Indiana Arts Commission Individual Artist's Grant Project
This is the design I chose for the first stereolithography trial. I chose it for two reasons: 1. I like it. 2. It has numerous qualities that make a good trial for the first test piece. These qualities include thick and thin sections, medium to high detailed area in the ring sections and base protrusions. I addition the base is hollow so I could test the process for varying thickness profiles and the overall design is relatively simple. The final size was chosen to be. 2.3 inches tall. It could have been made any size up to the limits of the particular machine.
There was a change in plans during the project and both were indicative of the rapid changes in technology. The first change was the announcement of a new release of Truespace to Version 6.5. This version has advanced functions for "repairing" the wire mesh (below) that is generated by the program and used by the stereolithography machine. It was worth the wait, the first piece cam out perfectly. In many instances a special program has to be run to check the .STL file for errors and make repairs. There are actually businesses that do this kind of work on a contract basis.
The second change was to use another vendor. The company I used is American Precision. I changed companies from the original plan for a couple of reasons. They have an online quote service, which is automatic so you can experiment with different sizes and prices. They are fast, with a service that can do overnight work and shipping is paid. Their service is fantastic, too. The people are available for technical questions and were extremely helpful the a rank beginner. On the next page, I will begin the process to cast the part in silver. NEXT
Wire frame rendering.
Mark Parmenter 2003 White River Foundry