3D Printed Stainless Steel 91mm Scales and more!

[slackard]

so ah...  we cant easily put bottom tools on an 93mm/alox knife, but now we can have some nicer scales for our 91mm knives too -- through the wonder of 3D Printing.



Got the itch and drew up these 3d-printable scales for the 91mm knives.   This is my first iteration of SAK scales and they are effectively dupes of the existing plastic scales, but with a knurled/textured surface (like alox scales) and are available in the several materials and finishes including;  Gold plated Brass, Polished Silver, matte silver, Bronze, Gold plated Bronze, antique finish bronze, stainless steel, various plastics and alumide (aluminum/plastic composite).

Check the Shapeways page here for more info and to purchase: http://shpws.me/pbJe

Still at the very early stages of this project.  plan to continue work adding countersunk pivot holes for people who want the fancy torx pivots instead of standard press-on style.

Also planning to add the Vic logo, or even custom logos if people are interested.   basically 3d printing makes this really easy.. so let me know if theres something you'd like to see, etc.

Heres that link again http://shpws.me/pbJe
Thanks
 

[Marius]

Looks great but why hollow? Couldn't find an older solid-through Cellidor scale as a model?

 

[slackard]

the price of 3d printed parts is driven entirely by the volume of the printed object.  reducing volume, reduces cost -- economics.    I could make this totally flat with no pockets on the back side, but it would prly cost twice as much.

[Marius]

Makes sense 

[nsa-x-file]

Interesting idea.
Buy if you added a Vic logo would you not be in trouble with Victorinox who own that trademark? 

[sawman]

I like them. I think he's on to something. Though as NSA said, I wonder about using Vic's logo...

[Jailbird]

This is very cool! A quick thought, any possibility of plus scales?

On a side note, can you explain how Shapeways works? I understand what they do 3d printing etc. But obviously you put some time in designing these, do you get a percentage of each sale or something? Or is making these available out of the kindness of your heart?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2

[slackard]

plus scales are on the list.. as are 84mm and 74mm!.   Just dont own any of these yet, so starting with what i do have.  Considering magnetic inlays, predrilled holes for belt clips, the whole shabang..

pretty much didnt include the vic logo because of the reasons stated by others above.  Happy to do custom logos, inscriptions, textures, etc.. just ask.

as for how shapeways works, they set a fixed price based on the 3d volume of the object.. then as the designer i have the freedom to set whatever markup i choose when making the item available to the public.  The markup i have set is nominal, $5 for plastics, $10 for metals -- i picked these values out of a hat, and they could change depending on demand, etc..   but then, just ordering the stainless steel prototype would wipe out any profits from the first half dozen or more sales. -- not a money making price structure

the great thing about shapeways is the ease of use, and ease of making your objects available to others.. they are awesome!

[sir_mike]

Those are pretty cool.  Another vote for the Plus version!

Instead of a logo, you could use that area to put someone's name or initials.

[Nhoj]

My first thought was plus scales!

[slackard]

Someone get me a photo, like the one below, of the Plus scales and i will make it so.

Also, the non-plus scales are 3mm thick.. can someone confirm this thickness on the Plus scales is 3mm? or 4, etc.?

[GigaHz]

91mm Plus



84 mm cutout



84mm no cutout

[slackard]

ok these are pretty good and will likely work fine..  one issue im seeing tho is that there is some barrel and perspective distortion from your cameras lens.. this can affect accuracy, especially in the placement of the pivots.   

my guess is you used a relatively wide angle lens and a close distance to the scales.... 

ideally we'd want these photos to be orthographic, with no perspective or barrel distortion.. this is accomplished by using a zoom lens and placing the scales at a relatively long distance from the lens..

for example in the photos i took of my scales i placed them on the floor then standing directly above them with my dslr and a 250mm lens at full zoom i snapped the photo..  compare my photo to yours and youll see the subtile differences in perspective...

I can still probably use these photos as they are, but if youre not busy, some orthographic photos would be ideal!

Thanks for contributing nonetheless!

Edit: I still need to know the thickness of the plus scales, and now the 84mm scales too.  assuming 4mm & 3mm respectively, but if someone has a caliper and can confirm, that would be awesome.

[GigaHz]

I need a better camera. 91 plus are 4 mm thick. The 84 mm are 3.5 mm thick.

[GigaHz]

58mm 2.6mm thick

74mm 2.5mm thick

[Syph007]

I think printing them in any of the shapeways plastic or flexible materials would work fine as scale replacements.  Someone had already done this on the 58mm size and it worked, but the finish looked pretty rough.

If you printed as is, in stainless they wont just snap on the bushings though.  The stock plastic scales flex and deform around the bushing barb to provide the holding power.  You'd have to file the barbs off the bushings and use epoxy or jb weld to hold it on.  It would be easier if the holes were just printed oversize or drilled to fit the O.D. of the barb of the bushing. 

