3d Printed Violin Model  

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

More photos.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Even more photos.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Just a few more.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Details:

Printed on a Prusa i3 Mk3.
White PLA.
50 micron layer height for most parts.
Bazillion hours to print (don't ask).
Some sanding and filing on finished parts.
Strings are white thread (button thread).
Assembled with superglue.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Very impressive! The finish looks fantastic.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Fantastic effort.

Now, you will have to try it with wood fill 😉

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Great looking print. I second the wood look next.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Awesome looking work! Thx for sharing

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Excellent, well done!! 😎

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Okay, I'm rather embarrassed to post this. But being a Maker(tm) means you have to endure some pain and humiliation, right?! XD

This is how I feel people reacted to my 3d printed violin:

Me: Hey look! 3d printed violin!
Them: Cool!
Me: So it's just a model, not designed to be played.
Them: Yeah... So how does it sound??
Me: It's not designed to be played. It's just for show.
Them: Okay... Soooo.... How does it sound?!?!

XD

So here it is. A crappy video of me playing horribly on a 3d printed violin.

Please don't cringe too badly. XD I literally have not even touched a bow and violin in over ten years. And I haven't really played since high-school which was a billion years ago, in the Jurassic Era when dinosaurs roamed the earth.

(No really, a bazillion years ago: time line is: high-school, college, some grad school, switched fields, masters degree, more grad school, Ph.D., post-doc, consulting... , now.)

In my defense for horrible playing, I have also never ever played a 1/10 size violin with a 1/10 size bow. I'm used to a 4/4 sized violin. Posture and holding of the violin was almost impossible. No way for me to do vibrato. Maybe I should have made a shoulder rest too?

Notes on the violin itself:

The violin was hard to tune. Initially, I could not get enough friction from the pegs; they would keep slipping. Also the bridge would easily slip out. So I put some rosin on the pegs, and also the feet of the bridge. That seemed to work.

However, the violin is new, the strings are new, there is no sound post nor bass bar, and I could see the top of the violin was slightly compressed by the tension of the strings. So maybe it would not stay in tune? Probably slowly warping from string tension.

I did try to use ukelele strings, which have lower tension that violin strings. But that didn't work, because the "g-string" (lowest string) had to be too loose to be tuned to a g. I mean, it played the note g, but it was not loud enough. And the "e-string" (highest string) didn't work at all. As I tightened the peg, the e-string did not increase in pitch beyond a certain point.

If you are an engineer, then you realize this is a scary point: If you twist a bolt, but the bolt tension does not increase, it means the bolt is stretching (ie: yielding). If you've stressed a bolt past its yield strength, and in fact, beyond its ultimate tensile strength, that means the bolt is failing. So oops, let's not do that. Oh well, the ukelele strings were neat, because they're white like the violin. Too bad.

So I used real violin strings for a 1/10 size violin. The G-string buzzes, because the bridge is slightly low, and the G-string digs into the bridge, making it even lower. So it buzzes against the fingerboard.

I did not show it, but the tail-piece is reinforced with steel wire (19 gauge solid hanging wire) that has been roughed-up with sandpaper and then super-glued along its entire length to the tailpiece. The steel wire actually continues as the tail-cord that hooks onto the "button" thing at the end of the violin. In retrospect, not 100% sure this was necessary, but better safe than sorry. If the tailpiece broke, the strings would act as a slingshot and whip around. That's just too dangerous near my face. So maybe overkill on the reinforcement, but that's better than a scar on my face!

The violin has no sound-post nor bass bar. So the sound probably would be better if I had put those in the violin.

Still, sound is not-horrible, I think. Judge for yourself. 🙂

Played in a living room, with a thin carpet over the floor, and some furniture. So not unusually reverby setting. Recorded on my cell phone because I don't have anything better.

Let me know what you think? Or maybe it's better if you don't. XD

Honestly, I'm *hilariously* amused: the violin was meant only for a computer-graphics project. It was never meant to be a real thing. And even as a real thing, it was never meant to be playable at all.

(Video is about 5 minutes.)

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Just wow. That actually sounds better than some cheep violins used by buskers I have heard on the London Underground over the years. As for you playing with that short finger board it must have been very hard for you. 🙂

Regards,
Martin

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

It sounds better than when I played the violin at school!
Cracking model!

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Not sure that you can call it a model as it is actually playable and has a good sound.

Regards,
Martin

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Superb!

OK, now let's see you build Carlos Santana's favourite Guitar in similar scale and play "Samba Pa Ti" on that.........................

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

I am very intrested in the STL Models for this violin.

Can U send me the link or files?

Thanks and best regards

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Beautiful. Just Beautiful.

Out of curiosity, what kind of plastic makes for the best sound board? 🙄 😀

(Not just a joke--that's basically how Ovation guitars came about--molded (essentially) fiberglass body with spruce top/sound board.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

That is pretty damn slick. Nice job.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

Hmm, I think if you printed it with enough infill, maybe in PETG, it could be strung up properly and played. Violin strings don't have a tremendous amount of tension. It seems feasible at least. Maybe I'll have a go at it.

Re: 3d Printed Violin Model

In my defense for horrible playing, I have also never ever played a 1/10 size violin with a 1/10 size bow.

This is apparently some type of nomenclature rather than scale size! 😯

Let me know what you think? Or maybe it's better if you don't. XD

It could have been MUCH worse... It could have been a BANJO ❗ __ 😮 __ 🙄 __ 😛