3D Printed Steel Name Keys

by fungus amungus

3.3K2810

Intro: 3D Printed Steel Name Keys

These are two name keys that I designed in Rhino and 3D printed in stainless steel through Ponoko. The names are of my first son and my wife. I wanted something custom that would last a while and the stainless steel was a perfect fit.

The design in Rhino was very straightforward. For the bodies of the keys I just used cylinders, tori, and a flattened sphere. For the names, I created the outlines in Illustrator and extruded them in Rhino. Put them all together, export an STL, upload it to Ponoko, and you're off to the races.

Well, a slow race, that is. It takes a bit of time for them to get printed, but it's worth it.

10 Comments

cnewb 11 years ago

Nicely done, without any profanity.

orion1977 11 years ago

For some reason I really like one of the keys... I wonder why...
;)

PKM 11 years ago

Wait, Ponoko will print on demand in metal?  Why did no-one tell me this?

OK, turns out it's got some caveats, but still... 3D print on demand metal stuff? Amazing :)

fungus amungus 11 years ago

Yeah, it's very nice in terms of a finished item as opposed to a prototype.

Also cool from Ponoko is the ability to print in glazed ceramic. Shapeways one-ups this by including those as well as printing in silver (lost wax technique)

poofrabbit 11 years ago

These are awesome! Are they the size of a key or larger? Either way, wonderful!! I really like Orion's, the atom shaped handle is awesome!

fungus amungus 11 years ago

They're much bigger. Each key is about 3.5" long. Right now Orion likes the other one better because he can put his fingers through it.

AngryRedhead 11 years ago

These would make wonderful duel purpose gift tags! I'm seeing a key ring in the future...

I particularly (no pun intended) like the one you made for Orion.

fungus amungus 11 years ago

Thanks! Yes, a key ring would be a functional use.

The first one I made was my wife's. I was trying to stay true to older style keys. When I got to Orion's I figured I'd try something different.

canucksgirl 11 years ago

Those are really nice! (Awesome name for a boy too). ;-)

fungus amungus 11 years ago

Thank you! And, yes, the name is fun. It's a big one to live up to and he's doing his best.