# Tofty's 3D Printed Silver Torches (pic heavy)



## Tofty (Oct 28, 2012)

It's not been the easiest build ever but here it is, my fully working 3D printed silver torch:













The tritium vials are 6x2mm.












The lights specifications are:
an XM-L U2 mounted on a 16mm copper board,
shining through a Carclo 10003 20mm TIR lens,
driven by an uprated 3.04A 8xACM7135 multi-mode driver set to low/medium/high with memory,
powred by an AW IMR 16340 high discharge cell,
controlled by a tail mounted mcclicky switch and extra sprung silver switch cover.







I probably won't make nine hundred and ninety nine of them though.







Threads turned out very well, they are the same 20tpi pitch on the surefire P/C/Z series, about 1.3mm pitch.







A comparison between this and my brass torch with pretty much the same internals.
The only difference is that the brass torch has a T5 tint XM-L rather than the U2 and is not mounted on a copper board, also the silver torches' LED board is screwed into place with thermal paste as the interface while the brass torch has it's LED board glued in place.







I'm really happy with the way this light has turned out and may well be the only completely 3D printed metal torch host ever made....so far.
The head get quite hot, very fast but stabilizes at a temperature thats not too hot to hold
I suppose this is proof of the very efficient thermal path, in fact i can't think of much that could improve it apart from a silver LED board.

Next step is to send it off to get hallmarked as it would be illegal in the UK to sell this toch as silver without such certification, not that i plan to ever sell it.


I've also been designing a small AAA silver host:
















Any comments welcome, thanks for looking.


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## samuraishot (Oct 28, 2012)

Nice Tofty! I like the organic and not so industrial look to it!

Also, the AAA you've got in the works would look cool if the spiral continued all the way through from tail to head, unless you had the smooth part also on the tail end so that it would match  In any case, it looks great!


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## the_guy_with_no_name (Oct 28, 2012)

Hi Tofty,

Yet again, outstanding work and creativity :twothumbs
Love the way you have Tofty embedded into the design.
Very well done!

tgwnn


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## Tofty (Oct 29, 2012)

samuraishot said:


> Nice Tofty! I like the organic and not so industrial look to it!
> 
> Also, the AAA you've got in the works would look cool if the spiral continued all the way through from tail to head, unless you had the smooth part also on the tail end so that it would match  In any case, it looks great!



Thanks, i wanted to use 3D printing to create something i couldn't make any other way so an organic, irregular and overly curved shape was the obvious choice.
I like just how very different the two torches, in the last photo, are from each other while also being so similar on the inside.

The issue with the silver AAA torcgh is the need to maintain the minimum thickness of the material, which for silver is 0.8mm. The only way to allow the spiral pattern to continue along the full length of the torch is to increase the overall diameter.
Initially this is what i planned to do but after some renders i decided that it looked abit wrong.






It just looked too bulky for a AAA light in my opinion.




the_guy_with_no_name said:


> Hi Tofty,
> 
> Yet again, outstanding work and creativity :twothumbs
> Love the way you have Tofty embedded into the design.
> ...



Thanks Guy, I'm even more pleased with having proved the concept than with the torch itself.
The printers themselves told me that the threads would not be of useable quality but the body to tail thread needed nothing doing to it at all and is not gritty at all.

The Tofty logo is i admit a bit of a self indulgence but it's something that can be done so easily in 3D printing that there's no reason not to.
I really like the contract in the text between the polished outer surface and the rough cast inner surface as it''s something i hadn't thought about.


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## theslippyslug (Oct 31, 2012)

That is amazing.


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## KuanR (Nov 1, 2012)

Print a flashlight made from silver? I can't even wrap my head around that concept, let alone actually seeing it.

Nice job!


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## Gunner12 (Nov 1, 2012)

Really cool light. 3D printing definitely seems like the next wave of manufacturing.

Is that really silver? That's one pricey light then.

How strong are those 3D printed metal parts?


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## AnAppleSnail (Nov 1, 2012)

Laser-sintered 3-d printing? And it makes usable (20 TPI!!?) threads? Wow.


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## Tofty (Nov 4, 2012)

ukmidnite said:


> That is amazing.



Thanks alot, still a long way to go but it's a start at least.




KuanR said:


> Print a flashlight made from silver? I can't even wrap my head around that concept, let alone actually seeing it.
> 
> Nice job!





Gunner12 said:


> Really cool light. 3D printing definitely seems like the next wave of manufacturing.
> 
> Is that really silver? That's one pricey light then.
> 
> How strong are those 3D printed metal parts?





AnAppleSnail said:


> Laser-sintered 3-d printing? And it makes usable (20 TPI!!?) threads? Wow.



Thanks guys,

I feel i need to give a much clearer explanation as to the process as it's not quite as some of you suspect.

The silver itself is cast using the lost-wax process, it's the wax model that is 3D printed.
After printing, the wax model is dipped in a plaster solution which hardens to form the casting mold.
The mold is then heated and the wax is poured out, molten silver is then poured into the mold and after cooling the plaster is broken off the finished casting.

