[Ultimaker for casting jewelry]

bronzefill and copperfill print really nice, less layers visible because of the added fillers.

And the extra weight is very nice too! Looks not like 'a plastic' any more but more serious..

Could be suitable for bolder jewelry models.

 

Looks really awesome!

[Ultimaker for casting jewelry]

yes, try one of your designs to print it with 3dHubs, look on their map if there is someone in the neighborhood.

this is an old picture, before retraction was a setting, but you see that the printhead goes from left to right. Also to let a ring stay on its small footprint was a pain and the end result is never a smooth curved bottom.

Personally I think that delicate details as gem support are too difficult. But try that in a test print. For your needs a sla printer would be better (liquid resin instead of melted wire)

 

Thank you for the nice photo. Is this PLA?! If not, do you think you would get the same results with PLA too?! Indeed so far, we used to have our designs printed with 3d printers that use liquid resin, however, in some jewelry tools websites, I frequently see PLA filaments being sold.

Thanks,

[Ultimaker for casting jewelry]

I still find it difficult to get 'good' jewelry prints from the Ultimaker. Small details are fragile and almost all prints need support.

For example: a ring prints best lying down, printing a continuos circle, but then you have one flat side. Printing it standing up is a pain because the printhead jumps from side to side.

It will take a lot of patience to get things right and keep your limitations in mind to avoid disappointment. (that is why I use it for prototypes..)

 

This is very good to know! Thank you. I don't want to have a ring with a flat side. What is the problem with the printhead jumping from side to side?! does it pose any problem?! I think I should send a file to the company for a test print.

[Ultimaker for casting jewelry]

If you want to remove the print layers, smoothing it with a solvent (such as chloroform) is also an option.

 

This is very interesting. However, in jewelry parts, we always deal with tiny and delicate shapes such as gem supports, which I think would be very sensitive to the solvent. Therefore we always prefer to get rid of the layers only after the metal product is made. Anyway thank you for the suggestion. I will give it a shot as soon as I purchase the printer.

[Ultimaker for casting jewelry]

Thank you all for your helpful responses. Like Peggy mentions, PLA might be a good option, since as a polymer engineer, I know this as a rather "soft" plastic in contrast with other "difficult" to handle options. As I have not yet the printer, what I'm gonna do is to get some PLA filaments, make something manually and then prepare the corresponding gypsum-plaster mold. A good mold should result in a flawless piece in the end, that's why I will then pour the mold with silver to make sure about the quality of the final product.

Form 1 is also a very good option as far as I can see but I will check Ultimake first. Btw, thank you for all nice recommendations. I will post the results as soon as I do the casting. Cheers- Ali

[Ultimaker for casting jewelry]

Hello everybody.

Has anyone any experience with casting jewelry using an Ultimaker printer? What is essential in casting jewelry is that the plastic model is completely removed from the gypsum-plaster mold while being heated in the oven.

Thanks,

Aravand