

Ask HN: Producing a physical product (3D printing?) - whalesalad

Hello HN. I'm interested in producing a simple dock for my Nexus One on a semi-large scale. Something simple for sale (a couple of bucks) as I just created a real simple one out of cardboard and think a lot of others would find something similar useful.<p>Some photos and more details can be found here: http://mini.whalesalad.com/nexus-one-dock<p>Is there any way to create something simple like this? I've never done anything like it, but have heard things about 3D printers. It could be made out of one solid piece of material. If it made sense.. I'd make them out of clay and put those high school classes to use :) Plastic, plexiglass, composite, anything semi-hard would work.
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jacquesm
hey there Whalesalad,

3D printing is a process that is best used to create prototypes, the kind of
thing you are looking for would typically be made with injection moulding.

That's a fairly expensive process though, under 10,000 units it isn't
feasible.

A midway is to use epoxy-resin based casting, you make a rubber mould which
you can re-use a few thousand times, and you cast your units one-by-one.

The mould eventually wears though, usually because of imperfect releases (for
instance when the mould wasn't properly coated with release agent).

How you make your blank is not critical, anything goes, it is the negative
mould made from the blank (or 'plug' in the jargon) that you will do majority
of the work with.

If you lose it you can always make another one.

Beware of playing with this stuff, these are dangerous chemicals and plenty of
the reactions are exothermal and can go runaway on you with little to no
warning. Never mix more than you will use and use a very well ventilated
workspace.

Keep your stock containers away from the place where your casting set so that
if stuff goes out of control you don't have an extra fire hazard.

Enjoy, you'll learn plenty, and please let me know if you use any of this.

greetings,

Jacques

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whalesalad
Thanks for the great comment! Surprisingly everything you said made a whole
lot of sense. I guess for now I was more interested in creating a prototype. I
have absolutely zero 3D modeling experience, and after giving Blender a try
for about 10 minutes I need some Tylenol, heh.

The epoxy casting makes a lot of sense and seems like the best route to do it
myself. My dad built his own kayak not too long ago, and I helped him out a
lot with the fiberglass coating and epoxy (it's wooden, but it's coated in
those things). I guess the hardest part in that sense would be creating a
perfect and symmetrical mold, which is where the 3D modeling comes in handy =/

Hopefully I can find some semi-interested hackers or someone here in Honolulu
who might be interested in helping with the project. Thanks again for your
tips, It's helped push me in a better direction :)

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jacquesm
You're welcome. If you get stuck mail me, email in my profile.

[http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=silicone+casting+rubbe...](http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=silicone+casting+rubber)

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jamii
It looks like your design can be made from flat pieces of material slotted
together. If this is the case laser cutting is ideal for this kind of
production scale. Most big cities will have laser cutters you can rent time
on. You can also upload a design to sites like www.ponoko.com which handle
manufacturing and distribution and give you a portion of each sale.

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niyazpk
Check out this video from CES: [http://www.wired.com/video/open-
source-3d-printer-turns-desi...](http://www.wired.com/video/open-
source-3d-printer-turns-designs-into-objects/61029613001)

