Interesting to hear that !
Do you want me to bring up a little material comparision ?
Regarding possibilities there is nearly no limit in 3d printing, the only limitation (as allways) is the cost. Full color prints are made out of some “sugar-like” powder plastic that fuses with special ink, these parts get hardened in a glue-bath but are still fairly brittle and maybe (i don’t know exactly) dissolve in water or can rot over time, especially when the parts regulary come in contact with water (beer).
That’s the only full-color method of 3d printing that i know of, those part are also reasonable expensive with very high accuracy.
Other methods use metal powder (SLS), resins (SLA), plastic cords (FDM, most common on 3d Hubs).
I could also make a little prototype for you, just so that you can imagine how the 3d printed parts would look (notice that i use FDM printing, which is the most common but is restricted to -in my case- two colors, also FDM is not as accurate as for example full-color prints).
The advantages of SLS, SLA and the full-color method (i forgot the name) are precision and the materials, you can get 3d prints out of 100% metal with this method.
FDM is the cheapest and most common use, you are usually limited to a hand of thermoplastic materials (melting plastics),
however there are brands that currently sell metal blends with Bronze, Copper, Brass, Steel and Iron. Also there are blends with wood, bamboo and carbon fibres.
FDM is limited in the way, that some prints need support structures, which increases cost slighly. Also FDM prints are less precise (we are speaking about some 0,1mm, some materials contract alot while cooling so that the tolerances vary depending on material choise).
I don’t think, that it matters really much when the handle is a little thinner then the design. Depending on the resolution that you want it can be, that the different layers, that get printed are visible. For resolutions around 0,05mm the surface is really smooth (this also depends on the material choise).
I offer alot of materials and i could do a little print (free) for you so that you can get a feeling for what quality you can expect from FDM printers.
Contact me if you are interested via email or 3dHubs:
marius.breuer@cad-breuer.de
https://www.3dhubs.com/siegen/hubs/marius
-Marius
