Teeny-tiny FUD chain maille. This patch is more of a tester, just to see how things turn out when printed very small. There's 484 rings, which are made of 0.35mm 'wire' and have an internal diameter of 1.575mm giving an aspect ratio (AR) of 4.5. As printed, there's 0.1mm gaps between the rings, which as can be seen in the first 2 images, is filled with the support wax. Large image here Large image here There's some deformation of the rings, and as can be seen in the image above, there's some print anomalies showing as small spikes on the edge of the sheet. To get rid of the wax, I soaked the maille in Johnson's Baby Shampoo for an hour or so, and then dropped the sheet into an unltrasonic cleaner. The cleaner ran for about 8 minutes and the water became milky white with all the wax coming out. A change of water and another hit in the cleaner for a further 4 minutes finished the job as can be seen in the image below. Large image here
Very cool model! Also, an interesting cleaning technique, had not heard of this before. Appears to be non-toxic and effective; may invest in an ultrasonic cleaner myself. What brand/model of ultrasonic cleaner did you use or recommend?
Cheers I'll shamelessly admit to using the cheapest I could find locally, a JPL 7000 from Maplin Electronics (UK) at £24.99 (GBP). I'll throw in a few words of cauton with this model not mentioned in the intructions... duty cycle is about 30-50%. I think I broke the first one I had and had to get it replaced after 6 hours (near continous) use... the replacement has been fine Paul