Whelp~ time to start as any!

[FenixFire]

Well I might as well babble about it here and then re-apply it elsewhere where appropriate:

I'm planning on 3d Printing my Saber hilt. Soon (eta 3 months-ish?) I'll be receiveing a multi headed 3d Printer that can print up to 6 materials on one project at the same time. ( or 4 of the same item of one material at once) with a rather large build area. As a test I figured I need to build something that can use all of these materials at once.

After looking around and researching I decided building a better motorcycle/American Football helmet would be fun. Then I realized how much material it would be to make one.
A few google attempts and seeing the latest Star Wars (TM) movie, I decided on a light saber as an all around test. Then found out how the market consisted of a few creative... people trying to make designs on the cheap due to lack of copyright in design.

So before I go into to much detail (I'm getting a patent first just to protect the internals of my idea) I need to approach the building of my sword so that I can make it incredibly expensive should someone look at what I'm building, go "I could have that made cheaper and sell it for profit" and make the production costs make the price unjustifiable due to all the custom work/extra steps that would need to go into it.

But, essentially I want to make a grip that is not a traditional round shape (thereby making mass milling a nightmare), ergonomic for comfortable use and have a physical blade that collapses into the hilt, reacts to stimuli (Flicker and clash), custom sounds (Sorry, no Sith or Jedi for this one), power gauge, shake charger (like those emergency flashlights, this part is a hit or miss) and can be extended or retracted with a push of a button.

Currently the idea is to have it meet the same physical specifications, balance and durability as a Kendo Shinai when it's complete.

You do realize that to patent an idea with any kind of real legal footing usually runs about $5K on the low end, and to be a utility patent the design and claims have to solve a functional or mechanical issue. Otherwise it is only a design patent, and basically just a piece of paper to hang on your wall. The online do it yourself patents services, or even the invention submission corporations...after many years of helping inventors and startups get off the ground I will keep my comments to myself as not to get into a slander defence. By the way I have 40+ utility patents and over 100 design patents just for your reference so I know a little bit about the process.

By the way, what printer are you getting? I am aware of several multi-head FDM machines for rapid manufacturing. But the only machine I know of that can print 6 different materials...well colors...are the z-corp machines and they print colored resin into a cornstarch material resulting in a very porous and low durability model. I do know MIT is working on a conceptual multi-material printer (multi-fab or something like that), but I have not heard or seen much on it since it was announced. For a functional prototype, especially something that will take the impact forces possible, i hope you are not considering one of the multi-material polyjets...if so you really need to do your homework on the strengths and weaknesses of each RP process, as well as the forces that "dueling" can exert. Let's say literally tons of force...just watch slow motion video of the saber dueling or better yet high speed photography of a baseball being hit off a tee.

BTW...all helmet companies do 3d printed mockups for fit testing...but the materials are not strong enough to pass DOT or NACE standards. The best FDM printers can only produce 80% shear strength in printed parts compared to the injection molded materials.

[Juno]

Thanks Fenix Fire, your input on the patent process is appreciated. I guess complexing to an Nth degree will have to suffice as a safeguard until I make it until I can patent or copyright the internals as a toy. (Drawing Alexander G Bell for inspiration here until further research proves otherwise.)

As for the printer? It's a custom SLA based on a Rep-Rap with 4 E3D V6 heads that can run 3 on one project at the same time. The idea is to swap those for the E3d Chimera or Cyclops hot ends to multiply the usable material by 2 and use the resistant steel tips so I can use more abrasive materials that would warp the standard copper ones (like Carbon fiber or corrosive UV reactive composites). Given that the X/Y has a resolution of around 6 microns and the Z has a layer height of 1.75, and a tip as fine as 0.2 mm. I should be able to make the parts I need.

(on the other end I can use a Steel Volcano tip that can do 1mm layer height/thickness for extra strength and larger prints.)

The strength of this sword is an end goal, a guideline and something to strive for it will probably take multiple iterations and improvements in 3d tech for the process become affordable/available for my usage. (That said, ultra hard Resin Ceramics just made an arrival so fingers are crossed.) I'm not too worried if it the blade breaks on impact at that point.

