Tofty's Various Tritium Beads and Holders

[Tofty]

Hi all,
I know how much we all love tritium things so i thought i'd have a go at designing some myself.

Instead of designing them to be machined i went down the 3D printing route to allow abit more flexibility. They should all be able to be printed in brass, silver, titanium + all kinds of plastics (but only plastics and silver are available from the website i've ordered prototypes from).

Here are just a few:





Small keychain tritium vial holder for use with a 3x22.5mm tritium vial (8mm dia by 30mm)




Alternative attachment lanyard stud which uses 6 of the 1.55x5mm tritium vials (12mm dia by 13mm, central pin 4mm dia by 6mm).






 

Simple non-cylindrical pedal shaped bead that takes 2 of the 2.5x10mm tritium vials. The side cut-outs were a suggestion from a CPF member. (15.5x13.2x7.3mm, centre hole 5mm).


   

Bird Cage Vial holder, takes 12 off 2x8mm tritium vials (12mm dia by 11.5mm, centre hole 5mm).

Some of these beads and the holder are available on my Shapeways shop page (search for tofty or tritium) but at the moment the only materials that can achieve the required detail are plastics and silver so the prices are pretty steep if your after shiny metal. I've ordered some prototypes but as manufacturing and delivery times are way over whats quoted i won't have them to show off for a while yet.

But can 3D printed multitool parts be too far off? me thinks not.

[Essexman]

STOP IT MAN    !!!!!!!

I want them all   

Great work mate, goodness me, they look so nice.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Stunning designs mate

[Sparky415]

I'm looking forward to see how these turn out 

[Essexman]

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Let me get this right, I can order the above in silver for €41.65 ?

Just add the clear holder €3.36 and tritium approx £10.

I think I know what my wife might get for her birthday.......

[Neil]

I want to see the design of the bike that goes with the cool pedals 

[Tofty]

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Let me get this right, I can order the above in silver for €41.65 ?

Just add the clear holder €3.36 and tritium approx £10.

I think I know what my wife might get for her birthday.......

plus about €10 postage, but the more you buy the less you notice the postage costs (true fact). Oh yeah and the cost of some optical adhesive too.
The euro is however giving quite a good exchange rate for the pound at the moment so it's not too bad considering it is silver and is unique.

Neil the bike exists but it moves at a speed too fast for the human eye to catch sight of, it's all that tritium, it's nuclear powered and won't stop until all the vials are depleded.

Thanks everyone, this is really an exercise in what 3D printing can be used for. I won't pretend i'm pushing the boundaries but it's good to get some practice in before 3D printing becomes an integral part of most manufacturing processes.

[Essexman]

I've been looking again, how does one fit the tritium to the bird cage, from the inside?

[Tofty]

Fitting the vials one at a time with a dab of glue top and bottom ought to work. When i modelled it i made sure that the last vial could still be installed as the vials do not quite touch each other.
A pair of bent nose treezers and possibly a bent paper clip are all the tools needed apart from a small pipette for applying the glue itself.

[jag-engr]

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(Image removed from quote.)  (Image removed from quote.)

Simple non-cylindrical pedal shaped bead that takes 2 of the 2.5x10mm tritium vials. The side cut-outs were a suggestion from a CPF member. (15.5x13.2x7.3mm, centre hole 5mm).

This one is my favorite - unique, practical, and maximum trit exposure.

[Sazabi]

This is one of the few things where Brits get all the cool toys.

[tattoosteve99]

This is one of the few things where Brits get all the cool toys.

Not necessarily I have a trit marker. It's on my Edc bag    

[Sazabi]

This is one of the few things where Brits get all the cool toys.

Not necessarily I have a trit marker. It's on my Edc bag

True, true, hehe.

[Tofty]

This picture was recently sent to me from Shapeways....



Doesn'tn really show too much except that one of these beads now exists in the real world
(the bead was ordered unpolished so the finish is as expected and will be finished by hand).

