Thread: 3D Printed scales

I was at Randy Tuttles (randydance062449) house along with 32T this afternoon and our friend Animesh brought some 3D printed scales. They can be plain or textured or any color (or two color), this could be very interesting. I'm getting some in black for a Wade & Butcher

Look! Now if they could 3D print the blade.

THAT would be tough lol!!

Originally Posted by bouschie

Look! Now if they could 3D print the blade.

I know nothing about different kinds of plastic or what is best for this and that. I do however see a great potential to recreating some really cool old carved scales as well as some of the impressive ivory and pressed horn, that would be costly to otherwise make one set of. I wonder hat the setup and printing costs are like, and of course amortization.

The owner of the printer says it's not to expensive after the initial cost of the printer. A set of scales takes about 25 mins and not much material. His printer will do two color and metallic plastic.

Originally Posted by RezDog

I know nothing about different kinds of plastic or what is best for this and that. I do however see a great potential to recreating some really cool old carved scales as well as some of the impressive ivory and pressed horn, that would be costly to otherwise make one set of. I wonder hat the setup and printing costs are like, and of course amortization.

Impressive, most impressive,

I don't suppose that there could be a tutorial made for further reference and guidance?

That is very interesting....

This is totally new to me as well, I think there are a lot of videos on youtube which I'll be watching this evening. I think we blew the guys mind with all possible shaving things you could make with it, brush handles for one.

Originally Posted by cudarunner

Impressive, most impressive,

I don't suppose that there could be a tutorial made for further reference and guidance?

Here's a time lapse of one in action

https://youtu.be/8_vloWVgf0o

It was very interesting to see what animesh (his real name) had created so far.
The material he used was good from a structural viewpoint. The scales would flex and return to their original shape. I would have preferred the color black instead of the red/orange color .
It was interesting that the process of printing created a small but nice pattern on the scales. The top set of pics show scales with a very distinct pattern, The bottom set is where we removed the pattern with lacquer thinner. We tried sanding & buffing but to remove the pattern required 220 grit and the best buffing compound was Tripoli. This is some tuff material !
During his visit RodB and me bombarded him with facts re razors and a ton of ideas for future creations. The scale pattern you see above was based on a W&B ~6/8. We sent him home with scales from a Dubl Duck Satinedge 5/8 to use as a model plus others.
The strong suit for this is a set of scales with some texture/design but that does not require buffing. This raw material used here does not like to be buffed. Other material may be better at that.
This opens the door to some creative experimenting by RodB and animesh.