[Christian Lölkes] needed a unique gift for their CEO’s 70th birthday — We mean really, what do you get someone who probably has everything? Well… you 3D scan him and make candles in his likeness of course!
Since they have both a 3D scanner and 3D printer at work, this was the obvious choice. Instead of printing the mold out, they opted to print a high resolution figurine of their CEO, and then make a reusable silicone mold instead. When you’re designing a figurine for candle casting, it’s important to make a nice wide base, as this will make pouring the hot wax into the mold much easier.
There are lots of different ways to make molds, but to make theirs they decided to use a toilet paper roll for convenience. After taping up the mold with the figurine inside, it’s time to fill it with silicone. Unfortunately bubbles form in silicone so you need a way to force the bubbles to rise to the top and pop — vibrating the mold is a good solution, and setting it on top of a washing machine is an easy way to accomplish it.
Once the silicone is cast, you have to cut the mold in half carefully as to not damage your figurine. Then it’s just a matter of zip-tying the mold back together, inserting a wick and pouring wax in! Cool.
But didn’t he get suspicious when you scanned him?
We had many reasons to scan him, the tricky part was finding some time in his full schedule.
Interesting that they didn’t choose to print in wax. I guess it might be hard to fit the wick into the wax after it’s already printed.
It wouldn’t make any sense to 3d-print in wax, if you need the same print again and again.
I thought about it. This may be an easier solution if you only want one or two candles… and you need a special extruder. The molding option was the fastet i think.
Perhaps wax wouldn’t set hard enough, quick enough, to be any use. And of course this way they have a mould to make plenty of candles with.
Why wouldnt you? Well have you ever heard of burning a effigy?
Those are the prototypes for the full 6′ tall one.
nice, burn your boss!
With Rage Against The Machine singing “burn, burn, yes you’re gonna burn!” in the background…
“Burn! Baby Burn! Disco Inferno!” from a different era.
That’s just voodoo. Did he feel like his head was on fire when they lit the candles? (c:
That’s an awesome birthday present!
This is creepy as hell !
should have added a second wick on the bottom… XD
in case you didnt get the reference, it’s
…”burn the candle at both ends.”…
which means work extra late to get something done.
That’s more “burning the midnight oil”. Burning the candle at both ends is more than that, and involves so much energy I can barely bring myself to think about it, never mind type. I’d just as soon keep the candle in a cupboard, and have the robots dust it now and then.
Burning like Warsaw in 1944.
It is easy to bypass the use of silicone with a reusable molding material. I recently posted two videos for DIY mold making on my site. I also used the molding material to make a candle as well shown after the videos. Unfortunately, no scanning or 3D printing. Just easy molding. Instructions are the third post down from the top.
http://www.observationsblog.com/sciencetechnologyexperiments.html
If this isn’t a business in the making, I don’t know what is.
I think the problem is getting a good scan without specialized equipment. Solve that and you’ve got a great ‘candles in the mail’ business.
I hear Nero used to use Christians as candles in his garden. Ah the good old days.
“Who Wouldn’t Want 3D Printed Candles of Yourself on Your 70th Birthday?” Mmm I don’t imagine many people would want 3D printed candles of me. Perhaps you meant “Who Wouldn’t Want 3D Printed Candles of Themselves on Their 70th Birthday?”