Brendan Power & Alternative Harmonicas Forum

Just some food for thought, but would it be possible to resin 3d print reedplates?

- Is the material food safe?
- does the material have desired mechanical properties?
- would the tolerances be accurate enough?
- would it bring any advantages whatsoever?

Cheers!

rafaelveggi wrote: ↑

Sat Nov 18, 2023 9:40 pm

Just some food for thought, but would it be possible to resin 3d print reedplates?

- Is the material food safe?
- does the material have desired mechanical properties?
- would the tolerances be accurate enough?
- would it bring any advantages whatsoever?

Cheers!

Just saw this.
My semi expert assessment:
- food safe: most propably
- mechanical properties: doubtful,
most propably too much warp when dimensioned properly,
how to fix the reeds by screws or rivets (drilling, breakaway)
- sufficient accuracy of tolerances: I guess, definitely not (gaps!)
- ???, may be easier and cheaper to produce at home, when you already have a printer on hand? but why?


dear greetings
triona

Just saw this thread... I don't do resin 3d printing, but I'll try to answer your questions:

- Is the material food safe?
From a quick search, apparently not. However this wouldn't be a problem if the reedplates were behind a mouthpiece, so your lips are not in direct contact with them.

- does the material have desired mechanical properties?
My intuition says it would not be as good as metal in the sense it would not have the same stiffness and mass to give the reeds a solid foundation on which to vibrate efficiently. I think there would be significant dampening - but that's just a hunch.

- would the tolerances be accurate enough?
Based on what I know, I don't think so. You need a really sharp edge to the reed slot with clean uniform slot walls. 3d printing of any kind doesn't give that level of precision. So i think the reeds would sound 'airy'.

- would it bring any advantages whatsoever?
Yes: you could design whatever type of reedplate you wanted for specific custom harmonica designs. But if they don't sound good, there's little point.

If you want custom reedplates cut, the best way for small bespoke runs is using Wire EDM. It gives extremely accurate vertical cuts. It's slow and expensive, but for special custom harps cost would not be a big consideration.

As far as it is concerning the technical questions, you confirmed my suspicions largely.

I just would be doubtful about that:

Brendan wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 27, 2024 10:20 pm

Is the material food safe?
From a quick search, apparently not.

Since recently whole recorders are entirely printed 3D with resin - including the mouthpiece, which is always tightly in the mouth while playing. Maybe there are more than one type of resin, and it depends on what type there is used. But the question actually is subordinate because the material apparently seems not suitable for reedplates anyway.


dear greetings
triona