3d Printing metal: Comparing materials

3d printing in metal

We just took delivery of a new batch from Shapeways, 3d printed in metal.  This allows us to show you a comparison of the Steel finishes offered by Shapeways.

You can also see the difference in the Polished Bronze Steel as it comes out of the box, and the possibility of bringing out the highlights with some household metal polish  and literally less than five minutes polishing.

This is the first time we tried out the polished grey steel.  It is very similar to polished bronze steel, only a slight colour difference between them.

The gold steel certainly has some bling quality to it.  Polished Gold Steel and Polished Nickel does not go through the same multi-step process as the Gold plated options.  Gold Steel and Nickel Steel go through an electroplating process to leave a 0.1 micron layer on the surface.  You can still see some roughness in the print lines.

This is not to be confused with the Gold Plated and other semi-precious metal plating which are cast in brass, hand polished, receive an underplating of palladium and then 0.5 microns of precious metal.  All of which explains the price difference between Gold Steel and 14k or 18k Gold Plated.