If they ever develop an affordable way to print in 6061 then these could be anodized to become actual alox scales, but I doubt that will ever happen.  The best bet is still going to be machining from sheet stock.  Well unless I could get a massive hydraulic press and stamping die, but I dont see that happening.   

My long term plan is to make alox scales and new liners as well, to give the iconic 91mm a full upgrade from the cheap plastic scales, and cheap aluminum liners to full alox scales and nickel silver liners.

I'm jealous of your CAD skills. I'm still teaching myself solidworks so I can produce scales once I finish CNC conversion of my mill, but I am far from mastering it. 

Cheers

[slackard]

Quick question about the Plus scale toothpick.  is it the same as the standard scale, or does it stand up the extra 1 mm on the end?

in reply to Syph's comments,  yea didnt expect the stainless to snap on exactly the same way.. tho, my thought was the stainless is quite a bit harder than the brass ferrules.. a friction fit could still be possible by pressing the brass into the bore on the scale, deforming the brass into a pressure fit.   got the idea from my motorbike carb which uses pressed in brass plugs in aluminum bores to block and complete the fuel passages.   the only way to know would be to test the theory.  if its a no-go, over-sizing them for some epoxy is a matter of a few clicks.
 
The unpolished plastics have a slight rough texture.  the polished plastics are, well, polished, as below.



Heres a good example of what the stainless looks like on a flat surface.. obviously the scale i drew up has a knurled grip texture, but will still exhibit some of this effect... imo looks really nice.

[slackard]

BAM!

[slackard]

your new 74mm scales



or this

[lowtech]

Will a scan work better? I can scan solid and hollow 91 and hollow 84 mm scales, 58 and and 111 ones.

This is a nice addition to the available parts and mods. Thanks for doing the work.

And: Do you already have printed scales and havbe a pic with them on a knife?

PS: Welcome to  - Nice to have you with us!

[slackard]

yea like a flatbed image scanner?  that would be perfect! zero parallax or lens distortion in theory

if you have a 3d scanner, even better


I just drew these up on thursday night so no real photos yet but did order some white plastic standard scales which are on their way.  shapeways ordering takes about 1-1.5 weeks for plastics, and 1.5-2.5 weeks for steel.   

If the plastics fit, then i will order steel, and of course post photos.. stay tuned.

[sawman]

This is an awesome thread!  Slackard, your skills and creativity are very impressive! I look forward to seeing more and more from you. 

[Essexman]

Oh yes, like the red ribbed as above. Looking forward to seeing what they come out like.

[Reinier]

I would be seriously interested in those 74mm scales.

[glorn]

Does anyone else think it looks like Vic designed the 91+ scale to house an additional tool of some kind?

Look at the upper left corner of the top scale. I'd never noticed before. Looks like all it needs is a small mod to provide an opening, and..

Perhaps they had something planned that never came to production? Or is this merely, "The rib needed to be there and the resemblance to a tool slot is coincidental." ?

Anyone know?

91mm Plus

[lowtech]

This scale is also used in the SAKs with electronics (Altimeter etc) on those knives the usually unused slot is used for a shorter version of the Tweezer which does not have a place in the crammed with pcb and batteries front scale.

I´m sure i have one of those tweezers somewhere.

Edit: Slackard, I´ll scan teh variants i have next to a ruler - Will 300dpi suffice or do you need a higher resolution? My Scanner is capable of a optical resolution of 1200 dpi (or lpi, to be more precise...)
I think I´ll find some time tomorrow evening, I need to upload some knife and SAK pics anyways...

[Marius]

Does anyone else think it looks like Vic designed the 91+ scale to house an additional tool of some kind?

Look at the upper left corner of the top scale. I'd never noticed before. Looks like all it needs is a small mod to provide an opening, and..

Perhaps they had something planned that never came to production? Or is this merely, "The rib needed to be there and the resemblance to a tool slot is coincidental." ?

Anyone know?

The back scales for the models with the electronic module (watch, etc) on the front scale have the tweezers mounted in that slot on the back of their Plus scales. Here is how it looks on an Altimeter model but there are several other models like this, both red and gray scales:

[slackard]

Edit: Slackard, I´ll scan teh variants i have next to a ruler - Will 300dpi suffice or do you need a higher resolution? My Scanner is capable of a optical resolution of 1200 dpi (or lpi, to be more precise...)
I think I´ll find some time tomorrow evening, I need to upload some knife and SAK pics anyways...

300dpi is pretty good, 1200 would be better, but also would be huge images, maybe not suitable for posting in the forum.  i think photobucket or whatever lets you upload really high res stuff.. maybe do that?

If its a 8.5x11 or larger scanner, you should be able to scan all the scales in one pass.   Looking forward to seeing the scan

[slackard]

helical knurl on the 91mm plus

[lowtech]

Sorry, Pal!
Right now life comes in teh way quite regularly.
I did not forget you and I hope that I will have some spare time this weekend.