Material for a ring

[adamhurwitz]

What’s the best material and printer for me to use if I want to make a test version of a ring? I want to be able to put the ring on and try it out at low cost. Wax is too brittle. I tried PLA with a MakerBot and it was OK, but didn’t have great detail.

[gabriela3d]

Hi Adam, I’ll add to the discussion few jewelry 3D printing experts, see what they have to say @Cinter @Ben_32 @SheldonT @flowalistik @Cagy. Good luck with the print!

[Ben_32]

There are 2 types of resin we use 1 yellow 1 green. yellow is for lost wax casting method. And the green is a harder resin when cured. Im affraid prices don’t differ per Resin. So if you are carefull with your model you can use yellow to look at it and then cast it. For the detail our SLA machine can achieve way greater detail (0.25) then PLA makerbot. With us a single print is 45 euro to start, build platform is 30wx40dx100h. Perhaps it’s cheaper to print multiple to reduce starting cost per order. Hope this was helpfull. Im also experienced in making jewelry at the bench so i could look at the technical aspects for you if that is what got you concerned. Ben

[SheldonT]

Hi Adam, I print in wax using a Solidscape 3D printer. As Ben mentioned above, if you are careful you can handle a wax ring without causing breakage. However, if the ring is very thin or has fine features such as prongs and milgrain, I would not suggest not letting an individual who has no experience handling wax models touch the ring. What you are in essence making is a master model. Prices for printing depends on printing time and wax consumed. A large championship style ring can take 14 hours to print at a reasonably high resolution. So having a jewellery piece printed will not be cheap. Prices can range from $40CAD dollars and up. @adamhurwitz