Strap 3D printing

[jdm]

I thought of making a silicone strap for my wife sister fashion watch, which is special having 28mm lugs and being super short for a butterfly clasp and ladie's wrist. The maker is one of these Italians brands, leaving aside the look there is nothing to argue with the full SS case and Swiss-Asian chrono module, but they used the crappies ever plastic which fell to bits being left alone in the box few years.

The project is a made a bit easier because the two parts of the strap can be made identical.

I have seen that printing flexible materials is totally with a good choice of filaments

But I'm not sure that will work good for this need:

• I understad is not not be possible to have any groove on the inner side which would have to be completely flat and with sharp edges to edges.
• I don't think the springbar holes can be had directly, and precisely drilling soft materials can surprisingly difficult
• I am not sure about the finishing from a consumer level printer would be adequate
• A specialized printer is recommended, although from the video decent results can be had with a standard one.

So i thought of printing moulds, and there is at least one company which makes a two component silicone exactly for that.

  Still:

• I don't know if printer and filaments good for moulds are special
• Same worry as in direct printing about the finishing
• Should be able to easily get the holes fitting a pin in place before joining the two moulds, which could also be identical.

Now, leaving aside that the cost of making this can easily be 10 times the price of a new watch, and the project level is probably too high for a total beginner, I am intrigued by the possibility of doing something at home that otherwise is not available at all, and wanted to hear some opinions here.

[JohnR725]

you might want to look at SLA printers. The number of resins has expanded quite a bit. plus the cost the predators has dropped considerably. I just did a quick search for flexible resins and the two links came up below.

then the second site that's a pain  to navigate somewhere in there I seen a reference to mold making. Although it was for injection molding harder plastics but it's still work for other stuff.

 

https://www.matterhackers.com/store/c/flexible-3d-printer-resins

https://dental.formlabs.com/store/flexible-resin/

 

[eccentric59]

Flexible materials are trickier to print -- or at least print decently -- than regular plastics in an FDM style printer. Resin printers might give you a better result, but you also have to factor in the chemicals for those printers.

 

I've printed a few things in flexible plastic and they look okay for utilitarian items, but for a watch strap? I don't know if it would be "good enough" to wear.