Multipart design

I have a design in mind that involves two separate parts, where one is enclosed in the other. The enclosed part would be a sphere that should be able to rotate, but is enclosed by the outer part quite close so it cannot be moved away. Would this be possible at all?

You mean something like that ?





Yes, depending on the material it can be done. Metal is no more allowed for moving parts. Glass, and Sandstone are not possible either. But it's OK for all the plastics.
Leave a clearance large enough: for this model 0.5 mm is OK for detai materials, but not enough for Strong and Flexible (0.7 or even 1 mm would work for sure). If you need a smaller clearance, go for one of the two Frosted Detail Materials.

Good luck!

Yes, thats a similar design. Here is mine:
https://www.shapeways.com/model/288005/sphere_enclosed_by_six _cubes.html
I just ordered a test production. Its really bad that metal is no option.
cu

Ah, yes, very interesting ( I would have added more polygons to the sphere though).

As the sphere is not as "closely" surrounded by material compared to my design perhaps you can even try smaller clearances than mine (the support material is not really likely to get stuck).

But the prototype is the best way to know. Keep us informed!

I got the part today. You are right, more polygons would be fine, but this was just a test. I had to use a thin knife to separate the sphere from the edges, now it moves free, just as designed. It's a pity that this cannot be done in metal?

Currently, no moving parts are allowed for metal...
But perhaps you could only print the cubes and use a standard metal marble for the sphere. This means that the cubes must have some flexibility to be able to insert the sphere, though.
So perhaps a wireframed version of the cubes could work (and would be less expensive in metal, by the way).

Wireframed, you mean just to print the edges? Must think about that... so that would be flexible? In reality, I once created this design by glued cubes that enclosed a pearl.
Attached is a picture of the object.

Cheers

Yes, just the edges. It can be a little bit flexible if the diameter of the wire is, say, 2mm. But you will need a hammer to insert the marble in it though.
Perhaps a round section would make this operation easier.
Look for example at this model:

But I am unsure whether Shapeways will allow wireframed models with 2mm wires, in metal: it really depends on the shape itself (will the model collapse in "green" state, that is before the bronze infusion, while it is very fragile?).

What would be the minimum diameter of the wires of a wireframe design?

Have a look at the Advanced Stainless Design Rules for a good idea of what is possible (& what's not)... one of the possible examples shown is my Twin Rail Mobius Pendant, the rails are about 100mm length and 2mm diameter. My dice there have 1mm square section 'wires'.

But at the end of the day, in the past, it has been noticed that sometimes a model will go through and sometimes the same model will be rejected.

Hey,
There is no longer any captive separate parts allowed in the SS, this was not always the case. I had a couple of things printed before they stopped allowing it. The print success rate and handling time seemed to be too much a burden on the pipe line for it to be feasible. It would be cool if in the future they allowed this again but for an extra cost to allow for the added head ache that captive separate parts causes them. Here are some prints i got back.
This is three independently moving meshes interlocked together.

This print is similar to chain mail perhaps? After getting this print back and seeing it was all good and working as intended i was going to model a glove using this captive design and then they stopped the printing of captive parts. Dam!!! It was good while it lasted at least.

Leigh

The wire on the model you can see in my picture is 2mm. But once again, using a 2mm wire is not a guarantee that your design will be accepted.

It seems that this thread as awaken some nostalgia about printing moving parts in metal...