Hi. this is my first 3d-printed model. It's an earplug. Modeled in MoI3d



and produced by Shapeways out of stearling silver.


Then i galavnized the silver with hot saltwater and 9V DC to get a black background.



and so i looks good on me! ;-)



this symbol is a "Deersign"
the 2 objects cost about 99$ inlc. shipping & VAT


thanks to michael for the "most time" easy to use MoI3D. ;-)

i think this will not be the last 3d printed object.

Very cool BlackBird! glad your ears are squeaky clean too ;)

Cheers

Ha that is cool......


Peace,
Rich_Art. ;-)

Congratulations!

I would like to learn more about how to galavnize silver with hot saltwater and a 9V battery.

I suppose you made everything black and then sanded the surface to reveal the silver again?

its easy.

just take 1/2 liter of boiling(min 60°C) water in a big cup.
put 1 teaspoon of salt in it. mix it.

take a 9V block battery put one wire(red) on the + and put the Silver-Object on the other end of the wire(red).
put another wire(black) on the - of the battery and then put BOTH wires(black first and then red) in the saltwater (not the battery ;-))

the silver is getting dark very very quick!
i let it in for about 5 seconds. i checked the side i want to darken and then i took it out of the water and wetsandet the front
to getit shiny again.

Yes the whole object is getting darker. and it is the best - cheapest and easyest way.
you can take some chemicals too. but thy are toxic expensive and dangerous.

maybe you should try an older/other pice of silver first.

Thanks BlackBird now I know completly how this can be done : http://www.etsy.com/shop/lulubugjewelry
(It's not 3D printing but hand formed silver metal clay with the indentation stamped in).

That's really cool BlackBird, and it's amazing to be able to have it printed directly in silver!

The galvanizing turned out great!

- Michael

good work blackbird, I have some pieces on order from shapeways has well, designed in MoI. :)

Shapeways, print the out the model in wax, then produce a mould to cast the silver.

backbird, does the blackout last long?.

""Shapeways, print the out the model in wax, then produce a mould to cast the silver.

I doubt that. The surface looks much more like a selective laser sintering to me.

yes the black-dark last long. as long as you dont sand, scratch or polish/buff it. its a natural oxidation. by some time all silver will turn dark. cos of the Oxigen and some kind of sulfer in the air.

and yes they first build a Waxmodel and then they put it together with some other wax-models in a "waxtree" then they use some clay or sand to build a mold. they melt out the wax and then fill in some silver. i dont know if the surface is that coarse of the Mold-Sand or if the wax-modell was Laser-sintered. i dont care about that cos the front side was very clean/glossy.

They look great!

Their shape reminded me of the characters in these adverts that we used to have here in the UK in the '70s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SAbJjktk7E


Martin (2).