Omega MVS Cartridge Shells: Kickstarter Now Live!

xb74

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The AI shells are phenomenal. Make no mistake.
 

whisper2053

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The AI shells are phenomenal. Make no mistake.

I totally agree with you! Throw a table cloth over them, and you've got a perfectly phenomenal little serving tray.

Neo themed furniture ftw!
 

SNKorSWM

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Maybe that's why it works. You can always tell your guests that those are furniture instead of admitting you collect high dollar carts. XD

Come to think of it, why hasn't anyone made metal cart shells yet? No more insertion marks!
 
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Fritz

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Just needs a couple coasters and either some coffee mugs or beer cans/bottles and you'll have yourself a right nice couple of mini-tables there.

Hooray for Neo-themed furniture!

It would make an awesome ash tray

ashtray.gif
.
 

Jonmkl

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Not sure why I didn't think of this before but have you considered Shapeways?

For those who don't know, Shapeways is a site that let's you design, buy, and sell 3D printed objects, made to order. You can set up a shop, upload models, and whenever anyone buys one, Shapeways makes and ships the item, and you get a cut based on how you priced the item. You can even let the buyer pick their own materials.

If you put the Omega MVS Shells up on Shapeways then anyone who wants can order as many as they like, no set up costs or anything, and if you like you can even start saving the money to go towards a proper mass produced run of shells.

That is, unless the pure volume of plastic makes them cost prohibitive (heck if someone put together a model for a snap lock case of some kind things could get very interesting).

Forgive me father for my thread necromancy.
 

shadowkn55

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I'd have to redesign the 3d models if I went with shapeways. A lot of the features were drawn in after draft was put in and I'd rather not go back and fix a lot of dependencies. Draft is required for injection molds but when used in relatively low resolution 3d printers, it created an unsightly staircase pattern. The part size is pretty large and I'd imagine the base price wouldn't be too cheap.
 

Jonmkl

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You're probably right about that, but you could always upload the sub optimal model you have now and get a price quote to see if it would be worth the effort to redesign. I'm sure there is a lot you could do to lower the required plastic volume and drop the price that would make it a little more suited to 3D printing as well, such as honeycomb support structures inside and thinner plastic walls.

Might be worth it after you've already put this much effort into these, and with a portion of the community still wanting it. Also, it'd be hella cool, you might even get some good publicity out of it.
 

Xian Xi

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Judging from the size of the shell it would run about $35 to 3D print.
 

shadowkn55

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I'm sure there is a lot you could do to lower the required plastic volume and drop the price that would make it a little more suited to 3D printing as well, such as honeycomb support structures inside and thinner plastic walls.

The plastic content of the shells is as minimal as it gets without sacrificing wall thickness. The honeycomb support, actually called ribbing, is used in support of wall thickness, not in place of.
 

skinny503

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Quan, what are we talking design times to redo them for a 3d printer? We could start another kickstarter to pay for your time.
 

shadowkn55

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Quan, what are we talking design times to redo them for a 3d printer? We could start another kickstarter to pay for your time.

Probably at least a full day or two to recheck all the measurements again after I remove the draft. The money isn't the issue. I just need to find time to work on it. I'd probably need to fuse all 3 parts together so it's considered a single print. It's going to end up a really large part so don't be surprised if it ends up being $30+ each. If I do end up going with shapeways, I'll use the old design files. I redesigned the models to be more injection mold friendly and to help with storage.

omegashellredesign1_zpsddc61f40.png


omegashellredesign2_zps670b8cf0.png


omegashellredesign3_zpsd0693ec3.png
 

grips03

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I print something at shapeways.com that is about 1/20th the size of the mvs shell and it costs $14 to print there.
 

Xian Xi

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What resolution does shapeways print at? Less than 50 microns would be nice but I'm going to assume it's 100.
 

shadowkn55

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What resolution does shapeways print at? Less than 50 microns would be nice but I'm going to assume it's 100.

