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 Replies: 15 / Views: 1,514 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Hello all! This year, for Christmas, our family bought itself a 3-D printer for shared household use. In the previous months I have been very impressed, as I have printed off some puzzles, geometric forms, and national emblems.    But - the time has come to consider doing numismatic-related things with this machine, as well. The opportunity came when I set up a display of Klondike Dollar tokens for the Edmonton Coin Show last weekend. Now, it's no good to have your coins sitting flat in a display case, because people have to lean over to see them. So I printed about 35 of these little angled coin supports. (cost per support: a few cents)   They worked really well, which got me thinking about other 3-D-printable coin-related items. For instance, you could try to make some creatively-shaped holders for a certain set. (The maximum build area is 6x6x6 inches, so it can't do entire album pages.) You could probably also make custom bezels for any coin. For future reference: the plastic used is PLA, which is expensive (4 cents per gram) but does not release any off-gassing at standard temperatures. 3-D printed items are not biologically food-safe (they have tiny cavities which will accumulate bacteria if given the chance), but chemically I think they're coin-safe. Do you have any ideas for anything numismatic I could make with this machine, or have anything to say regarding 3-D printing and numismatics? There are lots of possibilities and experimentation costs very little (even if the plastic has a high cost per gram, the items you print aren't very heavy so it averages out). So I think there are some exciting things I can do. |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
4227 Posts |
Those coin supports are cool and would be very useful for numismatic displays. Well done.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1476 Posts |
Question,
Can those holders be Polished so they are Clear?
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Bedrock of the Community
 United States
12817 Posts |
That's sweet. Nothing springs to mind right away but that coin display stand is nice.
As is typical with technology, the price will come down and the capabilities will dramatically improve as time goes on. Pretty soon you'll be able to print a very good facsimile of a coin itself...
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
"Capital Plastics" !
I did mention a while ago that this could be used to make customized coin albums. It only comes down to cost.
My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseriesMy numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htmRegularly updated at least once a month. |
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Moderator
 United States
23522 Posts |
Quote:
3-D printed items are not biologically food-safe (they have tiny cavities which will accumulate bacteria if given the chance), but chemically I think they're coin-safe PLA is so biodegradable they use it as implants inside surgical patients and leave it for the body to absorb. Doubt there's anything which would hurt a coin.  Completely cool. Family geek-out, getting yourselves a 3-D printer. How dimensionally accurate is it? Could it do something like one of those plastic pizza box spacers and achieve a nice flat, parallel top? |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
2805 Posts |
It's an extrusion machine, so it squirts out a fine stream of hot liquid plastic that rapidly solidifies. Some overhang is acceptable, but too much and the plastic will sag before it cools. So you have to creatively rotate things, and some shapes are impossible without support. (Laser sintering machines fuse successive layers of powder into solid form - these can do anything because the rest of the powder supports the object, but they cost much, much more.) The supports I posted were printed sideways, which is also revealed by the grain of the plastic. So, a pizza box spacer would be printed upside-down, resulting in a perfectly flat disc every time - I don't think the legs would give the printer any trouble, either. I think this is a better demonstration of the resolution and quality:  You can see the individual layers, but with no large overhangs there's no problems. (However, the chin is a bit pointed because its bottom layer is printed first and sags - some models are specially designed to compensate for this kind of effect) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
589 Posts |
I don't see why you couldn't do a Capital Plastics-esque display case...provided you can do some type of interlocking design. Forgive my ignorance, not quite sure how 3D printers work or what they're exactly capable of doing.
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Valued Member
United States
75 Posts |
Definitely neat! Nothing comes to mind other than the capital plastics. You could always try to make pieces to build your own copper penny sorter (the ryedale concept). With 6 inches, you could probably also make some little storage containers. Maybe custom coin tubes or 2x2 storage.
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Moderator
United States
23522 Posts |
You can print anything you can visualize in 3-D with one of these. Want to build a wall-size lattice with each opening the size of a coin and each printed panel connecting via dovetail joints? You can do that. I was wondering about the platform design as a coin holder for photography. We sometimes use standoffs of similar design to force the background out of focus. If you could execute something like that in black, it's a product collectors could conceivably pay for. I'd use a pair, one around 15mm and the other 30mm, for differing size coins. No need to make them more than 20mm high or so. |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
Why here are some things I'd try if I had one, 1. Cash. Mostly 10 bills. 20's are checked to carefully. 2. 1916D Mercury dimes. Same with 1909S VDB Cents. However, make them large enough to use as drink coasters. Yeah, I know it's been done but could be fun. 3. A 3D mask of my face when I was young so I could do one of those changes like on Mission Impossible. 4. Enough pieces of a Ferrari to make my own real one. 5. A 1894 S Liberty Head Dime to finish that Album. If looked good enough, who would know. 6. Have you tried making a credit card yet? |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
9792 Posts |
I really like the coin holders for display! Very nice.   "Buy the Book Before You Buy the Coin" - Aaron R. Feldman - "And read it" - Me 2013! ANA Life Member #3288 in good standing since 1981, ANS, Early American Coppers Member (EAC), Colonial Coin Collectors Club member (C4), Conder Token Collector Club member (CTCC), Civil War Token Society (CWTS) member, Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) & Numismatic Bibliomania Society member (NBS), USMex, Member in good standing, 2¢ variety collector. See my want page: http://goccf.com/t/140440 |
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Rest in Peace
United States
4078 Posts |
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Moderator
United States
188151 Posts |
Forgetting the coins for a moment, have you made own action figure yet?  |
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Moderator
Australia
16817 Posts |
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PLA is so biodegradable they use it as implants inside surgical patients and leave it for the body to absorb. Doubt there's anything which would hurt a coin. I wouldn't assume that. Even plasticized PVC is perfectly safe with coins, until it starts to degrade. In the case of polylactic acid (PLA), it degrades into (yes, you might guess it from the name) lactic acid. Lactic acid isn't very corrosive compared to, say, acetic acid (vinegar) or citric acid (lemon juice), but it is still corrosive. Pure lactic acid is a solid at room temperature, but it readily absorbs water from the atmosphere, so as it degrades it will form a sticky corrosive "goo" on its surface. It's harmless in your body (which produces it naturally) and in the environment, but not on raw metal, especially copper, steel and zinc. Note that this is a long term effect. Temporary coin display holders like the ones in the OP, intended to hold a coin for a few days or a few weeks, should be ok. DO NOT make a pseudo-slab or pseudo-Dansco-style coin album page out of it, or anything you plan to use in a permanent housing or display. I'd also avoid sealing up coins together with PLA objects in an airtight container, as any acid produced by degradation couldn't escape. PLA's main advantage is that it's biodegradable; never use anything "biodegradable" to permanently store anything in, since "permanent" and "biodegradable" are antonyms. Your nice plastic coin holders will be crumbly goo in fifty years. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
Russian Federation
5172 Posts |
Quote:
PLA's main advantage is that it's biodegradable; never use anything "biodegradable" to permanently store anything in, since "permanent" and "biodegradable" are antonyms. Your nice plastic coin holders will be crumbly goo in fifty years. I've always wondered how do biodegradable dishes work (as in, isn't your typical food exactly the kind of awful stuff that would biodegrade something?)... never figured it out exactly. And I once had the misfortune of accidentally touching a twenty-year-old post-it note. "Crumbly goo" was a pretty good description (it also wasn't what I expected to find). |
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Replies: 15 / Views: 1,514 |
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Posted 03/10/2015 6:55 pm