The strength of the parts is therefore not a printing issue but the silver feels strong enough, similar to aluminium.
In fact apart from the dents and stratches that would show up instantly i suspect this light would be quite useable, although it's not waterproofed at all so perhaps not.

The metal is actually sterling silver with a composition of 92.5% silver and the rest being copper.
This alloy is used to add strength and hardness to otherwise very soft and pretty much unuseable pure silver.

The silver parts were made as a single sprued part to reduce the costs a bit but they still cost over $400.

I've printed finer threads than 20tpi in plastic and i suspect the cast silver can take finer detail aslo.


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## Tixx (Nov 4, 2012)

Wow​! Sweet!


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## Gunner12 (Nov 5, 2012)

Ah, I see. I thought you use the metal 3D printing with powder and a laser to melt the metal, or a glue to bind the metal before baking. Sliver = very good thermals (assuming the connection from LED die to MCPCB is good).


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## Tofty (Nov 7, 2012)

Tixx said:


> Wow​! Sweet!



Thanks Tixx, glad you like it.




Gunner12 said:


> Ah, I see. I thought you use the metal 3D printing with powder and a laser to melt the metal, or a glue to bind the metal before baking. Sliver = very good thermals (assuming the connection from LED die to MCPCB is good).



For some metals casting probably gives a stronger part and a better finish. I've had stainless steel parts printed that are glued then baked and work well enough.

I can only hope that the LED/MCPCB connection is good, if i was going to make a special copper board i'd make pretty sure i gave it a good thermal path.
The torch head gets hot very quickly and stabilises at a temperature just below 'to hot to hold' which i suppose shows that it's moving the heat efficiently.


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## saabluster (Nov 8, 2012)

One of the coolest things I have seen here in a while. I feel like I am getting a peek into the future. Very nice Tofty!


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## Tofty (Nov 11, 2012)

Thanks saabluster, hopefully we'll soon be seeing 3D printing replacing more traditional manufacturing, for small quantity production runs, which should help reduce costs and incease creativity.


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## Zandar (Nov 11, 2012)

I'm thinking it's much to cold in England for this light, this time of year ,with it's battery exposed to the elements. Perhaps it should spend winter here with me in sunny Florida! No, really just a great proof of concept light.Very, very clever and beautiful as well.


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## Walterk (Nov 28, 2012)

I respect your skills, it must have been quite some experimenting to find the threaded parts working?
It came out great, especially that it enabled you to step away from the boring old-fashioned lathed and milled tube designs.
Congratulations with these two breakthroughs with this light!


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## Tofty (Dec 30, 2012)

Zandar said:


> I'm thinking it's much to cold in England for this light, this time of year ,with it's battery exposed to the elements. Perhaps it should spend winter here with me in sunny Florida! No, really just a great proof of concept light.Very, very clever and beautiful as well.



Don't be silly, i'd never dare take it outdoors. It's wrapped up warm in it's little plush knife pouch. Thanks for the complements.




Walterk said:


> I respect your skills, it must have been quite some experimenting to find the threaded parts working?
> It came out great, especially that it enabled you to step away from the boring old-fashioned lathed and milled tube designs.
> Congratulations with these two breakthroughs with this light!



Cheers, threads weren't too hard to get right, some of them came out a bit loose but that was as planned as being overly tight would have been much worse.
I've got a plan for another body profile similar to the one on my tritium holder







The silver AAA Torch parts just arrived so here is the finished light:




































I've decided that this light needs a more impressive output so i plan to make a direct drive xp-g drop-in to be powered by a 10440 lithium-ion cell and using a aspheric lens.
There quite alot of room in the head so a large copper puck can be used to help the led run as cool as possible.


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## erehwyrevekool (Jan 3, 2013)

Beautiful! Congratulations *Tofty*, very nice flashlights and the tritium holder! :thumbsup:


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## Tixx (Mar 8, 2013)

I think I just bought some whistles from you!?!?


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## Tofty (Mar 12, 2013)

Glad you like them erehwyrevekool, more to come too hopefully.


Thanks Tixx, i haven't yet ordered the whistle in plastic so i'd really appreciate some feedback as to how they sound in the different materials.
Some of the objects i've ordered in plastic have had a build-up of powder in blind holes.
The whistles may well have this problem so a tooth pick will be needed to try and break up any clumps at the bottom of the sound chamber.


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## borrower (Mar 12, 2013)

Impressive! I particularly like the organic feel of your work. Thanks for sharing.


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## Tixx (Mar 15, 2013)

Tofty said:


> Glad you like them erehwyrevekool, more to come too hopefully.
> 
> 
> Thanks Tixx, i haven't yet ordered the whistle in plastic so i'd really appreciate some feedback as to how they sound in the different materials.
> ...



I will give them a go once here! What is Premium Silver over Polished Silver? Hard to find what all these materials and types are exactly on the site.


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## Tofty (Mar 30, 2013)

Thanks borrower.

Tixx the premium silver as far as i understand it is a much more professional polish, probably done by hand rather than the standard polish which is done in an agitated grit polisher.


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## MRsDNF (Jan 10, 2014)

I love your work tofty using different methods. It inspires to try different ways to build lights not that I'm in your league. Your tailcap is a work of art.


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