Project 2: Isaac Oldham - Flashlight Sleeve

 Concept and Inspiration

   For my flashlight project, my top priority was to make something that would make for a good display peace; something pretty! Luckily, I had a light saber model I made in my free time over the break that I could use for it. I had just recently played Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order; a game that allows you to create your own lightsaber hilt from a number of parts and materials. Using the in-game assets, I threw together a design I liked. Using that as a base I then I modeled it in Maya and textured it using Substance Painter. I wanted to print it out and make that into replica with a paintjob and weathering to boot. But with me still being somewhat new to 3D resin printing I had a lot of troubles getting these large parts printing on such a small printer. After I completed an around 30 hour print with lack luster results, I shelved the project for the time being.

Production Process

So since I already had a model on hand, I wanted to do a little extra in the design department. Instead of a sleeve that the flash light slides into, I decided to make a locking and button mechanism. I made sure that that worked before I started frankenstien-ing my old 3D model. 

My first prototype I completed in Maya. I created a basic sleeve with a few notches around the sides. Then I made a cap, that fits into said notches nice and snug, so that there was enough friction to keep everything in place. Lastly, I created a button that slides into the cap that the user pushes down on and in turn pushes the on/off button located on the back of the flash light. I set all this up on my 3D printer but unfortunately it failed on  the first go but got far enough through the print where I could still test the button mechanics and make sure my measurements were good.

For the next test I, strayed away from the button idea, and decided to focus more on the locking mechanism. This would later come to bite me in the butt later. I would have to keep the flashlight itself in the back of the sleeve so that I could still have access to the button. This introduced a really big weight distribution problem, and made the front end of the sleeve very flimsy. That was the least of my problems however... 

Here's a visual description of my my process...

A: My first print was one I did of the unedited Maya model I made a few months prior. I also had it made on my resin printer instead of my filament one so I could get it as detailed as possible. The resin printer I own is made for much smaller objects, so I had to cut the model into 4 separate models. The prints turned out very distorted, due to the fact that I had to print them at a 45 degree angles. A lot of the repeating straight edges morphed a lot, and the 45 degree angle created a slight curve to the model when I glued everything together. 

B: Print B was the my first attempt at hollowing out the model for the flashlight. I got the measurements perfectly, however the 5 locking mechanisms immediately broke off as I tried to remove it from the print bed.  The rods at the top of the middle part were also extremely flimsy and would do very little in terms of reinforcing the connection between the middle and top. 

C: For print C, I got rid of 2 of the locking mechanisms, allowing for a more sturdy print.  Unfortunately, some of the mechanisms still broke off along with all 4 of the teeth at the top of the middle section.

D: Print D utilizes only 2 locking mechanisms, and 2 teeth. This was my sturdiest and most successful print yet, but there was not nearly enough friction to keep the sleeve together with the added weight of the flashlight. 

E: E was a total fluke... I accidently made the chamber that holds the flashlight skinnier at the bottom than it was at the top, making the flashlight unable to fit into it anymore. However I did discover that the slight difference in width of the chamber created an extremely snug fit for the flashlight. I wanted to utilize this for my final print. 

F: For the final print, I started over with my base model, and cut it into 2 pieces instead of 3. The flashlight now sits in the middle of the handle so I needed to re-integrate my button idea back into the design. I also made some modifications with the locking mechanisms making them much deeper. The teeth that hold the parts in place now taper down instead of up allowing them to "hook" into the other part. Finally I made it so that the base of the chamber that houses the flashlight was slightly skinnier so that it would have a tight fit and wouldn't move around once inside the sleeve.

When put together it was overall much sturdier but still not as sturdy as I liked. Luckily the layers of paint I added did just the trick and now the whole thing sticks together perfectly! 

Materials 

As for materials, I used 2 basic metal shaders that comes with Rhino and adjusted the roughness and colors.