Edit: I was curious about your printer and looked in to it some. It seems yours uses a uv laser instead of a lcd and uv led like mine. What I thought was interesting is the time it takes mine to print is based on layer count but yours is still like a fdm printer and tied to print volume.
Yeah the laser "draws out" the layer instead of exposing the entire layer at once. My wife chose Formlabs because it was the only desktop printer that could print wax for lost wax casting at the time (not sure if that's still the case).
I printed a set of your Mule scales today. They feel great in hand. The holes for the hardware were a touch small so I opened them a little with a Dremel. I think I'd go up to 4.75 mm for the barrel and 5.35 - 5.40 mm for the screw head. Love the texture.
Edit: I was curious about your printer and looked in to it some. It seems yours uses a uv laser instead of a lcd and uv led like mine. What I thought was interesting is the time it takes mine to print is based on layer count but yours is still like a fdm printer and tied to print volume.
Yeah the laser "draws out" the layer instead of exposing the entire layer at once. My wife chose Formlabs because it was the only desktop printer that could print wax for lost wax casting at the time (not sure if that's still the case).
I printed a set of your Mule scales today. They feel great in hand. The holes for the hardware were a touch small so I opened them a little with a Dremel. I think I'd go up to 4.75 mm for the barrel and 5.35 - 5.40 mm for the screw head. Love the texture.
Looks good, I'm glad everything lined up. I'll get the holes adjusted and try to upload them to Thingiverse. That last picture is helpful because I don't have the Halpern scale and I can see the edges are way thinner than I thought they'd be.
I like the thickness of yours, they're really comfortable for my hand, but if you want them to fit the Boltaron sheath they need to be thinner or tapered toward the blade.
I took a few measurements and pics that might be useful.
Halperin Scale
6.65 mm Front (where it hits enters the sheath)
16.2 mm Overall - both scales + tang
JC Scale
6.85 mm Front
16.8 mm Overall
Sheath opening
15.5 mm
If you want any other measurements or pics let me know.
Josh has been crushing it with his CAD work! Now if I can just figure out a way to have him make a cage for the BB lock on the Dodo like he did for his Q-ball.
I like the thickness of yours, they're really comfortable for my hand, but if you want them to fit the Boltaron sheath they need to be thinner or tapered toward the blade.
I took a few measurements and pics that might be useful.
Halperin Scale
6.65 mm Front (where it hits enters the sheath)
16.2 mm Overall - both scales + tang
JC Scale
6.85 mm Front
16.8 mm Overall
Sheath opening
15.5 mm
If you want any other measurements or pics let me know.
I'm surprised I got that close as I've only seen Halpern scales in pictures.
Josh has been crushing it with his CAD work! Now if I can just figure out a way to have him make a cage for the BB lock on the Dodo like he did for his Q-ball.
I probably wouldn't have done it if it wasn't for Gtscotty making his because that let me know it was possible in Fusion. That's funny you mention the Dodo as I actually modeled one in Fusion months ago when JD Spydo started asking for one with a longer blade. My model isn't to scale though so it would need redone. I only have a picture of a Dodo disassembled but if the picture is taken too close it will skew the object and I'm not sure how accurate that pic is. I think that's why my very first mule scales didn't turn out quite right. I use a flatbed scanner now because they're more accurate. This is a picture from Fusion that I posted in JD's thread.
From that picture it looks like the blade tang sits in a slightly different position when closed and it might not work with the Q-ball cage. I also forgot about the Q-ball having liners so that might change thing's as well. I really just need the size of the ball, how thick the lock housing/back-spacer is and the dimensions of scale cutout for the ball.
This is the newest version. It has a few changes mainly .2mm shaved off the back and a smaller radius was used to form the face. It also has the revised hole dimensions so hopefully it works right out of the printer with the Halpern hardware. I'm about 90% sure this will work with the Boltaron sheath now. I haven't updated the other scales yet and I tried to upload to Thingiverse but it's not so straight forward. I don't have any experience with the license they let you chose from, when I built custom Android Roms a few years back I remember having to deal with the GNU GPL(General Public License). Pretty much every piece of open source software uses a version of the GPL.
