With This (Custom Designed, 3D Printed) Ring: A Wedding Band Tutorial
Designing a plain wedding band is easy–much easier than designing my wife’s engagement ring. To break the process down for you, I wanted to highlight the tools and techniques I used to create my design. The approach I took in making this ring was to sketch a cross section of the ring, and then revolve it around a central axis to make it into a ring.
Choosing the Right CAD Software
If this is your first time using Onshape or even a CAD package, I highly recommend starting off with a few beginner tutorials to familiarize yourself with the interface. Alternatively, using Blender for designing model was obviously enjoyable and easy. Boolean modifier was especially useful to make it “come to life” without much effort. For those looking at other options, I could also 3D model it in Cloud9.
The Sketching and Modeling Process
First you’ll want to create the profile of your ring in a sketch. I used the top plane. Use the arc tool to create rounded sections of the profile. I focused on making sure the top section had a very gentle curve. In many of the men’s rings I saw, the top curve was much more rounded which leads to a thicker ring and I prefer something a bit flatter for comfort.
Similarly on the bottom profile (the inside surface of the ring) I added a bit of rounding for comfort; know that the more curvature you add, the thicker the overall ring will be. I went with 4.5mm in width which is a good in between size. Feel free to make it thicker or thinner based on your own hand.
Prototyping and Material Testing
As we weren’t sure how they will turn out (our first 3d print) we started with “bronze” version. As they turned out pretty well we will go for something more “precious” soon. Shapeways has pretty easy to use and understand model correctness-check tools. Printing + delivery took 14 days. We missed a little bit our finger size, so turned out models should be a little bit smaller than expected (but that’s why we started with “test” version).
Another approach involves creating 3D printed titanium with nylon prototypes for the wearer to see, check ring size, and how they slotted together. With all checked and approved an .stl file of the wedding ring was sent to be manufactured. Once finished we fitted them together – it looks as though the diamond is floating within the flowing titanium bands.
Available Materials for 3D Printed Jewelry
The following materials are commonly used in the additive manufacturing of custom jewelry and wedding bands:
| Category | Materials Available |
|---|---|
| Cast Metals | Copper, Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze, Brass, Rhodium Plated Brass, Gold Plated Brass |
| Specialty Metals | Titanium, Aluminum, Stainless Steel 17-4 PH, Stainless Steel 316L |
| Prototyping Plastics | Nylon 12 / PA12, Nylon 11 / PA11, Full Color Nylon, Accura 60 Clear |
Final Manufacturing Considerations
Manufacturing techniques include Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Binder Jetting, and Selective Laser Melting (SLM) for metals. For a perfect finish, services like Spray Painting and Vapor Smoothing can be utilized. To ensure the design is ready, use first article inspection and custom quality checks provided by the manufacturing service.