No I didn't bother taking pictures, but I could set it up and take some pictures. Yet on the other hand, I hate taking pictures. Concerning the layer resolution, I didn't take any measurements so I could be wrong but I do recall getting one of my rings printed in Strong and Flexible and it appeared that the resolution on that was much higher than the resolution I got with my iPhone 6 case. I'll have to dig it out sometime and look at it under an inspection microscope and see if my initial assumption is correct. As for fixing up the design so it could be compatible with Strong and Flexible, sure, anybody who wants to work on it can work on it. That's not a problem for me. Go get it out of my account if you want. On the other OTHER hand, there is not much of a reward involved being that the printing costs is so high. It has numerous parts that need to be put into a sintershell and that bumps the cost up machine volume wise so that needs to be optimized as well, if there's a way.
I finally found the transparent acrylic sand timer. It was in the wrong storage box. It's more translucent than the FD version but it also has worse dimensional stability. It's a bit oval but I'm not sure if that's how it came or if it sagged in storage. A glow in the dark fluid might be interesting but certainly puts it out reach for any general sales in the future. I just don't see buyers ever buying much when they must purchase other things form a third party or do any significant DIY assembly. There may be some ways to integrate LED light sources into something like this but that brings us back to the DIY issues. There are three versions of end caps that should press fit onto the ends or stay secured with a few dabs of super glue. I think I will atttempt to do some test polishing on the material but I will need to order some test pieces designed for that purpose. I might get this done by year's end.
I thought I'd revisit the sand timer idea. Based on old prints it appears as though planes of the object that are parallel with the print plane end up being more transparent. I embedded the new design in a rectangular shape to get more clarity down to the timer mechanism. Bad news is that this topology would cost more than the previous one by about $6, with less sand capacity, plus it would need end caps made from something else. Still not heading in the right direction. Another project idea I will need to set aside until a better and cheaper transparent material comes along somewhere sometime.
How about a more rectangular cross-section to save on material cost ? And I think you would only need one or two smallish holes both for support wax removal and for filling, holes that could then be taped over, or stoppered with plumber putty ?
Hey, I was thinking the same thing and was just about to write that! Then I got to thinking, if you did make it flat like that you could have something like a paddlewheel in their printed in situ along with some gears that connected to a clock hand such that as a paddlewheel turn by the sand falling upon it it would turn the gears in a ratio that corresponded to some kind of familiar time interval that could be read out in numbers engraved or embossed somewhere on the perimeter of the frame. That would be too cool I think!
Flatter and more rectangular could work, and maybe it would be easier to hang on the wall. I could remove a lot of material on the sides near the narrow center and just have a couple of support rods on each side with a flatter design so that might cut cost a lot, or just claw back that $6.00. But I'd worry that it might also make it more difficult to clean/polish the interior if that's necessary. Waxy oily gunk + sand = waxy oily gunky sand. It doesn't take much contamination to cause the sand to clump. Adding it to a dynamic display would also be cool. I'm fighting glass and nice clear polycarbonate materials in this battle! These are sort of the same issues that guy with the light dome was having although he could probably live with the frostiness and print lines in his application in terms of just getting decent functionality right out of the box. In my case it would be nice to easily see the sand.