Making a basic ring in CAD

[josef1]

A short video I did a while back of making a basic ring in Rhino Cad hope its of use to someone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IB3I9nkR1XU

[Exsecratio]

Nice work Josef

best wishes

Dave

[caroleallen]

Thanks for posting that Josef. I think it's unlikely that I'll ever use CAD as my poor little brain isn't made that way, but it doesn't stop me admiring other people's cleverness.

[Patstone]

Thats clever stuff, just one question when you have got a CAD type drawing of that nature, what do you do with it. Speaking personally how does it make you cut the metal any straighter. I have in the past done a pattern of what I want to cut and stuck it on the silver and cut around it, and it still didnt work right even though it did with the paper before I put it on the silver.

[caroleallen]

It's used for casting Pat.

[Patstone]

Oooooh, never thought about that. Doh !!!!! So just guessing now, they email the CAD picture file to the casters and they mechanically make the mould direct from the file.

It's used for casting Pat.

[josef1]

Its not really clever,just what I choose to learn I didn't have a clue at first !, I wish I had even half of the metal smithing skills I have seen on the forum.
Patstone, if you think of the picture as a sort of map for the computer, its made up lots and lots of points, each point has a different address or place in 'virtual space' that's calculated by the computer. So even though its just a picture it has the information contained in it to reproduce itself in real life, its sort of like a little an ordnance survey map with points for North south East and West and also height information (like the mountains on the OS map), To take advantage of this you would need to send the information contained in the picture as a computer file to a CNC milling machine or a 3D printer this could then reproduce the ring exactly as you see it on the screen usually in wax or resin this can then be cast in metal. Unfortunately all this technology does not make me cut straighter with a saw either its just that I don't have to as much now ;-)

[Patstone]

My job before I retired was to do "take off's" from plans for flooring, normally in big hotels and blocks of very upmarket apartments to start with it was all manual, pencil and scale rule, then they got a computer to do it, which I had to pick up as best as I could as the training had been given to the chap I replaced and boss too tight to pay again. Anyway I mastered it and it was a brilliant set-up, all done with a digiboard and mouse, but it worked out the most economical way to lay flooring and of course the pile and pattern of the flooring had to be calculated too, so a big time saver. Trouble was with the fitters, we gave them a plan of how the pieces should be cut, bearing in mind that most of them had been floorlaying for years so mostly the plans went out of the window as soon as they left the yard. Bonus was if there wasnt enough because they had laid it incorrectly, we could argue that there was if they had cut it according to the plan.

Its not really clever,just what I choose to learn I didn't have a clue at first !, I wish I had even half of the metal smithing skills I have seen on the forum.
Patstone, if you think of the picture as a sort of map for the computer, its made up lots and lots of points, each point has a different address or place in 'virtual space' that's calculated by the computer. So even though its just a picture it has the information contained in it to reproduce itself in real life, its sort of like a little an ordnance survey map with points for North south East and West and also height information (like the mountains on the OS map), To take advantage of this you would need to send the information contained in the picture as a computer file to a CNC milling machine or a 3D printer this could then reproduce the ring exactly as you see it on the screen usually in wax or resin this can then be cast in metal. Unfortunately all this technology does not make me cut straighter with a saw either its just that I don't have to as much now ;-)

[fay144]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing. If you don't mind me asking - how much would a rapid prototyping company charge to create the wax of something like this, roughly?

[Exsecratio]

Hiya Fay,

I'm not sure about the Solidscape machines but my ZCorp 650's build at 28mm height per hour maximum over a 100mm x 100mm square. I understand they are comparable to the Solidscape T76 series performance wise but cannot use wax as a binder (they work a slightly different way) The Solidscape machines have a resolution of around 4x better than the Zcorp so its likely to achieve the same height will take around 4 x longer.
More than one item can be printed at the same time, if the job was say a ring then 20 of them could be set to print and the machine left running (on one platter it takes the same time to print 20 as it does one that takes up the same area) they are designed to be left running for cycle times up to 72 hours maximum so that will give you some idea of build time.

Cost wise, I guess it depends on the company, both machines have the same area price tag at around £46,000 to buy.

best wishes

Dave