No experience, have an idea but need help

[Rachelle]

Hi,

I hope I'm on the right forum, you all seem scarily professional and I am absolutely not!

I do have a couple of questions though but first just to explain where I am. I've had an idea for a product that does not seem to exists despite extensive internet searches. It's not jewellery per say but would be classed as a sort of costume jewellery accessory if you had to categorise it. I've produced a mock up but now want to find a CAD/CAM company to help me take it to the next stage. My ultimate goal is to produce one finished product that I can then fully test and show people for feedback. What I need help with is a) does this seem a sensible approach and b) can anyone recommend a CAD/CAM company that would deal with a non professional as I'm struggling.

Thanks

Rachelle

[josef1]

If you dont find anyone else I maybe able to help.

[Rachelle]

Thank you so much! I'll message you over the weekend.

[josef1]

ok no worries

[handmadeblanks]

Hi,

I hope I'm on the right forum, you all seem scarily professional and I am absolutely not!

I do have a couple of questions though but first just to explain where I am. I've had an idea for a product that does not seem to exists despite extensive internet searches. It's not jewellery per say but would be classed as a sort of costume jewellery accessory if you had to categorise it. I've produced a mock up but now want to find a CAD/CAM company to help me take it to the next stage. My ultimate goal is to produce one finished product that I can then fully test and show people for feedback. What I need help with is a) does this seem a sensible approach and b) can anyone recommend a CAD/CAM company that would deal with a non professional as I'm struggling.

Thanks

Rachelle

Hi Rachelle,

I am in a similar position, what a coincidence! I can’t find a tool that would make a particular task easier and more accurate. Any similar tools available end up being prohibitively expensive because they don’t provide exactly what I need and would require customization.

My solution: I downloaded a trial version of TurboCAD Deluxe 2017 and used it to design exactly what I wanted. I have sent an electronic print of the drawings to an engineering company and hopefully I will get a quote sometime soon.

I am so impressed with what TurboCAD Deluxe 2017 can do I will buy a registered version. Although I have some experience with AutoCAD I learnt to do what I needed via tutorials on Youtube and this was literally only a few days ago.

I think in the long run it might be worth your while learning how to draw things yourself, and I think TurboCAD Deluxe 2017 would be a good place to start. You’ve got nothing to lose but some time and effort.

Dowload it here: http://www.turbocad.com/turbocad-windows/turbocad-deluxe-2017.html

[Rachelle]

Ahh thank you, that is very useful. I will look into that application.

[moif]

I'm a newb but have dabbled only a bit with cad. Try tinkercad which is a cool 3d prog all from your browser. Maybe try making your piece in there then upload it to one of the 3d print services like Sculpteo or Shapeways or imaterialise?

Or just design it on Tinkercad and go to the guys at...

3dprint-uk.co.uk

They're super helpful and have made a couple of things for me.

[enigma]

Just to say, I can highly recommend Josef if you are thinking of taking him up on his offer :)

[Rachelle]

Thank you moif, that is all really useful info. I'll look into all of that.

Thanks enigma, I am doing just that!!

[Sandra]

I'm a newb but have dabbled only a bit with cad. Try tinkercad which is a cool 3d prog all from your browser. Maybe try making your piece in there then upload it to one of the 3d print services like Sculpteo or Shapeways or imaterialise?

Or just design it on Tinkercad and go to the guys at...

3dprint-uk.co.uk

They're super helpful and have made a couple of things for me.

Thanks for the info - I'm going to give this Tinkercad a try too. I've sent a couple items to Shapeways in the past but good to know about a local business x

[ps_bond]

I *think* Joe will print things for people, as will I.
Smaller local businesses :)

[moif]

That's good to know Peter, smaller and local is good!

Don't suppose you print metal do you? I'm guessing not just yet!? I want to try a couple of things in metal, the online services all seem to do it but from what I can see steel is actually the only metal that's reasonably priced. I want to give it a go with a couple of small items

:)

[ps_bond]

Nope - I'm not a huge fan of DMLS yet as I feel the level of cleanup required (compared with print & cast) represents too high a time cost for the other benefits (for jewellery work anyway). At the current level of technology, anyway.
Besides, the up-front purchase cost of the machines is a touch high... There are some strange solutions involving printing metal in a matrix, then burning it out & sintering - kind of printed metal clay, I guess - but the shrinkage is quite high. There's a copper-bearing filament on the market that's supposed to work with FDM printers; never tried it (and either way, you have a porous partially-sintered product). There's also a system that - instead of sintering with a laser - prints layers of binder onto metal dust, which are then used to hold the object together for subsequent firing.

There's a lot of interesting development going on.

[Rachelle]

Thanks ps_bond, useful info