The Sword Project

We decided to start building some cosplay props based on our own ideas and designs and came up with a pretty awesome sword.  It only took a day to print everything out using all of our printers and assembly was quite easy… all the things we look for in a multi-part model!

Here is what it looks like assembled (Please excuse the messy desk 🙂

Sword Front
Sword Back

Came out pretty sweet, light weight and the handle was angled properly (That was my biggest fear of having the sword angled so your natural slash would hit with the broadside instead of the sharp side).

I did some adjustments to it and then started working on the bond between the handle and the blade… then I broke the blade by accident… in 5 pieces!  I almost cried a bit as I stared at my shattered creation on the floor.  I picked up the pieces, carefully glued them back together and set out to go to work for the day.

2 days passed without me touching the sword out of far of breaking it and then I decided to clean my desk up and get a clear mind.  The sword was staring at me the whole time and I knew what I had to do…  I picked it up and flailed it around like a mad-man laughing maniacally as the pieces flew off of it.

Here is the aftermath of my destruction

Why would I destroy it in this fashion?  I am building a prototype for others to use.  I can’t provide a product and then tell them only gently move it and don’t even bother posing with it because it will rattle apart.  Cos-players need to be able to pose,  swing, move and carry these items.

The other part to the destruction was to do a cross section analysis on the sword to see if it was my design that caused the weakness or the printing process.  I can happily say it was the printing process as my printer was under-extruding by about 20% due to some recent upgrades and firmware changes without double checking my e-step settings.  The bonded parts where I used dowels and CA glue were solid and the pink part printed on another printer was also pretty solid.

There you have it.  The Sword project phase 3 – Will it last?  The answer is YES, we can simply re-slice this with thicker walls, maybe 20% infill instead of 10% and re-print it to have a solid sword that can be carried, swung and posed with.  You can follow these projects on my instagram where I have much more content.

Thank you for reading!

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