DOTA2 Dog Tag

I know a lot of people like to play video games ( I am not one of these people). I like to build things. So I thought that it would be fun to find a video game that has a logo that would look good as a 3D print. I looked around for a video game and found DOTA2. Then I found a logo for the game that was on a dog tag. I thought that it would be fun to build this from a file. So I drew it up and rendered it. The tag is 1 and 1/2 inches wide. I made the hole in it a bit over 1/8th of an inch so that you could pass a chain through it. Lets get to the tools needed and how it goes together.

You are going to need the following.

Drawing program

Picture of what you want to copy.

Imagination.

The .stl file for the 3D printer you can find this above.

Black plastic (either PLA or ABS).

Painters tape

White paint

Red paint

Step 1: Drawing the File.

For this you can use many different types of programs. They are all getting better and some of the best are AutoCad, SolidWorks and AutoDesk. You can find out about all of these on the web by looking for them. The Autodesk inventor is a free program and is very good. What I will say about these is that they are all getting very good and also closer to an excellent user feel. Look here ( www.vertanux1.com ) for a good explanation on each of the different softwares that can be used. Christopher F. Sikora does a great job showing how to use these software.

You are going to want a picture of what you want to draw that is as close to the front plane as possible. The one I have here is a bit off but close enough to make what I needed to copy from. Bring this into the plane that you want to and then adjust this to the size that you want it to be. I choose 1.5" from side to side. This makes the side around 3" in length.

You are going to want to sketch a box around the part. I used the line tools and the radius tools to get my box around the part. When you get the box all enclosed in the part will shade in. You can then extrude it so that it is 1/4" thick. Of course if you have a different design you will want to adjust this to your preferences. After you have extruded this it will change colors and you won't be able to see the picture any more. What I did and you can to is to change the display style to wireframe. You will be able to see through your part and match what is in the picture.

Step 2: Adding Details.

I want to talk a bit about saving a file in .stl format. On most drawing programs you will be asked what you would like to have the chord height set at. I have found that if you set it to the smallest that the program will adjust itself to whatever can be the smallest. So when you save your file save it as an .stl file ( you will find this option at the save file part of the program).

On printing your file you can change the size of the file to reflect the size that you want it to be. This is shown as a dog tag. You can also make other things with this idea I will explain them later.

Now take your tape a tape off the edges of the dog tag. You don't have to be too careful here just make sure that the paint will not get into the chamfers as it will take time to get it off. After the tape has been put onto the dog tag paint the letters and logo white. The logo will also have to be painted white as the red will not show up on a black background very well. After you let it dry you can paint it again. With enough paint you will have a nice white on the part.

Put tap over the "DOTA2" letters and paint the red on the logo. You may have to give it a couple of coats as well. After all of the paint is dry you can remove the tape and clean it up.

To clean it up get some wet/dry paper and a flat surface. Sand down until the black is showing again.

Congratulations you now have your own dog tag.

You can also build other things such as the SkyRim wrist bracelet as shown in the picture above. This only took some additional leather work and you can find out how to do leather work on other instructables.

I hope that this helps everyone out so that they can start printing their own parts.

Good Luck!