Hi All,
I am back on after a long health recovery. I am planning to do a
production line of religious jewelry and would like to find a
reliable and economical service for doing the waxes. Can you suggest
someone or a service bureau?
Mike
Hi Mike,
I am a cad-cam wax maker, with specialties in making pieces for
production. I am not your typical service bureau, in that I don’t
take cad files and simply output them. I can take your designs and
specifications, make a cad file and mill them for you. I have made
pieces based on very specific and technical drawings, or
pieces scribbled on a napkin with very broad interpretation. I also
do quite a bit of hand carving as well, if the design warrants. I use
Waxcutter as my mill, and the software that goes with that. I would
love to e-mail some pictures of pieces that I have done! I would be
happy to quote you some prices, just show me what you would like to
have done and we can chat!
Mary Elizabeth
Blue Star Wax Carving
@Mary_Linford
206-914-4052
Well, I can say something about ArtCAM JewelSmith and Rihnoceros.
I’ve tried to work with them some time ago. ArtCAM is not bad, quite
big amount of tools and patterns for ring making, but unfortunatelly
very poor tutorials, so if You want to learn it by Yoyrself it would
take some time. after makeing a design, there is a chance to chose
toolpaths, shrinkages and a machine You’re working with, it is (as I
understood) compatible with engraving machines too. I wasn’t
impressed with rendering results comparing with “3Design jewelry”,
but it is not the main thing.
Rhino is much more complicated, because it is not only for
jewellers, mainly for everything. It has bunch of tools, that to
learn completely would take couple of years I guess. If You want to
design jewelry, You have to buy ADDITIONAL softwaRe: Flamingo,
Techgems and maybe other, it is like Rhino parts. Rhino has a good
complete tutorial and company ROLAND3D oranise training courses.
I haven’t tried 3Design jewelry, but I guess it is not so good like
ArtCAM, because price is much lower than ArtCAM’s. In my country
ArtCAM costs about 10000 Euros.
I suggest to evaluate the programs Yourself, read descriptions,
download trials and try, after couple of days, You can already see
some advantages and disadvantages. Good luck!
For more info - write to personal email.
Giedrius
Dear Mike,
I have been working for years with another Orchid member here Rick
Hamilton. He is also on Martha’s Vineyard and has a CAD/CAM artcam
setup. If you are looking for one sided intricate detail work he is
great. It helps alot if you have very precise drawings that can be
scanned into the program…Rick can be reached at 508-627-5690.
Best of Luck,
Beth McElhiney
www.bethmcelhiney.com
I haven't tried 3Design jewelry, but I guess it is not so good like ArtCAM, because price is much lower than ArtCAM's. In my country ArtCAM costs about 10000 Euros.
If it were only so simple! But companies set their pricing according
to a big matrix of factors, including their cost of development, the
expected number of sales, their positioning in the market, the price
of competing products, the wishes of their distributors, and their
estimation of what the market will bear. Unfortunately, simply by
paying the highest possible price, you are not assured that what
you’ve bought is the best thing for what you’re trying to do. ArtCAM
is a great product, but part of the reason they are able to command
that price is because they were one of the first companies in the
artistic 3d software business, and they got a head start at building
a good reputation. 3design came along later, and had to try harder to
establish itself. Lower pricing is one of the ways a company can get
a foothold in a difficult market to crack.
I suggest to evaluate the programs Yourself, read descriptions, download trials and try, after couple of days, You can already see some advantages and disadvantages. Good luck!
Why not heed your own advice, Giedrius, and get an online demo of
3design? They can do it through your home computer while you listen
to the explanation of what’s happening on the telephone. You can
follow every mouse movement as it’s made and see the results on your
screen. You’ll find that it’s quite different from ArtCAM, and may be
more suitable to what you’re trying to achieve. You can contact the
company at http://www.3design.com
Andrew Werby