Thank you troy, threetails, and rick I appreciate it.
I will try to mill it out tomorrow. I’ll post the outcome…
t
Very impressive work - especially the squid pendant. Keep it up!
Glad it’s not my job to sprue the squid! 
T.S.Wittelsbach you do wonderful work! I’ve been taking a few stabs at 3D Printing myself but never considered milling as I thought it would be too expensive to do. I have a few questions for you if you could be kind enough to answer… 
I apologize if these were answered before…I tried reading carefully thru the thread but it is getting late…
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How much does the wax cost? You buy them in little green cubes I guess?
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For your milling process, you model in a center spindle to stick on the lathe? Do you cut & sand that out after the milling is done?
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You don’t sound fond of 3D printers…have you tried a PolyJet? Like an Eden or something? I think Objet came out with a new desktop printer called Alaris for $40,000…It can do a layer thickness of .0011
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That casting place you work with in Chicago…I am most vague on that process of all. Do they send you the mold and you fill in your own silver/gold/platinum…I don’t quite understand this step.
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How much does the place in Chicago cost to have one ring cast? If I am totally off base on question #4 and they do it all for you at this point…are they giving you a discount for a bunch of orders?
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What is it about Modo that you prefer over 3ds max or Maya? I’ve never tried it out.
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So this business makes you a lot of money 'eh? Enough to recoup the cost of the mill? Do the “goths” actually pay those prices on your website? I want one! But it is out of my price range…lol
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So you work with businesses like Spencer Gifts? Do you just send them the 3D data and they do the rest? What does something like that pay if you don’t mind me asking?
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Sorry to hear about your mom’s husband. Doesn’t sound like a stressful life where you’ve moved to though. I bet not having to pay a mortgage helps!
Again sorry for the questions and I understand if you don’t want to answer some of them…I think I’m just asking what is on most peoples minds in this thread…lol That is some real kick ass stuff you do. Love it.
Peace. 
- How much does the wax cost? You buy them in little green cubes I guess?
Wax is very cheep a 1lb block is around $10. I cut it to fit my fixtures and I also welt down the extra to create new blocks.
- For your milling process, you model in a center spindle to stick on the lathe? Do you cut & sand that out after the milling is done?
the mill has a rotation axis so you do 2 flips in that flip it creates the fixture out of wax for the rotation. yes then you just cut it out.
- You don’t sound fond of 3D printers…have you tried a PolyJet? Like an Eden or something? I think Objet came out with a new desktop printer called Alaris for $40,000…It can do a layer thickness of .0011
oh I like printers my work is just a huge pain in the butt. it’s not just layer thickness it is also wall thickness. if your interested I can send you samples pics of the different machine parts and finishes
- That casting place you work with in Chicago…I am most vague on that process of all. Do they send you the mold and you fill in your own silver/gold/platinum…I don’t quite understand this step.
I send then the waxes they keep my molds and they do the casting. I can afford the casting machine I need to cast some of these parts.
- How much does the place in Chicago cost to have one ring cast? If I am totally off base on question #4 and they do it all for you at this point…are they giving you a discount for a bunch of orders?
It totally depends on the materials and the casting process. I use a high def casting process where the put a liquid into the mold then cure it with UV light. that cost more than doing wax injection.
- What is it about Modo that you prefer over 3ds max or Maya? I’ve never tried it out.
it’s another 3d program. it’s a simple interface that allows you to block out things very fast. the last time I used maya I was a tester for the artisan tools… maybe 10 years ago…
I liked 3d studio the last time I used it but once again it’s been years. modo is just fast and simple to use. I do no animation or even rendering I just model for tool paths so the simpler the better for me.
I always feel like an idiot around all these artist who know this stuff. I was a sculptor before all this, I only started zbrush with with version 3 so I’m learning every day.
- So this business makes you a lot of money 'eh? Enough to recoup the cost of the mill? Do the “goths” actually pay those prices on your website? I want one! But it is out of my price range…lol
the business is doing well and yes the mill has been covered. I have all kinds of clients I was very surprised how popular skulls would be. It goes from tattoo culture, goth, trendy, bikers, fasionista, rock and roll.
up to this point everything has been word of mouth. I have yet to start advertising, next year I will be truly concentrating generating press doing photo shoots etc… even though we are in this months savage tattoo magazine. it has a circulation of over 50,000 so that drove traffic to the site.
