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I work for a casino products/furniture manufacturer, and would like to better understand the capabilities and limits of 3D printing. I would like to have a scaled down version of a blackjack table printed to show design choice details, such as laminate and armrest color etc… Is the current state of 3D printing technology up to the task?

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Hi !

what scale do you mean by “scaled down”.

It would be no problem to print a blackjack table, I do not only offer normal colored filaments but also filaments that are blended with wood / bamboo fibres which can be stained with laquer to give a wood optic to the table.

Not only those, but maybe also metal blends would be a concideration, take a look at colorfabb.com for the complete material portfolio, that i have access to. If you don’t find a color that I have in stock on my hub I can order any material and color from colorfabb, that you want for the table and other furniture.

Polishing the metal and reworking the wood blends would be possible as an extra service.

A size of 10 to 40cm would be appropriate to show enough detail.

I’m not only experienced in 3d printing, but also in CAD programms so that I could design any table that you want. Beside that I’m building small scale models and replicas as a hobby so I think, that building such a table would be no problem (special wishes like using real cloth for the table would also be realisable)

Contact me via my hub:

https://www.3dhubs.com/siegen/hubs/marius/

If you want to take this further please note, that I can not print for the next two weeks, due to exams. I can still do some CAD prototyping in this time period and would start printing directly after the exams. I don’t like discussing customer projects in public chats when the discussion goes in so much detail, that I’d have to tell you a price estimation etc. for those informations you can select “contact his hub” on the link above to get into a private talk with me.

If you are just looking for general information and material guides (what plastic to use etc.) I can help you out too (and for free of course).

Hope to welcome you on my hub soon,

Marius

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As a person that’s worked a little bit with the casino industry, I think I know where you’re headed with this thought. For a miniature like you’re describing, it’s really more like a “sculpture” than it is a functional “part”. I’m taking a guess here that you’re essentially looking a scaled-down version of a product that can be used during sales calls.

This being the case, the type of material that you’re looking to be printed is sandstone. It’s not literal sandstone, but rather a gypsum powder that has ink laid down on it before being bonded together with an adhesive–this process repeats itself over very thin layers. Here are some examples of pieces that can be created with this method.

As much as I hate to reference them on this forum, ShapeWays has an excellent writeup on the design guidelines that should be considered when creating a sandstone model. Stay away from anyone offering to print a table game with plastic. No one can replicate a table felt with plastic. Even when sandstone printing, you’re only going to be able to achieve a color resolution of around ~50 dpi, but I imagine that would be more than adequate for your needs. Good luck!

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Hi Andrew,

I’m assuming, that you refer to my comment, by saying “Stay away from anyone offering to print a table game with plastic. No one can replicate a table felt with plastic.”

I’m not really offended by that, but I rather want to explain you what i mean by that.

I just said, that I can print in normal colored plastics, wood, bamboo, bronze, copper, brass and carbon fibres (last of which is most likely useless for this). As I said, that I could put fabric (“table felt”) on the printed object. This doesn’t mean, that my printer is capable of printing with fabric, but -because I’m a hobby craftsman- I can glue such table fabric on the printed table, to archive this next level of realism.

The advantage of FDM printers is clearly, that you can’t only choose colors (much more limited compared to sandstone, but there are still around 30 colors to choose from), but also you can modify the texture of the print by picking other material blends.

Obviously Shapeways and the sandstone method are using industrial standard printers and offer a much better quality regarding the possible details. FDM prints are alot cheaper and have still a showcase-quality depending on the Hub that you pick, at layerheights of 0,02-0,05mm you can’t feel the layers and will most likely not see them.

I have no problem with you posting alternative suggestions, but please avoid such aggressive text’s like the one i quoted above. This is just my personal oppinion, but i think that this forum should keep a friendly mentality, there’s no problem in having a discussion.

-Marius

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Thank you both for your timely responses. I am simply at this stage trying to determine if 3D technology is up to the task of creating a scaled down verison of my furniture. I don’t expect to have layout materials, chip trays or miniature brackets printed at with the first production model. I would simply like to have a scaled down version created achieving the best possible quality while balancing the economics of its creation. Andrew, you are on the right track when you say that this will be used on sales calls. I would also like to be able to print many different table designs and podiums for a display cases at gaming shows such as G2E and NIGA. Unfortunately, I have very limited floor space at these shows and am limited to showing 4-5 full size table designs. I would like to find a hub locally in the Las Vegas market that can work with me on a prototype at first. I have no problem hiring an artist to paint layouts, armrests and laminates onto the finished model (if that is an option).

-Clay

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Could you upload a picture of furniture so that I could see, what level of detail you’d like to have (how complex the final parts would be). Also please post a price estimation per table as well as the size / scale factor that the model should have.

I already told you, that I’m not living in/near Las Vegas, I’m not even in the USA, however i would like to have a talk with you about this project as I’m very interested in realizing it. As a hobby craftsman I love building small scale objects, with much attention towards realism and detail.

Please respond to the enquiry that you started on my Hub.

-Marius

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Hi Marius,

I appreciate your zeal, but I do not wish to work this project via long distance. I prefer to have a printer locally so that I can manage this project and see the development in person (never mind the customs and freight charges that would add to the overall cost). I currently am working other projects with France, Japan and Macau and the logistics of time zones, conference calls and QA create too many productivity challenges.

Much appreciated,

-Clay_D

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Ok then, I mentioned, that shipment cost would be free, but of course the time delay is nothing, that I could fix. If there’s no closely setteled hub with the right materials / services / pricing feel free to contact me again. Should I close the enquiry or would you like to leave it open for further discussion ?

-Marius

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Hello

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Hello,

What’s the status of this request? I’m a vegas local and can work with you on this if you haven’t found someone yet. I just finished a print for a company at the NH convention going on right now and have no problem working on prototypes. Let me know. Thanks