If anyone has uploaded there what license should I use? I want to share these I like helping other's without experience in 3d modeling. I'm pretty much self taught just opened Fusion 360 and started making stuff. When I run into problem's usually Google or Youtube has the answers. For now I will keep using Google Drive, I like to think of them as forum scales because all the inspiration came from here in threads like this one. I'm sure I'll inspire someone else just like Xplorer and Gtscotty did so for me. Anyways I uploaded the newest one with the hidden lanyard but I'm not sure how that overhang will print with a FDM printer.
In the top picture a black line shows how the radius changed and the .2mm off the back. The middle is what it looks like now and bottom shows some of the chamfering around the screw holes.
Attachments
Last edited by Josh Crutchley on Sat Jul 17, 2021 4:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Spyderco: Tenacious G10, Waterway, Para 3 Spy27, Pacific Salt H1, Catcherman, In the Mule Team Stable(Z-Max, Z-Wear, S45VN, Magnacut, SRS13/SUS405, M398, Aeb-l, 15v)
Thanks! Show's you how much I love Spyderco!! Out of all the modeling I've done so far 9 out of 10 times it's something for a Spyderco.
I used to have my disabled older brother do models for me but he started getting into his work so much he had no time for my crap. That's when I downloaded Fusion and started clicking buttons and the first thing I made was a two piece divider for a small box. Just a simple extrusion but that had me hooked being able to create practically anything you could imagine, in plastic and possibly very small :D but hey you can print just about anything.
From that picture it looks like the blade tang sits in a slightly different position when closed and it might not work with the Q-ball cage. I also forgot about the Q-ball having liners so that might change thing's as well. I really just need the size of the ball, how thick the lock housing/back-spacer is and the dimensions of scale cutout for the ball.
I tried out both cages you sent me. I couldn't get the lock to release with either one and the resin isn't strong enough so I ended up breaking both trying to force them to work. I asked Formlabs to send me some samples of their "Tough and Durable" resins to see what they feel like. On the plus side the lock feels easier to use now after all the messing around with it. :)
The new Mule scales look good, even though I like the beefy feel of the first set I'll probably print out a set of the new ones just out of curiosity. I really need to get back to learning Fusion so I don't have to ask you and my wife to keep making me stuff.
From that picture it looks like the blade tang sits in a slightly different position when closed and it might not work with the Q-ball cage. I also forgot about the Q-ball having liners so that might change thing's as well. I really just need the size of the ball, how thick the lock housing/back-spacer is and the dimensions of scale cutout for the ball.
I tried out both cages you sent me. I couldn't get the lock to release with either one and the resin isn't strong enough so I ended up breaking both trying to force them to work. I asked Formlabs to send me some samples of their "Tough and Durable" resins to see what they feel like. On the plus side the lock feels easier to use now after all the messing around with it. :)
The new Mule scales look good, even though I like the beefy feel of the first set I'll probably print out a set of the new ones just out of curiosity. I really need to get back to learning Fusion so I don't have to ask you and my wife to keep making me stuff.
It was worth a shot but after I saw your Dodo I knew it wasn't going to work. When everything fits right the weaker resin doesn't hurt it too much.
When everything fits right the weaker resin doesn't hurt it too much.
That makes sense, the spring and the ball bearing are doing the heavy lifting.
I didn't have a chance to print your revised Mule scales yet, and honestly I'm just going to do it so other members will know if they work with with the Boltaron sheath because I like the way the first set fit my hand better than the Halperin scales. I also prefer the circle texture, it's grippy without being overly aggressive. Not having tried the new design, for people that have medium-large to xl hands and use the leather or no sheath I think they may prefer the thicker ones.
Thank you! I'm working on updating the designs from the first page of this thread. I just got done with this one and uploaded it here https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4910380 .
how about a grid of spyderco logo spiders for texture?
I wish I could but the bug logo is trademarked and without Spydero's permission I can't do it.
Fireman wrote:
Can you print color and then clear over? Add your name or a logo and then clear for the rest? That would be pretty cool to have monogrammed scales.
You could with a dual extruder on a FDM printer. The only problem is clear doesn't work well with FDM and is only translucent at best. The color would have to come close to the surface. There's also lots of other 3d printing technologies I don't know about that might work.