rings I

The Mechanical Iris Diaphragm Mk 2

What is it meant to be like?  See part section view here :- http://www.madox.net/blog/2008/12/04/rapid-prototyping-mechanical-iris-diaphragm-new-improved/

The reverse side of the iris. Notice there is absolutely no gap/separation/distinction between the two inner/outer rings, it just looks like a frisbee....

A little chip on a support rib...no matter...

Top side of the iris. You can see a 'hint' of the blades in the centre but they're all fused together.

Another bottom side, you can see part of the blades through those holes on the bottom.

Top side at an angle...Nothing new

The miniature trebuchet…

I had a model ready to print, infact I was going to order it before I received these but thought I’ll wait to check the clearances work.  Lucky I didn’t order it yet… I hope Shapeways figures out what’s wrong with the latest batch of prints.