This order won't be completed for a while yet, however i did receive something from them today....



More pictures are on my "Tofty" facebook page.
Look for this avatar:

[Sparky415]

Something is looking a bit 

[Neil]

Feel free to post additional pics here for those folks not on facebook

[Tofty]

Something is looking a bit 

and this is just the start.

Feel free to post additional pics here for those folks not on facebook

Fair point Neil.

Sterling Silver Whistle (sounds really good by the way):











Being of single piece construction this whistle does not require a plastic insert like those other whistles:




Prybar prototype made from Alumide, with a range of metric hex drivers, bottle opener, hex bit holder and two driver points:

[Sazabi]

So... when does the prybar become available?

[Essexman]

What on earth is Alumide ?

You young folk and your high tech gizmos 

[Tofty]

Alumide is an aluminium powder impregnated plastic, so it looks a little like aluminium but is almost as cheap as the standard printed plastics.

The great thing about 3D printing is that it help proof that objects arn't as great as they looked on the screen. The prybar needs alot more work, it's thickness of 6mm stops the end bit holder from securing the bit properly, a reduction of thickness to 5mm should help. The bit slot in the centre needs reshaping and also needs another o-ring, the arrangement of the hex drivers should also change. I asked for a quote for the prybar printed in titanium and it came back as over 300 euros so no tofty prybars for awhile i'm afraid (although waterjetting is still an option).

[Neil]

That's a nice little silver whistle

  I really need to get over my magpie like affinity towards that particularly pricey metal

[Syph007]

Waterjet is for sure the way to go on Ti.  We did some laser cut Ti and you get alot of slag and burn marks on some parts.  Waterjet wont have that problem.  Im still shopping for a good precision WJ place that wont leave angled edges.

[Tofty]

Well yesterday was a good day:






Gold plated brass and sterling silver.




Gold plated brass from i.materialise.




Raw sterling silver from shapeways.




Stainless steel/bronze from shapeways.





Purple plastic from shapeways.




Red plastic from shapeways.





All these parts ended up different sizes so different sized models will be needed for each material choice so i've got some modifying to do.
The gold plated brass pedal bead from i.materialise is the only model that will not need changing at all and will go up on their site shortly, the sterling silver pedal bead from shapeways is good enough but could do with being a tiny bit larger.
The other models are too small for the tritium vials to fit into and the centre hole is so tight it makes fitting the paracord difficult.

[Sparky415]

Stainless steel/bronze is looking nice

[Tofty]

Now with vials added:








My 'tritium pedal bead' with the side cut-outs is now available on the i.materialise website for purchase in gold plated brass.
Both designs, either with or without side cut-outs, are available for purchase on shapeways in a full range of materials (some models are specific to a certain material due to over-sizing requirements).
In fact all the beads shown in the first post are up on shapeways, just search for 'tritium'.

In a few months time i plan to get 100 or so pedal beads cast in proper stainless steel then offered as a finished item (with trits installed).
If this turns out to be successful then perhaps a titanium version might arise.
No idea on prices yet though.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Lovely stuff

[nuphoria]

Love the ideas and your designs... can't wait to see more

[stealth007s]

I was wondering if the tritium beads and holders were still available and if so, will you ship to the US?

[Essexman]

I was wondering if the tritium beads and holders were still available and if so, will you ship to the US?

 I understand it's against the law to ship Tritium into the US? I think Tofty plans to ship the beads Tritium free, and then the buyer can purchase and fit the tritium DIY style.

[Tofty]

It took me a while to realise but the stainless steel material can be made much thinner than i had originally believed:









These stainless steel tritium 'Lanterns' are vastly cheaper than the silver one's, are much more hard wearing and have a rustic charm i'm rather fond of.


Now for a bit more housekeeping.......



Tri-wing bead in stainless steel and polished white plastic.


Titanium beads.



Anodising by UKMidnight from CPF.




Some nice glowy shots.






New Lantern design.




And some nice shiny gold plated brass.