My "Hiker Tritium Presence" in aluminum

My "Hiker Tritium Presence" in stainless steel (has the tritium vial in it) next to the aluminum print I just received!

This is cool, the surfaces looks to be comparable.

Have you found that the aluminum is more accurate in dimensions? or on the inner diameter of the inner rings?

I'll have to check that this evening! I've been flat-out the last few days.

The surface texture definitely varies between the two - the stainless steel one has visible print lines, where the alumnimum has a more matte-grainy texture. Both look AWESOME though....

interested to hear back about the tolerance and accuracy. from my understanding DMLS is a much more accurate process then ExOne, but... i'll wait to get confirmation back from you!

A little slow responding here -- but it appears the aluminum is significantly more accurately than the stainless steel. With the steel I experienced drooping in my print (which I had to clear out with a drill).

How long is this part? I'm just trying to get a feel for how coarse the surface texture is, for a future part I'm thinking about.

Thanks!

Steve Hunter

It's 2.6cm long

Thanks, Stephen!

Steve

That finish looks vey rough compared to my aluminum ring. Could it be the result of needing more support in the printer or something? Is it possible some light polishing was done on the ring?

Here's the pic. You can see some very slight bumpiness on the ring borders but the inside surface is smooth as silk. Could it also be a matter of orientation? Are some surfaces (up, down, sides) more susceptible to graininess and bumpiness?

Interesting - they look like two completely different materials!

I know, right?!! My initial thought was that it was metallic plastic instead of aluminum. It seemed rather inflexible so I assumed it was aluminum. Now I'm thinking I should re-examine it when I get home. Is the aluminum material conductive? I could check it with an ohm meter to see if I get any conductivity. What other ways could I check to be sure?

I'll try to check the resistance sometime over the next couple of days.

I measured the resistance of that ring. It's a dead short. Also if you drop it on a hard surface it makes a pingy metallic sound so I'm convinced there wasn't a mix up in production. It is definitely aluminum!

Yes, I checked my aluminum print -- zero resistance