[FenixFire]

How much experience do you have in rapid prototyping...laymen terms 3d printing? You are confusing terminology from multiple processes. Rep-rap...is just a long running theory, dates back to the beginning of the industrial revolution, of a self-replicating machine...and several universities have adopted it as the moniker for their research into rapid manufacturing technologies. The SLA process comprises of a vat of UV curable resin, the print head is simply a UV laser. What you describe and the parts you list are for an FDM based machine. Which in terms of strength and functionalality of ABS, PLA, or Nylon based products is the best possible rp process. Though to achieve the 80% shear strength you need to be in the .007" or less build layers.

I question your micron accuracy, as the servo drive system and the tolerances of the drive mechanism to achieve that with any kind of repeatable accuracy would run well into the $25-$50k range alone. I recently worked on a system that required a drive mechanism for a digital 2d laser engraver with a 16 micron resolution and the drive mech and controller topped out well over 50k. If you are going by the specs of the sales people they greatly exaggerate the real world resolution. For instance the only entry level machine I can in good faith recommend claims a 100micron resolution. In real world test the best I have Seen is closer to 125. The Fortus 900 by far the highest accuracy FDM machine runs in the 75 to 40 micron range depending on a plethora of environmental and geometry specific variables...and that is a $500k machine. Since a drive systems accuracy is a sum of the manufacturing and software/sensor tolerances you would need a magnitude higher than Swiss watch movement tolerances. Only a very, very few machine shops would attempted to machine the gears...belt drive systems will never get you close to that level. Let alone finding the servo drive motors and digital controllers that can register that kind of resolution. As for any DIY machine...they are basically crap, and it would be better to spend the money for a Makerbot or Cube3D.

You may I fact develope a multi material system, but the filaments and process still require it to be polymer based. Even the metal filaments are only about 20% metal! then the ABS is baked out post-process to create a semi-porous metallic part. Because the part will shrink during the "bake off" the parts have to be scaled appropriate prior to printing. The shrinking is also not uniform, but dependent on geometric design and wall thickness. Thus the tolerances of parts created in this process require larger tolerance allowances. The carbon fiber materials you reference are simply ABS or Nylon with a 5% or 10% fill of 1mm long strands of carbon fiber. They also have the same base material with 1mm glass fiber strands. The ceramic FDM filaments are the same principle as the metallic...btw they are not new Stratasys the manufacture of the Fortus and the inventors of the FDM technology have developed it and their high end machines have been capable of running it since early 2014. UV curable FDM filament is new to me, but I presume you might be confusing it with the UV curable resins used in polyjet printing...yet another completely separate RP process all lumped into the obscure 3d printing term coined by the media, and not a process I would recommend for any functional or semi-functional prototypes.

As a product development and business strategy consultant, I would check the market size of you proposed business venture. I am smart enough to read between the lines of your posts. The props market is very small relative to the sales. And if you sell as a toy you open yourself up to a whole new level of legal liability...so you will care if it breaks. Also stay away from PLA based filaments. PLA is a bio-polymer derived from corn, and the oils, acids and bacteria in human sweat will cause it to start to breakdown and become either gummy or brittle. I have seen both. I'm actually named on several patents pertaining to PLA pens that use this as the catalyst to start the composting process of the bio-polymer.

[Juno]

My mistake, I used the wrong three letter acronym. (I was researching SLA's a while back and found them to be kinda... lacking in terms of material selection as resin save for the new curing ceramics) I will be using an FDM. Reprap was to refer to a building group that I was apart of. They built their own FDM printers and used them to build more printers of the same kind ( http://reprap.org/ ) I went as a hobby, but it's now dawning on me that I did not retain as much information as I should have. The one I purchased matched a project that one of the members was working on with molded and milled parts instead of printed ones.

I'm going by what was advertised on the printer's website and shall be working with it, the Cultivate 3d BEAST ( http://www.cultivate3d.com/the-beast...at-3d-printer/ ). The highest definition I've managed to crank out from an FDM I currently have is .05 on PLA using CURA (a 350$ mass produced M3D that makes things as big as a cupcake.) and my goal isn't to sell but to rather protect the design of the blade I'll be working on. I clearly need to select a better choice of words as it's becoming even more apparent that I need to pull more research into the system of protecting this currently hypothetical item and am lacking in necessary vocabulary to convey clearly.

