Thoughts on 3d printing as a part time gig.

dproeder

I'll be to the point.

I have a friend who has a small company that hosts and puts together outdoor race/adventures. He likes to supply a custom trinket for the participants as a memento/trophy. Were talking like 3-4 inch medals, medallions, etc

He recently came to me as I am one of the only 3d artists he knows personally. He wants me to model out totem pole heads he could use as said trinket. he would need somewhere around 200-300 of these things per race. He has 6 races planned.

Does anyone have experience with work like this?

Checking websites that 3d print models has shown that it is really expensive.

And going in and buying a Makerbot 3d printer might be viable, but I am still worried about material (resin) costs and time to print.

What does polycount think would be a best option for a project like this?

MikeF

with that kind of quantity you'd be better off doing a master print then casting the rest. Once you've got the mold made each additional casting will be dirt cheap and much faster to pull off (plus you can do some cleanup and refining from the print).

I'm just getting into mold making for this kind of stuff so i cant really recommend anything in particular, but check out YouTube for some great tutorials and links to the resin's you'l need
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs9SBpday84

ZacD

He needs 1200 3-4" medals? Quality wise, most home 3d printers wont allow for sharp and clean details at that scale, and there will be a line texture/pattern on the objects. If the medals are just going to be mostly large shapes and designs, it should work well. Text will be pretty bad though.

http://store.solidoodle.com/index.php?route=common/home

This site seems to be pretty good, decent prices on everything. The pastic will be cheap enough, and you could probably have 4+ medals print out at a time, that's still going to be a lot in time and electricity.

This job would be better handled by coming up with some sort of mass production, I'm sure there's companies that do that.

Snader

If they're going to be a lot of the same (as in you have 100 first places, 100 runner ups, 100 for this and that) you're probably better off trying to contact a CNC company to engrave stuff, or a milling company, or maybe even press them like how coins get pressed.

You'll lose a bit in flexibility, but if it's a medal you don't really want to go too far beyond a height-map anyway.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05SpQC6ga-0"]CNC machine engraving on copper - YouTube[/ame]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx-ndeBo8Ng"]DATRON Engraving Machine - Rose Embossing Die - YouTube[/ame]

If you can find a 3D CNC place, a totem pole would also be feasible, I think.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ntxOWw5yxE"]DMG Model DMU40MB Demonstration - Copper Mold Segement - YouTube[/ame]

Justin Meisse

see if you have any hackerspaces or a techshop near you, they usually have a number of 3D printers & CNC machines you can try out. After going to Techshop I got more excited about CNC than 3d printing.

dproeder

Thanks for all the replies so far. To be clear, its not going to be a medal like you would usually get for a competition. It will be a small 4 inch figurine of a totem pole face. Like this...



This is just an example of a Stone Statue Head I did for a project long ago, but it serves the point well enough.

Justin Meisse

yeah, if the model doesn't have any overhangs it could easily cut out on an a CNC milling machine. You'd probably end up with tighter details than from a 3d printer.

Lamont

Like was mentioned, best to get a high quality print and cast them. Even a simple rounded design will have the lines.

Make sure you make the shape hollow on the inside, saves a ton of cash.

Steve Schulze

If your heart is set on using a consumer grade printer, you can clean up the layering effect with any number of things. I think the last time someone did that at work they just used a cheap ceramic clay, watered it down to a thin slip an then brushed it into the grooves, before making a silicon mould.

JohnnyRaptor

personally i would send the 3d mesh to a mass production company similar to what is posted above or alternativelty find 3d companies that also offer casting services and mass production discounts etc.

Richard Kain

The kind of quantities we're talking about would preclude using a Makerbot or other home-based solution. Personal 3D printing is centered around very limited runs of personalized and custom items. It isn't well suited to mass-production. When it comes to producing more than a thousand of the same item, you are definitely going to want to go with a different approach.

The cost advantage of home/hobby 3D printing is in being able to produce very limited or even single prints all at the same relative cost. Custom work and limited editions are the best way to go with personal 3D printing. For mass production you're better off going with a more traditional production approach.