- So you work with businesses like Spencer Gifts? Do you just send them the 3D data and they do the rest? What does something like that pay if you don’t mind me asking?
the buckles were a favor for a friend. I generated the waxes and they produced the fabrication molds. for waxes that aren’t my designs it usually favors for friends so pricing is usually what they can afford. I don’t work as a service bureau but most of them work in the 20/hr range. the squid pendant is going to be 2 path sets running around 13 hours of milling.
but I run some very anal paths.
I have shadow designed a few pieces for very big fashion house, my designs not my name I charged the between 10 and 18 thousand dollars for each part. now I cant claim the work and I get no money other than the up front buyouts for the pieces. one of their designers bought some of my work and they wanted something in the same family of designs under their name. I tried to get them to call it a collaboration, but they would rather pay an ungodly amount to say the designs were theirs. all good by me.
- Sorry to hear about your mom’s husband. Doesn’t sound like a stressful life where you’ve moved to though. I bet not having to pay a mortgage helps!
yes it was very sad, but I must admit coming to a city that is smaller than my high school is interesting. From LA to tiny township Wisconsin has been a change. but all I do is work. that is a good thing.
first snow is always fun
yes the loss my rent in LA isn’t making me cry. but i do miss my friends and honestly I have no social life in any way shape or form. I’m a big freak here. but once again it’s great that all i do is work.
I hope that answered your questions if not ask away…
thanks,
tomas
Wow thanks for all the answers Tomas. Sure I have a few more questions…
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What do you use to cut the wax into the chunk sizes you need without making a mess? How does one “welt” down the extra shavings and broken pieces?
I use a double broiler to do the melt down and a radial arm saw to cut the block down to fixture size. and it makes a mess, that why I have a shop vac
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Yes I would love to see pics of your parts & finishes. So I imagine you are referring to 3D printers like the Dimension that give you problems? You can’t have a “sparse” print or anything with a shell? I was under the assumption that the polyjet’s are solid all the way thru and that would cure your problems. Or is there something about the material that 3d printers use that makes it a problem too?
let me assemble them for you.
- Regarding the cost of the place in Chicago, I’ll take one of your examples. http://www.tswittelsbach.com/ringsc…ghairm.htmlokay
What do they charge you to get the initial mold made of it? And then what would it cost to pour in the sterling silver? (maybe pour isn’t the correct terminology as I still don’t know the process) What other materials can be done? Brass? And what would those costs roughly be? (Gold & Platinum is a bit out of my reach, heh)
once again not trying to be evasive I just don’t know all the answers.
I pay a monthly bill and honestly don’t pay that much attention. they are my friends so I don’t do a lot of checking… Cheryl deals with the money for the most part.
but this is there link: www.castinghouse.com
a simple call would be far more informative they are very friendly and very helpful.
sorry about that.
- You mention something about keeping your poly counts down. You say over 2 mil will make your mill puke. Is that giving you a problem now that you use Zbrush? If you exported your .obj back into 3ds max and you had a program called “polygon cruncher”…it could get you down to the desired level you want with as little detail loss as possible. What is is the poly count you’d like to see it down to for your mill?
I’ve used the stand alone poly cruncher as well as donya labs simplygon. but they seem to choke out. now I’ve been told the plug in for 3ds max deals with the meshes differently.
BUT… I just got through doing a job with a company who used 3ds max and the couldn’t produce the part any better than I did as far as I know. once those pieces go out to their recipient I’ll post a pic and you’ll see what I’m talking about. but as of now I’m still under nondisclosure. I will gladly talk about the issues that the job had but not now… sorry
I usually take a model that is a 1-3 million polys down to 100,000 to 500,000. that’s a bugger.
