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Drop @Vergo, aka Ronan, at MildBunchBespoke a line: nice guy, very helpful.
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In case you haven't spoken to Ronan (who has awesome products by the way!) I'd be happy to offer some assistance.
There are flexible materials you can 3D print in, the most readily available tend to have a grainy finish to them due to the fact they are created from a sintered powder material so would be hard to add small details like engraving but you could definitely design in cutouts.
They are readily available in black or an off white colour, though I have seen the white dyed successfully with Dylon in a range of colours . They are not like rubber , i.e when deformed they will not spring back immediately to the original shape, but more like a silicone phone case, which is one of the main things I've seen them used for. I think they would be ok for snapping round a top tube but may be a case of trying it and seeing if it works
If anyone's interested would be happy to CAD one up for you and get a price
have a look at this link
apc
Scilly.Suffolk
zootsuit-
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Commercial 3d printing advice
Posted by
@BBBRPDL
I'm keen on the idea of designing a plastic top tube protector; something I can just snap on to my bike, with a few custom cutouts for general prettiness.
I appreciate this is more a question for a printers, but I cba trying to explain what a top tube protector is, or needs to do, eloquently enough to get the answers I need.
First off, do printers kick out the kind of plastic flexible enough to snap on to a tube tightly? Would I need to look for a specific material to do this?
Secondly, will it be hardy enough to take the odd impact from flailing bars?
Also, what kind of cost am I looking at for printing from a completed 3d file? It wouldn't need to be more than 3 or 4mm thick and about 80 x 80mm were it flat.
Would really appreciate some input, thanks.
I found this pic on the web (not my mucky mitts) which kinda is how the main thing would look, though with a narrower gap.
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