As for the material of the plastic? I'm thinking PTEG as that is safer to work with like PLA but is flexible akin to ABS minus the shrinkage and curling. Rubber like parts will probably be a form of Ninjaplex.

Given that I've been able to drive the M3D to its highest stated definition (50 microns), I'm confident I should be able to do the same with the BEAST (after several bits of trial and error).

I don't want this blade being replicated for sale. But more as a make for non profit (gift and self use) if it is successful.

[FenixFire]

In terms of the charge, look into the power draw of multiple cree or rebel LEDs. Compare that to the power output of the inertia charging systems. Yes there are several "shaker lights" out there. All use sub 100 lumen LEDs, most are in the 45 lumen range. Crees and rebels are In the 150 to 200 lumen range. 5 minutes of shaking gives you about 3 minutes of flashlight usage. Most use capacitors not batteries, easier to charge with less loss. Just advising you to do the upfront research before you get too far. The more time spent researching and planing the product specs before launching on a development cycle the quicker and more smoothly the development process will be.

[Juno]

Again, thanks FenixFire, this knowledge is very handy. Due to the design of the handle I'm thinking of having two individual power sources. One capacitor for shake charge and the other some form of an 8000ma flat li-on laptop battery that can be charged via USB or 5V port. The shake is a back up for when there's no power for spur of the moment impromtu sparing (still in drafting the shake charge may be dropped). As for the lighting system, I'm planning on using a material similar to El-wire.

[FenixFire]

Being a kick starter I doubt it is that accurate, based on other kick starters systems friends and start ups it have worked with have purchased and 15 years in the R&D industry. I find the claims hard to believe or trust based on what I have seen from industry leaders who actually hold the patents and multi million dollar R&D budgets to develop it further.

[FenixFire]

Laptop batteries are 7.4 to 12v. By the way. I know I read your post just used it as a reference point.

[Juno]

(Well, I am ashamed to call English my first language at this point.)

To clarify I meant cellphone, tablet or chrome book micro battery, a 8000MAH Lithium Battery something flat and rectangular that won't interfere with the grip surrounding it.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and see how fine I can drive this cultivate printer. If not, I'll experiment the layer thickness and overlap for rapid and/or stronger production.

I might be naive and I respect that you're speaking from lots of experience, but I'm going to try and build this saber one piece at a time.

Current outline is:
Physical mockup (not 3d printed, probably cardboard and glue) to understand hardware positoing and design
Electrical layout and repeated planning of schematics to understand part positioning and power set up and safety
Testing of Electronic parts outside of housing
Scratch head and re-design/edit schematics as to why it didn't work
Rinse wash repeat until it works
3d Print necessary parts of housing
Put 3d parts as a mock up together and test strength (hope it doesn't break)
Re-design, test, re-design test (until it works)
Put it together
Watch everything go to pieces due to something unplanned.
Take apart the whole thing and try again.

[FenixFire]

(Well, I am ashamed to call English my first language at this point.)

To clarify I meant cellphone, tablet or chrome book micro battery, a 8000MAH Lithium Battery something flat and rectangular that won't interfere with the grip surrounding it.

I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and see how fine I can drive this cultivate printer. If not, I'll experiment the layer thickness and overlap for rapid and/or stronger production.

I might be naive and I respect that you're speaking from lots of experience, but I'm going to try and build this saber one piece at a time.

Current outline is:
Physical mockup (not 3d printed, probably cardboard and glue) to understand hardware positoing and design
Electrical layout and repeated planning of schematics to understand part positioning and power set up and safety
Testing of Electronic parts outside of housing
Scratch head and re-design/edit schematics as to why it didn't work
Rinse wash repeat until it works
3d Print necessary parts of housing
Put 3d parts as a mock up together and test strength (hope it doesn't break)
Re-design, test, re-design test (until it works)
Put it together
Watch everything go to pieces due to something unplanned.
Take apart the whole thing and try again.

Sounds like a reasonable plan...should figure in at least two more rounds of o-crap rethinks...