3D-printed 140 cubic inch embellisher

[cr0ft]

I put my fairly rudimentary 3D design skills to use and came up with this. It has a rounded off profile, raised lettering and curved ends where the screws go on the embellisher itself. In high definition black acrylic over at Shapeways.com this costs $18 to print and buy, and then there's shipping. The whole thing will be a pretty smooth black - I figure I'll find some good paint color to apply to the top of the lettering and then clear coat the whole thing.

I'll report back when I have the piece (realistically towards the end of the month at the earliest) with some photos. If it works out, I'll make the model publicly accessible and anyone who wants to can go to Shapeways and order one.

 

[scot in exile]

A pal of mine has a 3d printer and he said he can do the same for me just have to give him the measurements.

 

[cr0ft]

Here's the 3D model I used. It will probably have issues printing on lower resolution home 3D printers, it has some pretty thin sections, but you're welcome to it, give it a whirl. I'd appreciate some photos on how it turned out.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/2333581/140_cubic_inches_embellisher.stl.zip

The high-definition acrylic in the Shapeways machine creates pretty much a smooth result in black so it should require less work to make it look good, and it doesn't hae issues with the potentially thin edges where I cut out some curves (where the bolts on the embellisher goes) but as I said, please do try and see what it looks like.

I tried to measure the one I have and come up with the same dimensions in the 3D model but I make no guarantees here, it can be wildly off. It's a "best effort" kind of thing.

 

[Blackthou]

Clever

 

[scot in exile]

Thanks for the file and yes it is a home 3d printer he has, I will send it to him and see what he can do if anything if not I will be on my way to shapeways

 

[cr0ft]

I have a sample (or rather, my own embellisher) on the way, so may want to hold off on ordering until we can see the end result, though.

 

[cr0ft]

Just thought I'd update with that my copy of this one shipped today; apparently their acrylic machine was heavily booked since they added it so there were delays.

However, interesting news also in the other thread about embellishers - "140 CUBIC INCH" embellisher

That may turn out to be the better option if that works out. Cheaper, too! I'll keep you posted about what this turns out like also though, and make the model available for ordering if it's not useless.

 

[cr0ft]

Wow, apparently Shapeways uses a shipper who can't find Finland on a map. They had it returned once and tried again. Finally got it right now, as it happens the local DHL office is right here so I went and got it.

It looks pretty promising! The finish on the piece is pretty smooth, some minor touch-up with some 3000 grit sand paper and some paint/clear (the letters need to be a bright silver) and it should look good on the bike. Size-wise it looks spot on, but it may be on the thin side. May tweak it a little in that respect before making the model freely available, I'll decide that when I have the final mounting on the bike done and can make a more informed decision.

 

[cr0ft]

Well, after a fair bit of arts and crafts (first painting the letters silver and then shooting some clear onto the part without much further prep) this is what I wound up with. Turns out there is no need to sand it at all, the minor whorls and ridges that this process leaves as it build up the layers gets smoothed out almost perfectly just by laying on a few layers of acrylic glossy clear. The only finicky part is painting the letters themselves with bright silver without smudging.

The plastic used to print it is fairly fragile, and I sheared off part of a corner when handling it a bit too roughly, so that was annoying. Or rather, my design of the part isn't ideal, it's paper thin towards the sides which made it more fragile than it had to be. The break is not painfully ugly though.

The chrome plate is also rounded underneath so my flat embellisher kind of floats on top even though is almost too thin. Turns out it should also have been 180 mm long, not 185.



But, it's not vomit-inducing to look at, which is a good thing since I destroyed the insert that was on the embellisher trying to take it off, had forgotten it was metal and it buckled to hell and gone.

Am I keeping it? For now. We'll see what happens.

I may revisit the 3D model and make it considerably thicker and then contour the inside of it to fit the curvature of the actual chrome plate much better so it doesn't look quite so stuck on. That would be just for my own amusement though, considering this:

Link Removed

Would I recommend anyone else spend $25-30 on this, possibly more to get some acrylic glossy clear etc? Not so much, not now when a more professional sticker is an option.

Thanks for looking.

 

[cr0ft]

I took my previous effort and, with more knowledge about the embellisher chrome plate construction fresh in my head reworked the 3D model so it's now 3 mm thick but hollow. This makes it much closer to the contoured metal insert that normally makes up the text portion, and should allow the embellisher to fill the space much more neatly. It's also sturdier with no thin sharp edges that can snap...

I may order one like this and see how it turns out, the first attempt wasn't bad but also not really good enough to really blend in perfectly. But, $20 just to print the model, plus shipping, in high-definition acrylate, plus you get to do arts and crafts to get the letters a shiny silver, so still probably not for everyone.

Just thought I'd round off this thread with the "Mk 2" design that looks much more appropriate for the job.