From today until the 30th you can order Gold Plated Stainless Steel. This new material gives our 3D printed Stainless Steel a pure gold finish. This will let people create jewels and jewelery using 3D printing with a lot more bling than before! A product in this material has an introductory price with start up cost of $5 and costs $10 per cubic centimeter. The lovely Polyoptic Ring by Euphy above would cost $25 including shipping $29 including shipping. We hope that you can see just how significant a step this is in offering affordable personal production. You can now make a unique ring for your loved one, in a familiar material: gold plate and have it delivered to your house anywhere in the world for $25. Nervous System’s gorgeous 1-Layer Twist ring, made to order in your size, costs $20.
Whystler’s fun Three towers ring is $17.50
Designerica’s innovative Triple Moonball ring is $65.
Bulatov’s Bracelet would be $41
Gijs’ Pendant Five Hearts would be $14.50
The process
Designs made in this material will take 18 working days to reach you. The process is identical to the Stainless Steel 3D printing process only as a final step your model is lowered into and submerged in a gold bath. The outer layer is then firmly coated in gold. In order for us to be able to do this there has to be some kind of eyelet or ‘limb’ that we can use to tie the model up so we can lower it into the gold bath (and I bet you thought we were all high tech). If you look at the models above they all have something like that. A marble on the other hand would not work. Furthermore the model must be able to sink in the gold bath so enclosed spaces that make it float are not permitted. The maximum build volume for this material is 31 CM by 26 CM by 20 CM so feel free to start ordering your Buddhist temple parts from us.
Would it be OK to have a catalytic converter (=high surface to volume ratio) made in this material?
Tom, officially I can only always say that all our objects are for display purposes only. On the practical side the high surface/volume ratio would be slightly inhibited by the minimum wall thickness of 3mm. It should be possible though to make something with similar functionality. Interesting idea.
this is awesome. but i do have a question. i see that there are the printing lines on them. so i was wondering if someone payed more could they get it smoothed out (like sanded) before it gets dipped?
Presumably the plating process adds thickness to the pieces. Do you have any estimate of the thickness added by the plating process? Even an amount of 0.1mm has a significant impact on the fitting of the puzzles I print in metal.
I don’t know, I will ask.
George,
The gold plating process does not add notable surface to the model so it should be ok.
Oh, man, now you introduce this the day after I placed an order! I would love to have had the ring I ordered plated in gold!
Oh, well, maybe next time.
Looks good, though.
This also would have been good for mothers day. Oh well, next year I guess.
Oh crap. Now I have to reorder all those Legion flight rings again.
How thick is the plating? Will I be able to sand out the printing lines like I can with just the steel?
Thomas, it is very thin so I am unsure. educated guess is no
Is SILVER plated stainless steel possible too?
Anything is possible.
Just say when and i’ll line up for that 🙂
This is terribly exciting! You guys just keep getting evermore creatively stimulating.
Check out my new video on the “One Ring” – Gold plated :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLyerW6mEjY
This is great! Can you continue it beyond the end of the month?? What do we need to do to make that happen?
If this material addition is popular enough is it possible you will add it to the permanent materials? That would rock.
Seconded
Or even silver or nickel plating…
That is awesome! just after I ordered my last set of rings to…
i agree, til the end of the month is far too short. could you keep it longer? just ordered my first prototype and would like to batch order afterwards.
this is exactly what i was thinking. you’re only giving us enough time to receive one order!
These designs are very nice and the gold plating finishes them off.
I agree with your comment Sammy it’s look like original gold plated.Pretty design I really like to have the bracelet because I’m sure it fits to my arms well and look elegant.
How does the plating WEAR over time—- on a ring? On a bracelet?
how to buy these