btboone
Member
I got a T66 3D wax printer from Solidscape, and it made the wax model for this ring. It starts as a CAD file and is output in an stl (stereolithography) format of tiny surface triangles that the printer software can read. It then slices up the model into tiny height increments like a CAT scan. It will print those layers, one on top of another using jets of molten wax about as fine as a spider web until the full part is done. It mills the surface flat inbetween each layer and lowers the table to get ready for the next level. It takes tons of time to do, but it can run unattended overnight. The finished wax part is then sent off for casting. This one is stainless steel, but my subsequent ones will be titanium. Titanium has to be cast in a vacuum because it tends to light up like fireworks in the presence of oxygen. The ring took tons of hand finishing. I left the upper part beadblast because it's about impossible to polish between the posts. The shape is something that really can't be made by any other method. I'm trying to make parts like that in a new series of rings. I'm printing some pen parts now too.