I tried looking for it but no luck. 100 microns would be a safe bet.
 

Jonmkl

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I'm fairly certain that their resolution is 100 microns, though with some materials like the white strong & flexible they are printed with a powder based material so the layers are more obscured than a normal PLA printing. Also you don't have to connect the pieces, just have them arranged in the same file, heres some examples of multi part prints.

http://www.shapeways.com/model/1468619/1-6-alter-ego-hands.html?li=related-items-ext&materialId=6

http://www.shapeways.com/model/9668...y-level-2.html?li=search-results&materialId=6
 

shadowkn55

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I'd hate to rain on the shapeways parade but I threw in some numbers into their calculator and you're looking at over $100 for each half of the shell. I was actually kinda looking forward to putting pink bullets into a pink shell.
 

shadowkn55

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Quan,

I have used a place 40 miles north of me that can even print metal! Cant really say for sure if their prices are reasonable or not but it might be worth looking into! http://www.rapidmade.com/

Printing in general isn't really an effective way to produce item beyond the prototyping phase unless you own the 3d printer. At the prices shapeways is asking, I may as well buy my own and see what the costs turn out to be.
 

Xian Xi

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Printing in general isn't really an effective way to produce item beyond the prototyping phase unless you own the 3d printer. At the prices shapeways is asking, I may as well buy my own and see what the costs turn out to be.

The cost is mostly print time. Printing an Omega cart would probably be about 2.5 to 3 hours depending on how it's configured.
 

Jonmkl

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Aww, that's a shame, with them only charging you for the material used and not the overall size of the object, as well as the 40% discounts on anything passed a certain size I though it would come out to less.

Does something like a Makerbot Replicator have a build area large enough to print the carts? If you could print multiples it wouldn't require too much labor, but it would certainly take ages.
 
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shadowkn55

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Aww, that's a shame, with them only charging you for the material used and not the overall size of the object, as well as the 40% discounts on anything passed a certain size I though it would come out to less.

Does something like a Makerbot Replicator have a build area large enough to print the carts? If you could print multiples it wouldn't require too much labor, but it would certainly take ages.

I'll run it through the formal upload process and see what it gives me. I could be measuring volume entirely wrong.
 

Jonmkl

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The build area on the newest Replicator is 9.9 x 7.8 x 5.9 inches and a neo cart is 5.875 x 7.4 x 1.375 inches, meaning if you really max it out you could probably print 6 or 7 at once maybe? The biggest issue here though would be the large amount of supports required and removing them from the finished print easily and effectively.

A possible solution to that could be a printer with a dual extruder like the Replicator 2X (though it does have a smaller build volume) that way the supports could be printed in a water dissolvable plastic and would take far less labor to remove.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCpp6SmvlJo

Print a stack of shells separated by water soluble PVA, dump stack in tub.. Profit?
 

venchia3

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Every time I look at this topic I think it's just a shame the kickstarter didn't make it, those replacement shells are just perfect in my opinion. Hope you can find a way to release them one day!
 

Yodd

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The build area on the newest Replicator is 9.9 x 7.8 x 5.9 inches and a neo cart is 5.875 x 7.4 x 1.375 inches, meaning if you really max it out you could probably print 6 or 7 at once maybe? The biggest issue here though would be the large amount of supports required and removing them from the finished print easily and effectively.

A possible solution to that could be a printer with a dual extruder like the Replicator 2X (though it does have a smaller build volume) that way the supports could be printed in a water dissolvable plastic and would take far less labor to remove.

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCpp6SmvlJo

Print a stack of shells separated by water soluble PVA, dump stack in tub.. Profit?


It would probably take 24 hours to print that many at one time.


I think people need to realize 3d printer isn't going to help these come to market any faster. At least not affordably anyways.

Like Quan said, 3D printing is ideal for prototyping and producing small items. If it's bigger than the palm of your hand, it's gonna be slow and expensive to produce.



I seriously LOL'ed when Shapeways was recommended earlier in the thread.
 
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