I am wondering if I can use shapeways as an alternative to jewelry printer services that charge on average $85 per ring. I know that these shops use printers that print out a "wax" that can be directly invested in wax and burnt out, but I will be making RTV molds myself and then casting waxes, so I don't need that type of material. I am really wondering about the resolution, as I am not familiar with the micron statistics on the shapeways site. I know the wax type printers are slower and hence their service cost more, but is the shapeways resolution much more inferior to them? I was looking in the shapeways shops to get an idea of what can be done, and it looks like most of the finished pieces of jewelry have a bumpy matte finished sufface, is this due to a resolution limit? So I am wondering can you make a smoothed detailed model of a ring in one of the plastic materials that is along the surface quality of regular high end jewelry piece. Thanks, Flubber
Well I have spent some more time on the site, and to answer my own post, It looks like the answer is no, You cant do fine jewelry models with shapeways, most all the things I see here as far as jewelry has a horrible finish, it all looks like it came from a primitive world, where the only casting method they had was sand casting. I really don't know why people do this stuff, well yeah I guess its fun for them, and they are satisfied with it. ignorance is bliss.
Hey Flubber, Take a look at the polished silver finish on this model https://www.shapeways.com/model/265904/keyboard_ring.html?gid =cg14 I think it is nice? Is this what you are looking for?
Well that print was highly polished, I bet the original was grainy and had print layers showing from what I have seen here. But I hate that kind of stupid quick novelty garbage. Thats one ugly ring !!!!!!!!!!!!!, but to each his own, thats just how I see it. No offense to the designer, but once you put stuff out you got take the criticism. You want to see some real jewelry look at some one like Rene Lalique.
Silver has layers (but no sand grain) and polishing gets rid of them in the high zones. You will need to polish the grooves yourself for a total smooth look (or fill them with something easy to smooth, then copy this improved version). The sand cast look should only happen with the steel-bronze material (and it's derivates). You can see the lines in some zones of https://www.shapeways.com/model/295033/cat_ring.html https://www.shapeways.com/model/263269/cat_skull_ring.html
Thank you for the replies. I am looking for "plastic" prints that I don't have to fix up that I can pull RTV molds from.
Try "Frosted Ultra Detail" and/or "polished White, Strong and Flexible"... depending on the grade of detail you want.