Well it arrived! Video can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcuRRwbN0Kk&feature=plcp& amp;context=C35fd4e0UDOEgsToPDskINiRL0BNDktf7GIxbdj7kn Either my measurements are off, or there is some degree of warping of the material though, as its way too small to fit. Kind of disappointing really, especially considering shipping costs for people outside the US (in my case, Japan) is stupidly expensive and I'm likely going to end up footing the entire bill until I can start producing working versions. Also kind of annoying how, despite asking for over a month, nobody gave me any clear indication that the sleeve would be way too tight or what kind of gaps would be best for a tight-but-not-too-tight fit with separate parts. anywho, I hope somebody finds this interesting. I have a bunch of things to revise apparently.
It's neat for a first hit. What material is it printed in? If its any of the ordinary detail or one of the frosted detail materials, you can use hot water to soften it and reshape same as you can with regular acrylic.
Hello Brian, Welcome to product development. I'm sorry to hear that you are finding it frustrating though blaming others for not telling you how to design your product seems rather uncalled for. You can bet that fewer people will respond to your questions in the future with that attitude. If this is too difficult for you there are dozens of people in the modelers for hire section of this site that would do a professional job or at least could be contracted with as a consultant if you want professional help. Otherwise you should just be thankful that people are answering your questions for free. Many people here provided you with professional level advice for free. I remember your posts.
Well its mostly frustrating how damn expensive development can be when half of what I pay is going to piss-poor shipping services. If I were actually able to choose a slower, cheaper shipment method that didn't demand I take time out of my day to accept a package that fits in my post box, I wouldn't be so cranky over this.
Ok guys, let's settle down and be productive. The shipping is what it is right now. Shipping from the US or NE to Japan is not going to be cheap. There are cheaper methods, and Shapeways is working on alternative shipping. As for your design, verify that the dimension of the item are what the file specifies. If it is smaller, Shapeways will fix the mistake. If the piece is to the size specified then it's a design flaw. We've all had them.
Hi Brian H, Like as has been said, we (helpful ppls here on the public forum) give advice based upon what we know, mostly for free because we have been through the same situation and know what a hit in the wallet feels like when a model doesn't turn out as expected. Even advice through Shapeways Customer Services and production partners can be off the mark when pushing the design boundaries. Paul
Also, if you think SW is too expensive, use one of the other 3D printing services. Of course they are all more expensive than Shapeways, so that doesn't really solve the problem which is that rapid prototyping methods are still not cheap. I've heard the argument from a few on SW forums that they don't like that they have to "foot the bill" aka pay for all their development costs. Sure, I know how it sucks to spend six months and a few hundred dollars making prototypes while trying to figure this stuff out. I just don't understand who is supposed to pay for the development besides ourselves. Businesses sometimes spend millions of dollars developing prototypes for products. Lincoln
Reading through some of your past threads, it looks like you actually did receive a good deal of advice from community members on this design. Rather than thanking them, you are coming off as blaming them for a first-draft prototype that looks to me is pretty close to what you want. Design doesn't happen in one try. About the shipping cost, I imagine that I would be frustrated too, but you are spouting at the wrong folks. Anyways, good luck, and welcome to the joys of bootstrapping.