I am working on some custom toy projects and the notes on sandstone material said is it unsuitable for objects that will be handled regularly and should be used for figurines only. Since I intend to use this material to create colored toys in colors not available to print by Shapeways, I am wondering if it's truly too soft to use for this intended purpose? I looked at colored multi-jet plastic, but using this material is significantly more expensive then sandstone, so it is simply not cost-effective
From what I've seen, the "sandstone" is granular powder glued together with superglue fumes, so it will crumble and break if knocked or handled roughly. It's only really suited to items you carefully place on a shelf, where they won't get touched afterwards. For toys that get played with you really need something tough like Versatile Plastic (nylon) but then you lose the option for colour unless you paint it yourself. I don't know enough about multijet plastic...
Not soft but brittle - "sandstone" is gypsum powder held together by lots of superglue (that is inkjet-colored in the outermost layer). About as heavy as one would expect a toy made from plaster to be, will survive handling if it has no loosely held protrusions but will break when dropped on a hard floor. Color will fade quite a bit in direct sunlight and will not survive water contact just like any other inkjet print.
Darn, so I should immediately cease work on all projects that involve custom colors, as I won't be able to print the desired product in the durability I desire? Here's one I have completed: See how much the price goes up when using Multi-Color Polyjet? And this isn't even a large item, no more then 15-20cms when fully assembled. Versatile Plastic does not print in color, I just left that there to show Shapeway's baseline cost of this item compared to the other materials
Yeah you should definitely give up on that idea. Not only is it fragile, and the color fades away or is removed by liquids ( probably even sweaty palms if manipulated ), but on top of that the thickness requirement makes it almost impossible to do anything remotely thin or detailed. You would definitely not be able to print these shapes and wires in sandstone. And the polyjet is not an option given the price, I guess it's reserved for big companies with the money to prototype their products. Good and affordable color prints are not an option yet.