3D printing services and materials

I've worked with Shapeways, Sculpteo and i.Materialize, and for their basic printing service, the quality is pretty uniform, but Shapeways has beaten the other two on price by a wide margin.
From an options standpoint, you don't need to look any further than sculpteo - their options far exceed the other two - I've tried to get a shop stood up on their platform to offer my products in their other materials and finishes, but it's lacking, and their support team frustrated me significantly with the speed of their responses and the attitude in their responses.
Delivery speed is another criteria - shapeways has never missed a promised date, and has often gotten tehir product to me quicker than promised. iMaterialize has been exactly on time each time, and Sculpteo was later than promised. Easy choice for me there.

From a prototyping standpoint, you'll be best served by owning your own FDM printer - you can fail fast and fix it until you get it right without incurring major costs and delays. Prototyping for me is done using PETG, which is a bit more forgiving than PLA, while still being rigid enough to hold body parts firmly. PETG can be sealed using a conformal coating if you truly want to eliminate the porosity, and I recommend this for any oriface-interfacing toy. ABS cane give you a production-like finish and sealed pores if you use a process called vapour-smoothing on it. The downside is that printing with ABS releases harmful particles into the environment the printer is in (your home!)

For production, Nylon is generally used and Nylon has zero body reactivity, however the SLS printing process does leave it semi-porous. Sculpteo's smoothing beautifier promises to seal those pores, and my own personal experience is that the finish is fantastic, and feels smoother than any other.

Regarding PA/Body piecing and 3D printing. I'm hesitant to suggest nylon for those pieces, however, each of the printers I suggested have processes for printing in metal, and even in stainless steel if you search around.

Hopefully that's a decent sized brain dump to get you going - if you have specific questions, follow up here as there may be other who are interested!

JosieLynn

 

If you feel up to putting it together yourself, I'd suggest you check out this one:

https://www.prusa3d.com/prusa-i3-kit/

 

It's hard to go wrong with the Prusia, but I didn't have that much budget when I started, so I bought a Tevo Tornado.

I like mine and think that the newer version of the Tornado is even better as it has the mainboard upgrade I'm planning to do, and still has the AC heatbed, runs on 24V, and has a large 320x320x400 print volume. I can't recall if the new ones come with a glass bed or not - glass has worked out really well for me. The Tornado is around $330 USD.

 

So far JosieLynn has recommended the SLS Nylon with smoothing beautifier from Sculpted. However, this only seems to be available in white and black (latter more expensive). May I ask which material you use for colourful versions?

I also read somewhere else that PA12-GB is a good material, but it's more expensive. I'm interested to hear more about people's experiences with different materials and printing services (e.g. sculpted or shapeways).

Does anyone know which exact material established firms like customchastity or evotion wearables use?

 

The colored cages are the Standard Nylon PA2200 that are tumbled to clean up the finish and shot with dye.

I haven't ordered anything with PA12-GB, but worked closely with another designer who does. The finish on it is reportedly fantastic, and the porosity is reduced. It is also only available in limited colors, and attempting to dye it yourself will leave you with blotchy results (that info comes from the technicians at sculpteo)

I've used sculpteo, shapeways and i.materialize, and found all of them to do a fine job printing the part. Sculpteo offers the most options, but you pay more, their shipping is slower, and their platform to allow other people to purchase your models is horrible - even working with the US support manager, I couldn't get it to work.
Shapeways is the cheapest, has the fastest shipping (from multiple locations around the world), and their customer service is actually pretty good. Their options are a bit more limited, and their store platform is fantastic.
i.Materialize is square in the middle of those two options. I've only used them twice, but was never unhappy, except about the price, which was higher than Shapeways by quite a bit for several models.

Other 3D printed devices are using Nylon PA2200 - Custom Chastity brags about it being "Surgical Nylon", of which they are the only reference to that term that I can find. Same stuff that all the printers are using. They just have it shipped to them for post finishing, coloring, packaging and re-shipping. It gives a nice presentation and allows for them to do rigorous quality control, but it adds a lot of extra time, cost, and labor.

Hope that helps!

 

That's incredibly helpful. I have been working on a design for myself and try to compare prices:

Sculpteo:
• SLS PA12 120m, smoothing beautifier, white: £77
• SLS PA12 120m, smoothing beautifier, black: £102
• SLS PA12 120m, dyed polished, colour: £83
• SLS PA12 60m, polished, white: £103
• SLS PA12 60m, dyed polished, colour: £125
• SLS Nylon 3200 Glass filled, polished, white: £77
• SLS Alumide, polished: £77
• MultijetFusion PA12, not polished: £47
• BinderJetting Stainless Steel 316, polished: £273


Shapeways:
• PA12 Glass Beads, dark grey: £107
(Didn't compare more materials from Shapeways yet because it seems you need to re-upload every time to change the material? Or maybe I didn't see the function yet.)

Of all these, it seems like the first choice would be the best compromise of material quality and price.

 

You don't need to re-upload to change materials, just click on the word "change" next to the material in the printing window and choose different options.

For a chastity device, IMHO, you would not be disappointed starting with Smoothing Beautifier. I'm working to figure out exactly what that process is so I can duplicate it at home

However, my new favorite is SLA plastic from Shapeways - I ordered a cage in clear resin, and it's smoother than anything else. I tumbled it, which changed the color a bit, but just made it even smoother. It's horribly, horribly expensive compared to the standard Nylon, but is non-porous, very smooth, and glides easily.

Would love to see what you've come up with when the time is right!