I have pieces from an old chess game that I played a lot during my adolescence and so I have a special affection for it.

This game is missing some pieces that unfortunately have been lost over the years. I don’t have 3D modeling skills and I would like to know if there is any way or service for me to recreate these lost parts to be printed on a 3D printer.

All help is welcome and thank you all!

  • IMALlama@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3·
    5 days ago

    You got a lot of replies on the modeling side of things. It’s not clear if you have a printer, so let me quickly hit on that.

    There are a bunch of different 3D printing services you can use to print things, including local (at your library potentially or a maker space) as well as commercial.

    3D printera fall into big buckets:

    • melt the material as you go. The most common version is FDM. FDM printers can make somewhat fine detailed prints, but their forte is making larger things with larger details
    • deposit a layer of material and fuse it via light. This can be done with a powered material and a laser (SLS) or a liquid resin and a light source (SLA). This method produces much higher detailed prints, but has a bigger barrier to entry. SLS printers are expensive, but can produce large and very durable prints. SLA printers have affordable home versions, but their build volume is somewhat small, their parts will require post processing to finish (rinsing, during), and you will have to deal with responsible disposal of the used resins and solvents. Resin prints are hard, but can be a bit brittle

    If you’re going to be purchasing the prints, I would go SLS. You’ll get fine details and the parts can be nylon (or even metal) so they’ll be durable.

    If you’re printing at home, SLA is probably the way to go.