3D Printed Rings!

I decided to make 3D printed rings as a way to advance my skillset and knowledge for my jewelry business/hobby!

1. CAD software (I used Fusion 360 but Rhino ideally Rhino for jewelry design)
2. access to a 3D printer
3. PLA or wax filament (I used PLA but wax is preferred)

I am inspired by a lot of jewelry designers, but recently I have been liking a more playful style, so I wanted to create a line of rings with different motifs. Jenna Katz was a big inspiration for my designs for this project. Some of her designs are pictured above.

The most challenging part of the 3D CAD process was learning the beginning steps of making a ring. I first made made 2 circles (one bigger than the other) then symmetrically extruded to the width I wanted. I offset a plane and then created a sketch on the new plane. This would be my ring design. I then sliced the ring, made a rectangle in the middle of the ring, and used the loft function to connect the bottom and top planes. I then needed to make another circle and use the extrude "cut" function to get rid of the shape in the middle of the ring. These steps are pictured above.

After I got this process down, I was able to play around and experiment with different band widths, the height of the offset plane, and the width of the lofted rectangle to create slight iterations between my designs. Some others features that were helpful were the circular patterns and the control fit spline lines.

Luckily I didn't run into any major problems with 3D printing. I just had to make sure all of the bodies were combined so I could "save as mesh." I then exported as an STL file and successfully sent them to the queue for the Maker Space. The only slight problem I had was with the hot pink flower rings as I positioned them on the bed incorrectly. I laid them sideways as I thought this wouldn't require any supports, however, the one edge ended up being rigged. So, I learned to trust the "optimal bed rotation" button as that seemed to create the best results. To try to fix this, I used C150 sand paper to try to file down some of the PLA that was sharp and rigged. This helped a little bit but the side was still uneven. Lesson learned! Everything else

Overall, I am really happy with how my pieces turned out. I definitely understand why jewelers prefer to use 3D printed wax rather than PLA as you can see the lines of the PLA and wax would be easier to smooth down and melt in the process. I think my next challenge will be to make designs that can securely fit a gemstone in them.

Going into this class my goal was to get familiar with 3D CAD software as a way to slowly introduce myself to the world of jewelry design and lost wax casting (a process in which a lot of complex rings are made today) and I feel like I have fulfilled my goal. There is still so much to learn and so many more features to explore but I feel a lot more confident in my skills and my ability to work through trials and errors in softwares like Fusion 360. Excited for my future designs!