My partner and i thought we would try out a brooch design. We looked for a standard brooch pin to use in the beta design and if successful in all future designs. We found a local supplier of brooch pins and decided to test one out. Today the beta design arrived and the brooch pin clicked in very solidly with no issues what so ever . We are calling this a successful design and will use this clasp solution going forward.
Thanks Duann, This is the first model we have ordered in WSF Polished. It's awesome! Such a nice finish. Leigh
So it clicks on as opposed to being glued on... nice. I have about 100 of those brooch pins and this was one of my back-burner projects... Glenn
Thanks Glenn, I had this awful fear that a glued in clasp would come unstuck and fall out. I am happy with snap in also for the speed of assembly. I would defiantly recommend it. Leigh
Hi Leigh, I included the Deer Brooch in the WSF edition of Friday Finds. If you do set this model as sellable at any point, let me know so I can switch the link.
Leigh, if you decide you want it even more secure on the pin, you can use a soldering iron or wood burning tool to melt the plastic down a bit and 'rivet' it to the pin back. Also, I'm having great success fusing WSF with a Thread Burner - if you find yourself in a situation where a design is too complex to print at one go, you can fuse rather than glue... <a href="https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=6224&start=0&" target="_blank"></a>
Gladly! Here's the thread I opened to share the process: https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=6224&a mp;start=0&
If you made the 3 dots of plastic a little longer and straight, you could just use a regular flat tipped soldering iron and push the rods down against the metal. They'd flatten out and make a nice, snug lock. I would hope Shapeways would add this feature, because we can't really sell them directly if we have to do this ourselves.
@Museum of Small Things: Have you had a chance to test the longevity/strength of the clip-in solution? I'm very curious how well it stands up to repeated strain. Thanks, Donna
Hey Donna, We have an example brooch we use to show people and it gets quite a tough work out. It is still solid with no signs of weakening yet. Melting the pins down though is a great idea. Leigh
Leigh, Thank you so much for the follow up! Like everyone else, I wonder how well some pieces/designs will hold up under 'real world' conditions. The tension snap fit was an absolutely brilliant idea BTW! Donna
That sounds like a great idea; gluing AND melting the pins would make for an unmovable clasp... I have a ton of these clasps at home and was wondering what to do with them! Glenn
This is such a cute design! I love it! It's also very nice you can finish it yourself with a standard pin