3D printing shell

[TheSuperShoe]

I just ordered a Lumia 820 on eBay for my fianc?e when she finishes with her contract next month. I wanted to get her the purple shell case and put the wireless charging components in based on this post here:
http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...i-wireless-charging-slim-mod-lumia-810-a.html

But I could not find anywhere that would ship the purple shell to the U.S. But, in my search, I stumbled upon this:
3D print a shell for your Nokia Phone - Nokia Developer Wiki

And my work has a 3D printer and they allows us to print personal things if we want. I wanted to record my progress here and allow anyone who is interested to follow. The phone is coming in next week and the case is printing now and will be done by the end of the day (it takes about 1 hour and 40 minutes). It's printing in white but I plan to buy some purple plastic dye to make it purple (if anyone has experience with this and wants to suggest a brand/type of dye, I'll happily listen). I'll keep this updated.

 

[jleebiker]

Interesting. Will be watching to see how it comes out.

 

[fdalbor]

Seems you would be better off buying the white wireless shell from Amazon and dying it. I got a red and a yellow one from them not too long ago.

 

[TheSuperShoe]

Seems you would be better off buying the white wireless shell from Amazon and dying it. I got a red and a yellow one from them not too long ago.

Maybe, but this way I can experiment with 3D printing and if it works right, I'll have a source of shells for when they stop selling. Also, they'll print them for free, so win-win. I find this way more interesting too.

 

[TheSuperShoe]

Printing finished! Here's a picture:


It still has the support material, the bath will happen on Monday to remove it.

 

[abhishyam2007]

Wow @TheSuperShoe, that's awesome! I wish I could get that here in India.

 

[TheSuperShoe]

I got the phone in yesterday and was busy setting it up/updating it (I don't think it had been updated since release). But the shell fits better than I expected. There is some gap at the top, but I think it's because 3D printing makes the surface a bit rough. Today, I'm hoping to try to put it in an acetone vapor bath described here:
RepRap: Blog: Vapor Treating ABS RP parts

I did break the shell a little by forcing the phone in while I was trying to fit the buttons. We had to wash them separate from the shell because the pieces were too small and would fall through the chemical bath basket, so I had to buy a stainless steal mesh to put in the bath. It's not too badly damaged and I'm thinking the acetone vapors will mostly hid the damage. If not, they said I can print another. I'll try to post more pictures later today.

 

[TheSuperShoe]

So I ran into some issues. I don't think I did the acetone vapor bath right. Here is the bath happening:

It's suspended from an aluminum wire I bought. But I think the bottom was hanging too low. It became all bubbly (see last pic).

Then I tried to dye it:

It didn't work too well either. Some of the dye stuck well, but overall, I was disappointed.

Here's the final result:

It got warped and the dye didn't work too well. My boss suggested I try dying it before the vapor bath next time. They're going to print a couple more for me.