The Secret to Plating 3D Chassis Parts: How To

In this video I show you how I got an authentic metal finish on the 3D printed core for DCLS-004.

https://youtu.be/92s7I1pcadc

Thanks for another awesome tutorial!

Thank you sir. Another excellent vid. :cool:

That is a wonderful tutorial! Thank you for sharing your technique!

Thanks guys. Glad you’re liking them.

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Originally Posted by Silver Serpent

That is a wonderful tutorial! Thank you for sharing your technique!

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SS haven’t heard from you in a while hope all is well :)

Thanks for the tutorials you've been putting out (I've subscribed to your youtube since finding it) they're very informative and your amazing work has been inspiring me to consider doing a crystal chamber of my own in the saber I'm currently in the early stages of.

I have a question about this technique that I did not see specifically addressed: What amount of additional tolerance have you found needs to be taken into consideration when using this plating technique? Obviously a 1.15" OD chassis sleeve would not fit into a 1.15" ID mhs part once paint+plating is applied. I realize the amount of space needed for the paint+plating will vary depending on how thick an individual builder applies it, but in your experience would you typically expect to need the chassis material to start out a couple hundredths of an inch in diameter thinner than what you need the finished result to be? Would you expect the paint+plating to be thicker/thinner than 0.02 inch?

Having a better idea of what to expect will be very helpful when making final decisions for my chassis material (especially since bettering my chances of having to only try 1 or 2 different ODs to find what works best for me will mean more money saved toward the next eventual project). Thanks for the help!

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Originally Posted by Jamonk Arturan

Thanks for the tutorials you've been putting out (I've subscribed to your youtube since finding it) they're very informative and your amazing work has been inspiring me to consider doing a crystal chamber of my own in the saber I'm currently in the early stages of.

I have a question about this technique that I did not see specifically addressed: What amount of additional tolerance have you found needs to be taken into consideration when using this plating technique? Obviously a 1.15" OD chassis sleeve would not fit into a 1.15" ID mhs part once paint+plating is applied. I realize the amount of space needed for the paint+plating will vary depending on how thick an individual builder applies it, but in your experience would you typically expect to need the chassis material to start out a couple hundredths of an inch in diameter thinner than what you need the finished result to be? Would you expect the paint+plating to be thicker/thinner than 0.02 inch?

Having a better idea of what to expect will be very helpful when making final decisions for my chassis material (especially since bettering my chances of having to only try 1 or 2 different ODs to find what works best for me will mean more money saved toward the next eventual project). Thanks for the help!

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Im sure there are lengthy, complicated calculations to figure out thickness of plating based on voltage, current and time. But honestly, I never bothered doing that. I plated until the pieces were entirely covered, so not really a huge amount of thickness added.

You should be fine with about 10 thousands tolerance. The chassis I did was printed at 1.24” for a 1.25” ID.

Experimentation is key. You don’t have to spend a lot if youre experimenting with small scrap pieces.

Yeah I was mainly concerned with whether getting enough for the appearance like you showed in that video took thousandths, hundredths or tenths (was guessing about .01"-.02" but hard to gauge that small of measurements from pictures). Now I'll know where to start my experimentation.

Awesome informain as always. Thanks!