3d Printing and the Future of Piracy

Soygen · Jun 15, 2025

Haus said:
OK. Starting my next set of prints. This will be to print a form to then sand cast in metal. (First test run will be aluminum, and then if that works brass) Who doesn't want to make their own maul?
View attachment 590441

I'll print two of these (they can connect via peg holes on the bottom). Then probably a day or two of post work with auto body paint/filler and sanding to get as smooth as possible, then multiple coats of gloss enamel to get smoother. (Smoother the mold form, the less you need to sand/polish the metal when done which is far more work).

Then pack is in casting sand, remove the mold to leave a cavity, and melt/pour in metal.

When all is said and done this should be around a 7lb head to put on a hickory handle probably. And sure, you can say "But why the hell do you need a 7lb maul that looks like an art deco hark head??!?" but I'll ignore you because I don't need that kind of negativity in my life.

This is awesome. Can't wait to see the finished product.

I did some pretty basic metal casting not too long ago. I 3D printed some numbers, then took a bunch of copper pipes that my sister had ripped out of her new house when they remodeled it. I cast her house numbers in copper and then put them in a little epoxy cube and put it on a plaque for a housewarming gift. I've mad a ton of ingots that are just sitting around for some future project. Unfortunately, smelting/casting is really rough in the Florida heat, so it's rare I find the motivation.

Haus · Jun 15, 2025

Soygen said:
This is awesome. Can't wait to see the finished product.

I did some pretty basic metal casting not too long ago. I 3D printed some numbers, then took a bunch of copper pipes that my sister had ripped out of her new house when they remodeled it. I cast her house numbers in copper and then put them in a little epoxy cube and put it on a plaque for a housewarming gift. I've mad a ton of ingots that are just sitting around for some future project. Unfortunately, smelting/casting is really rough in the Florida heat, so it's rare I find the motivation.

I've done a number plaque too, did one for my grandmother's house. Yeah, I'm in Texas so it's the same heat scenario. I recently rebuild my "smelting area" behind the garage and put in a shade awning/tarp thing.

I thought I had worked through the details on the maul, but I'm starting to notice I think by the time I put the two halves together it's going to be too large for the amount of metal I can melt at once in my crucible. Might have to do it scaled back on at least one axis to make the maul head skinnier.

Haus · Jun 15, 2025

This is a github project I stumbled across today which I am keenly interested in seeing come to fruition...

PartCrafter

PartCrafter is a structured 3D generative model that jointly generates multiple parts and objects from a single RGB image in one shot.

wgsxm.github.io

TLDR: AI Model to design multi part 3d printable parts off photos.

Soygen · Monday at 10:02 AM

Haus said:
This is a github project I stumbled across today which I am keenly interested in seeing come to fruition...

PartCrafter

PartCrafter is a structured 3D generative model that jointly generates multiple parts and objects from a single RGB image in one shot.

wgsxm.github.io

TLDR: AI Model to design multi part 3d printable parts off photos.

Wonder what this will take to run locally.

Bandwagon · Monday at 11:19 AM

Soygen said:
Wonder what this will take to run locally.

Haus · Monday at 12:56 PM

Soygen said:
Wonder what this will take to run locally.

Good question, I have a side machine which is a retired gaming rig. Has 64G ram, I9, and an older 1080 GPU in it. Hopefully that can push it. I want to take a run at feeding it images and having it cook up an action figure.

Big Phoenix · Tuesday at 2:27 AM

Haus said:
"Profitable" 3d printing. This CAN be done, but for the vast majority of us hobbiest level enthusiasts it just takes too much time, space, and investment to make a "mini fab shop" and start cranking out profitable prints. If you have fun with this, get into it, but don't be expecting to make money, or honestly even really pay for the hobby. With that said I have made a few parts, bits, and bobs around the house with the printers which would have been a pain to find/source elsewhere. (like a holder using magnets to stick on the fridge and hold my Mio bottles.) If you want to leverage this get good at some form of basic CAD at a minimum (like TinkerCad), or a better modeling software package to do fancy stuff.

Speaking of this my printer should be paying for itself over the next month or so. Company where I work wants me to print signage for them. Already printed them one as a sample and they really liked it. Think ill charge them $30/hr.

Also;

Soygen · Tuesday at 10:02 AM

If that HT-PLA is genuinely that resistant to heat while being as easy/friendly to print as PLA, that's going to be the go to filament for almost everything. Is it not out yet or are they already sold out? None of the colors available on their site as of now.

Haus · Tuesday at 10:05 AM

Big Phoenix said:
Speaking of this my printer should be paying for itself over the next month or so. Company where I work wants me to print signage for them. Already printed them one as a sample and they really liked it. Think ill charge them $30/hr.

Also;

I'm gonna have to try some of that HT-PLA. A lot of the things I print to support my metal casting stay in my workshop, which isn't climate controlled, and gets pretty hot inside being in Texas... I've had to reprint forms before because of PLA warping, and whereas I love the temp tolerance of ABS it's more of a hassle to print with.

On project EagleHammer...

Both sides printed, at .12 layer heights. 5mm pegs to hold the sides together during the sandcasting process. But the pegs failed. I'll have to drill out the holes and probably use wooden dowels.

Hammer assembled (1:1 benchy for scale):

Next up will be multiple layers of auto body "filler primer" paint and sanding to get it as smooth as possible (and remove any slight ridge down the center).

After that comes 2-3 coats of high gloss paint to further smooth it.

Soygen · Tuesday at 10:47 AM

What are you planning to cast it in? Copper?

Haus · Tuesday at 11:44 AM

Soygen said:
What are you planning to cast it in? Copper?

First casting will just be aluminum. To make sure my handle core is the right dimensions and test out the process with a cheap metal. Then if that works, I'll move up to a copper , or in more likelihood brass, model. Whenever I do new mold forms aluminum is always the test run because I probably have somewhere around 200+ pounds of aluminum stock to melt. Versus around 30-40 lbs of copper around (most already in coin/trinket form), and maybe 60-70 pounds of brass (also mostly in some decorative casting form and a few ingots)

Testing the fitment of the two halves the plastic 5mm pegs failed spectacularly, so I have drilled them out to use metal pegs. Now letting the glue holding the pegs in one side set, so next steps on this will be probably late today or tomorrow. Target will be this weekend for the first test casting run.

Haus · 2025-06-21T17:46:01-0400

For

Soygen

MusicForFish and anybody else interested. Since this "Haus' Personal Maul" project is not far outside the realm of 3d printing, "technology" or "gadgets" I made a post in the Off Topic section with an overly exhaustive picture laden update.

Metalworking Thread (aka Haus indulging his inner mountain dwarf)

I wanted to post this here becuase it doesn't really fit in the 3d printing thread.. This started off over in the 3d printing thread because I use 3d printing to make forms that I then use in my less technological (but far more satisfying) hobby, which is metalcrafting. I melt metals down and...

www.firesofheaven.org

But here's the money shot :

(Still a work in process needing more post processing, polishing, and handle/grip work)

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