Thermoformed bracelet Mucem

A small # LIFEHACK3D that I like to realize, easy, fast aesthetic, and perfect to become familiar with 3D printing and post production :)

Possessing a small Da Vinci Mini W from XYZ printing, even putting all my heart, we will never compete with better printers (even cheaper) so we do with the means of the edge, and we # LIFEHACK3D as well the product that the printer :)

When I design my parts I always put myself in front of being able to print it easily, without support, without too much bridge, with forms adapted to the Ø of nozzle, height of layer, etc ...

So we make it simple, but above all we bring a post production work allowing the final to be able to have a near perfect piece. Any printing defects can easily be corrected to have a very aesthetic result.

I propose here a bracelet that I offered to my girlfriend in thanks for the printer for Christmas :) on the theme of Mucem.

Printing between 1h and 2h depending on your speed

Post prod 20-30 min

The Mucem is a museum in Marseille with an outdoor architecture that I find quite beautiful, and I wanted to reproduce this architecture.

3D DESIGN

If you are not interested, go to next paragraph)

With a photo of the best quality possible, well parallel to the wall, it is reworked under a paint.net type of software to cut only what interests us in black and we put the bottom in white. We get a black and white photo of the mesh.

On the Internet many sites allow you from a photo to extract the outline, then we export it in .dxf (a 2D format read by a lot of 3D software with all the contours of the contours of the mesh)

All you have to do is send this .dxf to your favorite 3D design software, repair any errors, scale the 3D and draw the contours of the bracelet.

POST PRODUCTION:

Once printed, the post prod starts, it's a matter of half an hour:

1) Properly deburr your cutlery / knife piece to remove any burrs, threads, or small clumps of material

2) Sand your pieces by hand with different grains. Personally I start at 80, then 120, 240 dry and finally 400 under water!

Dry sanding, we go slowly without overheating the room or we damage the bracelet

Sanding under water, we let go and sand until we get a beautiful shiny surface (the water pearls on when it's really smooth)

When sanding, following your PLA, it may whiten slightly. With sanding under 400 grain water we find almost the original shade and gloss.

sand the two surfaces, and the sides, no need to sand the interior if the impression has been correctly carried out

3) For the best fitness is to recover a metal bracelet at the right size & shape.

Water is heated, a good liter about 70-80 °.

We dive half of the bracelet, it comes out and we put it in shape against the metal bracelet.

We do the same with the other side

Then these steps are repeated until the desired shape is obtained.

From the moment the bracelet is almost in good shape take hot water 45-50 ° so that you can put your hands without too much burn, and you can polish the shape.

The advantage of not too hot water is that you can put hands on one hand, and on the other hand, the plastic does not soften too quickly so you are more precise in your forms

Use cold water to quickly harden your bracelet it will be easier.

And now, you have your little bracelet ready to be offered to someone, (or for you) and especially entirely unique, and exactly your size!