Shapeways' Steels

Right now, Shapeways has 8 kinds of steel:

GROUP 1
Stainless
Matte Bronze, Polished Bronze

GROUP 2
Matte Black, Polished Grey
Matte Gold, Polished Gold
Polished Nickel

They're in 2 groups based on the cost. But what's the difference between the steels? Their website isn't very helpful. I think the second group is the plated group. From plain steel, they can plate it black, gold or nickel, then polish it or not.

Then what's the difference between plain stainless and the bronzes? I can't figure this out since plain stainless is already 40% bronze. Are they plating it with more bronze? I don't think so, since it would cost more and put it in the second group. So, I tried ordering something in polished bronze:

The left is plain stainless steel, and the right is polished bronze. Their stainless is already a bit yellow, but the bronze is dark brown. Polished bronze looks a bit rougher than stainless. Hmm so there's a difference, but I still don't know how bronze is made.

More on their metals: it looks like all their other metals (namely, platinum, gold, silver, precious plated metal, brass and bronze, excluding experimental aluminium) are made by the same process. They print in wax, make a plaster mould around it, then cast that metal. Only stainless steel is printed directly in the metal (although it's very porous). You can also buy the wax form and cast it yourself. These metals are more labour-intensive and hence more expensive, but much more detailed than stainless steel.

Shapeways July 2015

Shapeways had free international shipping again! The last time was in 2012 (I don't think they had any in between), when I got:
Material Sample Kit
Cubichain bracelet
iPhone 5 case

This time, I picked up more ready-made products (the Material Sample Kit doesn't seem to have changed in the past 3 years) including:


I also tried my hand at some designing. Now, I don't have any 3D design skills, but they have a nifty tool that lets you upload a black and white picture, and converts it to "3D", with the darkness defining the height. It lets you do some interesting things.

Note on shipping: International shipping usually costs USD19.99, and I suspect they use the same-sized box, which is 19.5 x 14 x 11 cm = 3003 cm³, or 0.6 kg volumetric weight. HSG will round it up to 1 kg, which is about USD6. Combined with Shapeways' shipping within US, using HSG will be cheaper, but it's still a hefty shipping fee. 3/3 of my packages used this box, from 1 to 6 items inside.

Yeah! My stuff is here!

Some notes on my creations:
1.2 mm diameter holes in 4 mm thick white strong and flexible won't clear properly and need to be drilled/filed
3.3 mm thick and 2 mm wide white strong and flexible should be strong enough to make a clip. 

Silhouette: Wallet Organiser 3

First 2 attempts
Improvements:

• Longer, so it doesn't disappear inside my wallet (it's in a side-loading slot)
• Corrected microSD reader slot size
• Funky needle slot wasn't that useful; switching to plain

The cut pattern on scrap scrapbook paper. This looks like those waterjet/laser cut metal designs out of sheet metal! I cut 7 but only used 4.

The 4 layers stuck to another piece of scrap card. The bottom layer was cut by hand. Future improvements:

• Cut bottom layer with Silhouette
• Cut markings into bottom layer so long arms can align to them and not sway
• Make arms thicker for less sway/easier gluing
• Find way to better align layers (less Tower of Pisa-ing)

Side view showing the thickness

And this is it loaded. I found some white "haze" on the USB drives, probably from the superglue. Maybe wait overnight before using after gluing next time. Oh I combined the SIM card and needle slots into one, because the separators would have been too thin and flimsy anyway, and this lets me store even bigger cards (SD?)

Update 23 Sep 15
Shapeways had free shipping again. I can't design in 3D, but they have a tool that lets you convert 2D plans into 3D, which is great for simple designs like this. So I made this ($6):

It's slightly smaller than a business card. The dots at the bottom are at 1 cm intervals. Looks ok. I should make the base thinner and walls thicker. And maybe add holes in the base to reduce volume. It's already a bit flimsy, though.

3D Printed Tank iPhone 5 Case by Mstyle183

The second item I bought from Shapeways: a 3D printed iPhone case!

First impressions: it feels light, but quite stiff. Since I ordered it in WSF polished, it wasn't that rough, except the money clip part. The stand was stuck at first and I needed a knife to separate it.

Features:

• 3D printed
• Holds 3 credit cards
• Money clip
• Stand
• Customisable

Back view

It shows some attention to detail. e.g. there are steps so the cards are easier to remove separately.

This is the rough part. You can see the lines from the 3D printing. It feels like paper. The hinge is a proper hinge, not a living hinge. The material to the left and right of the hinge is reinforced. I hope the hinge lasts, it feels like I'm wearing down the material every time I open it.

There is a notch for you to open the stand, but the hole in the stand works too.

I wonder what these are - a notch in the stand and a pin below. Are they meant to lock the stand closed? There isn't any pin on the other side - did I break it off while freeing the stand? Also, the pin doesn't seem to fit into the notch.

The stand in operation. It only works in landscape orientation. It feels like the hinge could break if you put it in portrait orientation (the hinge will open all the way and the phone will press on it).

It fits the iPhone's curvature very well.

Also, it seems to match the bevel's angle perfectly!

Update 19 Mar 14
After at least 14 months of use, this case is still going strong! In that time, I dropped my phone once from pocket height onto tiled floor and there was no damage. This material is amazing. I thought it would at least creep, being porous and made from powder, but it still seems to fit perfectly. The only wear is that it's yellowish now, and there's very slight delamination near the power button hole.

This is the power button hole, seen from the inside of the case. The hole on top is the camera cutout. At the bottom of the power button hole, you can see the material splitting, but it doesn't affect the case in any way.

Of course, being porous, it's quite dirty now. I didn't realise this until I saw its pristine white original condition when I reread this post.


I don't use the money clip or stand (except to play with it), so I'm not sure how long they would last.

Cubichain 3D printed bracelet

My other 3D printed products have arrived! One is the Cubichain bracelet (12 mm).

It's surprisingly light and flexible. I like how it shows off 3D printing (it would be very hard to make using conventional methods).

Unfortunately, it was too short when it first arrived. The length you specify seems to refer to the middle of the bracelet, not the inner diameter. I read about people correcting problems with their 3D printed models by dipping them in hot water, then bending them, so I wondered if it would work with White Strong and Flexible (WSF). WSF is supposed to be dishwasher safe, so it should be ok in hot water.

Fortunately, I had access to a kettle that could maintain water at several temperatures. I tried 80C at first, but it didn't soften enough so I changed to 90C. Even at that temperature, WSF is very strong. I was using almost my full strength to stretch the bracelet. Some people say to only dip it in for a few seconds, but I think they are referring to one of the Detail materials, which soften at 80C. I just left it in the hot water for 30 seconds or more. The dye will run from the material, so I used a disposable cup. The water will cool down after dipping it in a few times, so you have to keep changing it.

In the end, the bracelet stretched by about 10%, making it just long enough to put on. The cubes are slightly deformed though. I think it can stretch up to 20% before breaking. I guess the advantage of this method is you get a bracelet that's just big enough to put on.

Shapeways' Material Sample Kit

On Black Friday, Shapeways had free International shipping, so I finally got to try out 3D printing! I ordered a few things, but the sample kit arrived first.

It comes in a comically oversized box. I think a padded envelope would have been sufficient.

6 material samples on a holder. The holder works like a safety pin. Also comes with 1 info card for each material. First impression: it's a lot smaller than I expected. This is good enough, but I always thought the samples were bookmark-sized. The materials are also really rough! They feel like nail files. Stainless steel feels nice and solid. I think the transparent high detail acrylic looks the best.