Emblems

[kmoose]

I'll certainly be in for two but we will need to investigate what they are making the emblems of. I would have concerns on ones made for automotive use as most I've seen are chromed pot metal.

[FLexpat]

I found a company (ExOne) that can 3D print them out of 316 Stainless/Bronze for about $100 each. I ordered one without any protective coating and will use it to run a corrosion test with hot saltwater with some SS screws attached but the production/sales engineer I talked to thinks it should do fine. I should get it in a week or so.

Printing metal is much different than plastic. The technology ExOne uses is called binder-jet - basically they use finely powdered 316SS covered with a binder to print the part in ~.003" layers. Then they do a vacuum infusion in a furnace where bronze fills the voids and displaces the binder. Net result is 60%SS and 40% Bronze (bimetalic, not an alloy). Then they do blast and polishing - I ordered a grit-tumbled polished finish.

They also offer what is called their 'Navy' coating; a baked on clear lacquer coating they developed for the US Navy - he thinks the finish should last 10-15 years in this application. Probably a good idea but I want to test the unprotected metal first.

I looked into doing them with the aluminum (Thx Doug - good connection) but am pretty concerned about corrosion on that when it gets scratched, around the bolts, and on the back side where it will stay wet. These things are too much of a PITA to be replacing regularly. For a lower-cost option I think we can get plastic 3D prints but I love the look of the one I had printed out of 420SS/Br - unfortunately 420 will get surface rust. One interesting thing is that the 3D printed metal parts shrink non-linearly so the size needs to be scaled up a couple of percent - I am trying 1.7% on this one based on the shrinkage of the 420SS/Br one.

[FLexpat]

This just came today.
316 stainless infused with silicon bronze, 9.5 inches long and I can scale future prints to whatever size is wanted.
The finish looks a bit like sand cast stainless.
Starting brine immersion corrosion test now - really hoping it survives...

[Vezo, Part II]

Pretty sharp Mitch! Nice work.

[Old'sCool]

Yeh I like that!

[gofastsandman]

Originally Posted by Vezo, Part II

Pretty sharp Mitch! Nice work.

Agreed.

[GrumpyDuck]

That looks sharp! Hope it holds up to the corrosion test. I'm down for a couple of these once you get things figured out.

[Ed]

That is very sharp!

[Spruill242]

Amazing work!

[kmoose]

Great work! Im in for 4 and am willing to help you recover any development expenses.