Back in 2017 I went to a workshop to learn about bronze casting using sand, and cast a single bead hanger based off a 9th Century  Finnish find.  Unfortunately due to time restrictions (and an accident on site) I wasn’t able to cast a second hanger to complete the set. Later in 2019 I used the same basic design to make some wooden bead hangers, though I’ve never yet worn them as bead hangers. However, I still want my set…

I have considered a few different options, and when I was talking to the folks at the maker studio, one of the staff suggested I try using the 3D printer. It’s still not the same as the cast bronze I’d really like… but I thought it would be a fun project, and they had just started using some metal fill filaments in their 3D printer, so I thought that would also be really interesting to play with.

Modelling the bead hanger… wasn’t easy. I’m still really new to 3D modelling. I started off trying to scan my existing hanger (or the air bake clay model I made for the 2017 sand casting) with their 3D scanner on a rotating platform – it didn’t work. Later I tried with a different 3D scanner which was supposed to be a huge improvement – but again, the scan was a failure. I ended up essentially re-drawing the entire thing in Tinkercad (a free online 3D modelling software program) and then building it up into 3D using the pre-designed shapes available through the program (and a LOT of tweaking to get it right!)

(There are more sophisticated 3D modelling programs that the Maker Space has access to, but given that I’m still just learning this “easy” software, I didn’t want to push my luck by trying something out of my depth…) 

When I was largely happy with the design (although this sounds like a simple task, but modelling this was over the course of a few weeks…) I submitted it to print, and the staff at the maker studio added it to their queue… and a few weeks later it was ready!

When I got the finished print I was… underwhelmed. It of course was very “3D printed” looking, with lots of visible lines, lots of extra filament that needed to be removed, and a very boxy shape. The colour was .. well.. just brown really. I knew it was supposed to be “bronze” colour, but I’d forgotten the metallic filament, and thought it had just been printed in brown plastic filament, and that I’d be painting it after the fact…. LOL

(The file also had an error in it and the area inside the “box” was supposed to be domed  – I’d later correct this on a subsequent print… more about that later.)

I grabbed a set of rasps from the maker studio cabinet as well as a small set of diamond files, and got to work sanding down all of the extra stray filament, as well as smoothing the print lines. I also took the tools to all of the sharp square edges (there’s got to be a way to make rounded edges in the file – I just don’t know how yet) to smooth everything out and make it look more organic and molded, rather than printed.

After using the rasps and files, the pieces took on a whiteish colour instead of just being brown, but I hoped to bring back more of a bronze look if I could….

From there I looked at some videos about how to finish the bronze 3D filament. One video suggested using a tumbler (which I don’t have) which got a really nice result – albeit without a lot of detail in the print itself, while others, and this article from 3D insider just say to start with sandpaper and work up to a very fine grit (one was as high as 6000!) and then finish with a polishing compound and a soft cloth.

At home, I started with an 80, then 220 grit sandpaper on my palm sander, and this seemed to work ok on the back of the hangers, it didn’t seem to make much difference to the front, since I wasn’t really able to get into the smaller hollows.  I also didn’t want to sand down some of the bumps in the piece.

I moved on to my Dremel, which in retrospect was a mistake. I had hoped that the smaller attachments would help me get into some of the hangers’ smaller spaces. I started with a pair of wire brushes (above) which were intended for polishing brass and steel – and these were WAY too harsh on the 3D filament. One of them actually ended up cutting a hole into the back of my hanger (I was testing everything out on the back of one to start…)

Then I moved to a felt polishing wheel (below) and some polishing compound, and this also seemed to cut into the plastic, even going at a very slow speed. I also tried the fabric polishing wheel, and other than getting covered in little white threads, it was nothing positive.

I switched up to some very fine steel wool (below), and this seemed to make the only positive improvement to the piece. In sunlight I could make out some sheen in the hanger, so I used the steel wool on both pieces…. but still could not quite get the hangers to look the way I wanted them to.

I really wanted them to have the metallic gleam, rather than this 3D printed plastic (albeit with metallic fragments) look.  While the hangers were heavier, printed in the “bronze” filament – they just didn’t LOOK right, so I ended up sort of… giving up… (sort of) and with the hole I’d sanded away in the back, I submitted the file once again for 3D printing – this time in just whatever filament they had on the spool.

However, in the meantime, I worked to try to salvage what I had… and returned to thinking of these (heavier) 3D printed bead hangers as if they were indeed, just plastic.

I started filling in the back with wood filler, then sanded that down. It was still sort of visible, but much better than before. I did some testing on a scrap piece of 3D printed plastic (the raft from the print) and from there I moved onto a base spray paint coat of black, and then moved on to some bronze Rub N Buff. I wasn’t entirely sure how this would work for wearables, but I’ve had such good luck with Rub N Buff in the past, that I figured I had nothing to lose. I rubbed and rubbed the wax onto the hangers, and then after giving it a chance to dry completely, rather aggressively rubbed it with a dark cloth – to see if any of the metallic wax would come off.  It didn’t!

All the same I used a clear coat spray on both of them to seal the wax and called my first pair of “bronze” bead hangers done!

 

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