- Does having your mill process a poly mesh STL make it take much longer to create a piece because of the stepping nature of the format? Would your your mill make CAD solid parts much faster? Say IGES for example. If so have you ever considered tools that attempt to convert your polymesh into nurbs, patches, and splines? I think some of headus tools can do that… http://www.headus.com/au/3D_tools/
as far as the mill goes I dont have to convert to stl I can actually have floting pieces because it generates paths that are line of sight it wont do undercuts unless you program a path that cuts under. I’m milling the squid as we speak I’ll show you what I mean. when it’s done. unlike growing where it has to be 1 solid shell.
and yes I’m always looking far a good decimator. and maybe I just don’t know how to even approach some of this stuff. I feel like I’m reinventing the wheel everyday. but if I could figure out a good smart decimator I know tons of these jewelers would jump into zbrush. the only people that do anything for the jewelry industry is ClayTrix by SensAble . they have the feedback arm. I bought it it was in the 3500 dollar range a year or two ago. But it was like sculpting with a baseball bat. A lot of the jewelers really dig it. but I’m a sculptor and the novelty isn’t there it had no touch. I was told their high end product is good but… zbrush rocks why would I drop $30,000 + for it.
- How’d you get the word of mouth going for your product? You sell on ebay? No other advertising what-so-ever? You didn’t go into tattoo shops with a book and say “hey look at this!”? heh.
I worked in Hollywood for 18 years or so so I gave a few pieces away. the those people talked etc…
Cheryl spend some time on myspace and she drive some traffic that way.
actually as far as the tattoo thing goes I got my pieces on some influential touring tattoo artist and they are fans… that helps
the guy from savage tattoo got one of my rings and decided to feature the work, they contacted me.
also google searches
- What does “shadow design” mean? You improvised on a design they sent you? Who is this big fashion house? Is your work on their site?
it means that I did the work and they claim they did. it’s not uncommon but I did sigh a hell of a punitive nondisclosure so there is no way I’m telling you who it was
sorry, seriously I cant afford the lawsuit that would follow if it ever got back to them. But i will say it had the pieces were seen internationally in every big fashion magazine. They paid me way to well to be quiet but you know and if you don’t your girlfriend certainly knows them.
like I said one of their designers purchased a few of my pieces and the head of their design department contacted me and asked if i would work with them that way. who wouldn’t it payed my mill off.
hoped that helped and i’ll assembly some pics for you
Tomas
here are pics of the wax I posted in silver back from the foundry…
still waithing on pic from the foundry.
and still looking for those pics of the grown parts…
Attachments
here is a pic of the squid wax.
this one is a little screwed so I did a little redesign as far as the thickness of the leaves and vines.
i’m milling that out as we speak.
more pics to follow soon
t
very cool !
much much appreciated sir…
t
Looking forward to seeing the other wax. Isn’t it cool that you can actually even do this. It is a nice use for this software.
Thanks for your explanation and effort that you are doing to share!
Nice work!
honestly and no joke it fills me with joy.
you know what a nightmare doing the tiny tiny detailed objects can be.
having the freedom to mask turn twist etc…
to have a mill in the house to generate the part
have it in haned and touch up… all in a day is MAGIC.
bench work will never be the same.
we have come a long long way,
and I dont ever have to see an open bucket of acetone or fiberglass chop again in my life…
yeeeeaaahh
truly wonderful.
just look at it go
wooooohooooo
I should have the good wax to show you today…
t
bas- after working in the industry I understand the need for the protection of process, but I’m tired of it.
I would like to think through communication and community we all get better.
Being selfemployed now I dont have people climbing up my back so I can be more open. I’m not going to give my job to someone else.
unless someone better comes along.
Hehehe! You took the right road:-)
I know about people climbing on the back of people, I learned to live with it. But I never alow them to sit on my chair.
Keep going and enjoy!
yup,
I had to decide if I was going to embrace my ruthless bastard side and become the political monster I was raised to be, or if I was going to enjoy my life while it was in front of me.
I miss some of the excitement and the puzzles that were there to solve, as well as working with the family I found in my peers.
But here I sit happy as hell.
with only blue skys ahead.
yeaah
t
here is the new wax…
Attachments
Turned out great how large is it?
50mm x 60mm
It’s a little bigger than most my pendants but it lays well I think .
another reason for it being a little larger is I want to make a small attachment for the top so you can also wear it as a broach.
something different, trying to keep more wearing options open.
t
Great as usual, thanks for being so open as to sharing, I agree on your whole point as to the knowledge sharing… where would we have been without books and now the WWW, look backing in ten years time and the results will be seen, if not sooner…
Do you know anything about the laser crystal process? Someone in Namibia has purchased a machine and I think this will maybe be the first time I can actually touch and hold one of my creations even though the actual model would be better…
Going to try it out and will post the results in the new year…
Thanks again, can’t wait to see the metal part soon…
Ziggy