Hi James, On Sat, 07 Dec 2019 13:01:35 +0000, James Blake wrote: > I need to get a specific design of a button replicated for a jacket > I own. Has anyone got a 3D printer?
I have a 3D printer, but the print quality is not great at the moment. (I need to do some work on it at some point, but it's low on my list of priorities.) Therefore, I won't offer to print anything for you, because otherwise I will get frustrated by my printer and you will get disappointed by the results! Printer notwithstanding, if you want to send me a photo of the button (off-list) then I will tell you if I think I could model it for you. I get the impression your button might be quite finely detailed, since you said it has text on it and buttons are usually not very big. Common or garden 3D printers, using an FDM process (fused deposition modelling), are not *fantastic* at fine detail, so your button might require quite a high-resolution 3D printer. I think the best results might come from making a good old fashioned mould of the original; in silicone or latex; and then making a replica casting from that in an appropriate colour of resin. The original would need to be removed from the jacket to do that, though (unless you want to ruin the jacket). The smallest legible text I can get out of my 3D printer is about 4mm high, but that's a blobby mess. The text needs to be around twice that size if I want the font to be recognisable, and even bigger if it's a serif font! I'm sure other people's printers are capable of better results, but there are limits to the FDM process. There are other 3D printing processes. For example, the last I knew, the institution that is now known as the Arts University Bournemouth had a binder jetting 3D printer, which could do fine detail in full colour, but produced objects of limited mechanical strength. They used to have a website offering 3D printing services, but that seems to be gone now. https://web.archive.org/web/20130130144934/http://www.aucbcam.com/ (I notice that Edward Ward seems to be connected with both AUCBCAM https://twitter.com/aucbcam and Make Bournemouth.) Resin polymerisation printers are also popular (e.g. SLA or DLP printers). Those can do fairly fine detail and they produce stronger prints than a binder jetting printer does. There seem to be a few local 3D printing services with SLA and DLP printers, if you search for them. Patrick. -- Next meeting: BEC, Bournemouth, Tuesday, 2020-01-07 20:00 Check to whom you are replying Meetings, mailing list, IRC, ... http://dorset.lug.org.uk/ New thread, don't hijack: mailto:dorset@mailman.lug.org.uk
