Why not print this upside down, then you don’t need support and the 2nd color for the letters can be pulled mack by a lot after a certain height (depth of the letters) to stop that nozzle from oozing and creating blobs on the surface
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It sounds like what you really need is to 3D print just the prototype for dimensions and fit. Once proven i would seriously look to injection molding (Much cheaper in quantity) and ink printing on the surface latter.
There are printers that can print directly thru the computer bypassing setting up the screen, then printing the piece on a jig so alignment will be perfect
To buy such a printer would be costly. However, look into the armature electronics on the web. Several have modified inkjet printers to print directly on PCB boards for baking then etching. I use a modified HP and can print 6pt font size.
With a modified printer like that all you would need is for it to fit your jig and use oil based ink cartridge instead the standard water based ink. Then you could lay it out in word or most any printing software that gave you control of the layout. Your jig could just be a 1/4 - 3/8 plywood carrier with rows and columns of holes fto hold the neck of your buttons
REF http://www.instructables.com/id/Converting-an-Inkjet-Printer-to-Print-PCBs/
http://www.pabr.org/pcbprt/pcbprt.en.html
Just a thought …
Marius -
I just replied to your other message, but I did think about having just a few designs and putting a sticker on the top. I wanted something that looked a little more professional and, as someone who is in business, I don’t want something people can just print another label for and stick it on the top when they need to change the lettering. I thought about putting little spikes on the top to prevent this, but it isn’t a very consumer-friendly approach to a product. I also thought about texturing the top so stickers don’t stick well. I’m not going to worry about this part right now.
Thanks again!
Mark
Hi mark,
Diameter and the ridges should not be a problem . If you make a print run be sure not to print one at a time but but in series of ten.
Ridges an different diameters should be any problem but to fit you should always keep in mind the tolerance in printing. Printing filament always deviates from your original paramaters in design.
3greetz
John
Oh injection molding is only intersting above 10.000 pieces because moldcosts are high!
Hi Mark,
i have started printing the coin part. Due to the very high contrast of the colors the black shines a little bit through the yellow color. I’m trying to fix this by printing the coin flipped on it’s side. Then the second nozzle is never touching the print unless this nozzle actually prints.
As you can see i have used my own font that is optimised for printing it, i have to make a tiny adjustment for the flowrate of the first layer, so that the lines are smoothly fused together. I have other coins which have a smoother surface, but these have more black filament fused with the yellow background, so that they are not really representative for the final prints.
The final version will most likely look like this one, exept that the shadow from the black filament fused with the background will be gone and the lines are smoothly melted together to a solid coin. I have also added another picture of a test lego brick that shows the real yellow color aswell as what you can expect as a smooth surface when choosing my hub for printing. (I broke the knobs off the lego brick to test layerbonding)
I’ve printed the coin slightly larger then supposed to be, so that i can figure out the best settings when printing small, downsizing the print is no problem.
The hexagonal shape of the upper part will not be necessary to archive high quality prints.
However i have thought about recessing the letters and having a solid black disc inside of the upper part.
The yellow surrounding would be printed above the black disk and by that the lettering appears.
I’ve got some other ideas on how to get the cleanest yellow while maintaing absolutely filled black letters.
Please tell me if you are still interested in having these parts printed. Please contact me so that we can discuss further details of the print. Also i then would like to explain further ideas on how to improove the models geometry and design.
-Marius
Hi Mark,
how do you think about the followig color combinations, yellow and black is one of the most readable combinations but as i said in the comment above the yellow color doesn’t cover black spots of oozing (i am working on it with good success, pictures will follow today or tomorrow).
-Black and red
-Green and red
-red and white
-dark blue and white
-dark green and yellow
the list cointains the text color at first, then the background color.
Hope to hear about your progress and opinion,
Marius
Hey Mark,
I don’t want to bother you, but still I’d like to hear from you and want to know, if you still are looking for someone to make these parts.
I’ve had further success printing the part as you can see below, i have added a M6 nut for size reference.
Currently I have some more parts being printed with improoved surface quality (as you might see there are some cavities in the red surface).
The new way of printing the letters allows me to use any colors without them mixing in the surface, there won’t be any little dot of black filament fused into the red/yellow background part.
The colors are very clearly seperated, no colormixing on the letters edges. Even white and black would be possible, for maximum contrast and ease of reading.
By the way all letters are printable with this method, no limitation to just capital letters, same goes for numbers, punctuation and more. (Like the “<” in “I <3 CAKE”, or the “,” in “HI, MARK”).
-Marius
Print flat against build plate in black resin (pigmented). Print another .25micron thick disk that surrounds it in yellow resin. Glue together or snap fit.
Marius -
I apologize for not getting back to you sooner. Can you email me at markgrigsby @ msn.com?
Thanks!
Mark
Hi Mark,
no problem, i’ve send you an email.
-Marius
10 months later
Ops, seems like the problem is solved
16 days later
From what I can see here is the part is printed upside down in PLA.
The design is simple so start on Tinkercad and make all your parts for your first session and see where that goes.
I see that your letters dont follow a curve. This lends itself to extreme simplicity and ease of effort in working the design.
After that you have a starter library for next set of parts.
Don’t do cad? This makes your whole project a larger problem than it has to be.
Flexibility upfront is the key. I have found there are 3d printers that don’t do cad. How can this be?
I have a PRUSA i3. I used Tinkercad to create a Bowen hot end holder. Took 3 days. I then created a x axis holder for a Dremel remote tool. 1 day to create, 3 days to print, 5 days total to get it on the printer. It isnt that tough. Precision? Extreme. I used digital calipers to measure the Dremel then went straight into cad. I have a long history in the creative arts so perception to drawing to cad to device wasnt that tough. I hope you fair well in your endeavour. Sometimes take a step back and dont rely too much on others when you know you can get something done by most of your own efforts.
My thoughts are to make metal deposition moulds for injection. This will drop your costs quite a bit and give you the detail you need but doesnt solve the two color part. Or find somebody with a dual color print box, cad up a test, and send around for test. 2nd option is the cheapest by far with no real commitment and gives you something really quick to fondle in your view thereby giving something tangible to change your perceptions. Its the only way to get the rocks out of the way. Fustration always breeds complexity in the beginning.