Monogram Branding Iron

Discussion in 'My Shapeways Order Arrived' started by MuseumofSmallThings, Jun 27, 2011.

  1. I have been waiting for this to arrive and I'm happy with how it turned out. I modeled our monogram into a branding iron to burn the wooden boxes we will sell our products in to retailers. Monogram Brand 01.jpg

    This shows the back of the branding iron where i lathed it to fit into the barrel of an 80W soldering iron.
    Monogram Brand 02.jpg
    Monogram Brand 03.jpg

    And this is the final product of the branding iron.
    Packaging Example.jpg
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2011
  2. celso
    celso Member
    that is Awesome!!
    Love to see practical use for 3d printed stuff .
     
  3. Very cool...I like your boxes too!

     
  4. bitstoatoms
    bitstoatoms Member
    Awesome,

    Great photos, are you going to make it a co-creator?
     
  5. jeff
    jeff Member
    very nicely done. a nice step up in scale from the lighter branding iron. do you plan to make it for sale as a customizable piece?

    oh, just noticed duann asked the same thing.
     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2011
  6. Hey,
    I thought about making this branding iron into a co-creator and decided against it. I have too many other things already taking up my time as it. It would be a great co-creator product though and somebody should do it. If somebody was good at scripting they could partly automate the process based on what text to use, bitmap and what diameter etc. If anybody uses Houdini ( http://www.sidefx.com ) then they could set that up in 20 minutes easily with no scripting needed. There is obviously many ways to create this geometry fast and effectively and i would love to see somebody set it up.
     
  7. jeff
    jeff Member
    I'll make one for myself, but wanted to give you the chance for a sale 1st. that being said I don't have experience w/ scripting and I'll just make one for myself. thanks!

    Shapeways should maybe just do it since they have the lighter branding iron already and you don't mind giving the design away.

     
  8. 45235_deleted
    45235_deleted Member
    Great stuff, evokes images of cargo ships from days of yore (think east india company) laden with creates & barrels branded with their respective owners seals.

    How well did the soldering iron plugin work? I ask as the seal looks quite chunky & I've had limited success trying to make "non-soldering-tips" hot (attempted homemade foam-cutter). Something to do with resistance/electricity/other such voodoo I'd imagine :)
     
  9. Thanks,
    I walked into the local electronics store and bought the largest soldering iron they sold. It cost me $24.00 and is 80 Watts. I designed the back end of the monogram to be larger than needed as i had not bought or looked at a suitable soldering iron at that point. Once i purchased the soldering iron i machined the back of the monogram on my lathe so it fit snugly into the soldering iron after first removing the original solder tip it came with. To make sure i had good thermal transfer i used that white thermal transfer compound used in electronics to attach CPU's or transistors to heat sinks. Once heated up for 5 minuets it makes a nice burn as can be seen in the photo. I would like to build a jig that will allow me to apply a lot of pressure so its slightly indented. So yes it burns nicely but an even pressure is the trick to get a good result. If Shapeways made this Co-Creator they could have the option to ship a suitable soldering iron with the monogram rather than the person having to buy their own after the fact. I feel that Shapeways already has there hands full with many other projects already but it would be a nice little Co-Creator i am sure.
     
  10. mctrivia
    mctrivia Well-Known Member
    I could write the script to auto generate. However i don't know if a 3d printed shaft would be accurate enough. your lathe work is the best option but shapeways does not offer this.
     
  11. Yes that is a very relevant point. There would need to be some strict testing of the tolerance if your going to get a snug fit from purely 3D printing. Using thermal transfer compound will help so its possible for sure but will need testing.
     
  12. mctrivia
    mctrivia Well-Known Member
    other problem is that the 3d printers at shapeways have low tolerances. visually your product will look right but the shaft could have a slight bend in some prints.
     
  13. eTraxx
    eTraxx Well-Known Member
    You need an Arbor/Press similar in design I think, to this ..