I would like to explore feasibility of producing a scratchplate for a 1950s solid-bodied electric guitar that is now practically extinct. I would imagine that the original would have been injection moulded or made from heated thermoplastic sheet in die press. Overall size would be about 250X250X3mm - but of irregular shape. There would be 4 embossed rectangles on the plate with rounded cross section but less than a semi-circle. 3 of these about 75X40X6mm, and one about 75X50X4mm. I do not have the expertise to produce a digital file, but would supply photographs of an original backed up by drawings and wooden pattern if necessary. Would it be best to make this in one piece, or make the embossed pieces separately and stick them to a flat plate? Finally - what would the prototype cost?
Hello!
This definitely sounds like something that should be feasible to do with 3d printing. Neither the size nor irregular shape should be something that poses a problem for most 3d printers. Do you have any pictures of the scratch plate that you could share? As long as you can provide photographs and drawings with dimensions modeling it shouldn’t pose any problems.
Regarding the actual printing, creating it in one piece is the way that I would choose, since the printer most likely would place the embossed features with greater precision than most human hands would.
Giving you a price without knowing the shape of the scratch plate is hard, but on my hub I would expect it to land in the region of 50-60USD + modeling of the object.
If you have any more questions, feel free to contact me on my hub or email to bo.oscar.svensson@gmail.com
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Hi Dave, the cost will be approx $100 aud to produce the part, feel free to message us at our hub, 3dprintingguy.com
Hi,
Not sure if this is going to be of much help but I looked into 3D printing a custom scratchplate for a friend of mine. The thing about scratchplates is that they have to be resist bending on the lateral plane, as they hold the pickups in position as well as the volume and tone controls, and sometimes the signal jack. For this reason, most of them are made from three layer laminate material (white with a black ‘sandwich’ layer in my case), which increases the rigidity of the piece. I concluded that although such a piece could be designed and printed quite easily, that it wouldn’t in fact be the best solution to the problem, despite my disappointment as it was something I really wanted to help with. Instead I found a couple of custom scratchplate manufacturers in the UK who could recreate the original piece out of the right pre-laminated material which is fairly commonly available to luthiers and guitar makers etc. (but don’t ask me where!). It turned out to be surprisingly low-hassle too. Sometimes 3D printing isn’t always the best solution!
I print a lot in ABS, and didn’t think the structural rigidity of such a thin part would be up to the job in hand, even at 100% infill. Possibly some other material would be better suited to such an enterprise if this is something you decide to proceed with.
Sorry if it’s not what you wanted to hear, but hope it’s useful!
Mike
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Thanks for the advice Mike! not everything should be 3d printed =)
