New Blackland Era

This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity. Why is the head the only 3D printed part?

Lathe-turned parts are very cost effective to machine. For the opposite reason, the bigger the parts are the less cost effective they are to print. Plus we cannot physically fit the handle vertically in our build volume even if we wanted to for some reason.

The top cap and base plate are both printed. Then the base plate receives additional cnc machining ops to ensure perfect shaving geometry.

Not sure if you can answer this... but this process sounds less wasteful than full CNC? Just curious.

This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity. Why is the head the only 3D printed part?

Lathe-turned parts are very cost effective to machine. For the opposite reason, the bigger the parts are the less cost effective they are to print. Plus we cannot physically fit the handle vertically in our build volume even if we wanted to for some reason.

The top cap and base plate are both printed. Then the base plate receives additional cnc machining ops to ensure perfect shaving geometry.

Not sure if you can answer this... but this process sounds less wasteful than full CNC? Just curious.

Eventually, yes. Right now I think they’re pretty similar, although I can’t confirm this in any measurable way. CNC is probably less wasteful than most realize. The metal chips are a commodity and get sold back to be melted down into billet once more.

In this process we have a similar result. After printing the entire build volume is a big cake of bound metal powder with parts hidden inside. The parts get broken out and then the leftovers get sent out to be recycled similar to CNC chips. In the future the plan is that the cake can be broken down in-house and the restored to pure metal powder which can then be reused. That would be pretty efficient and would cut down on waste substantially. I have no idea when that would happen and I don’t think it’s their priority right now.

Shane, et al.

Thanks for the education and clarification. Like I said in my original post, "This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity." My ignorance has been eradicated (at least in this area  ). My confusion came from thinking that the word "top" meant only the cap. I see now that it means the cap and base plate. My curiosity has also been satisfied. It makes perfect sense to me that the cap and base plate would be 3D and the handle would be cnc. I am new to the double edge razor community and its terminology--so thanks for the patience, kindness and answers. Looking forward to ordering an Era.

Shane, et al.

Thanks for the education and clarification. Like I said in my original post, "This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity." My ignorance has been eradicated (at least in this area  ). My confusion came from thinking that the word "top" meant only the cap. I see know that it means the cap and base plate. My curiosity has also been satisfied. It makes perfect sense to me that the cap and base plate would be 3D and the handle would be cnc. I am knew to the double edge razor community and its terminology--so thanks for the patience, kindness and answers. Looking forward to ordering an Era.

No worries and glad to have you here. Line starts behind me. Hehehe

Shane, et al.

Thanks for the education and clarification. Like I said in my original post, "This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity." My ignorance has been eradicated (at least in this area  ). My confusion came from thinking that the word "top" meant only the cap. I see now that it means the cap and base plate. My curiosity has also been satisfied. It makes perfect sense to me that the cap and base plate would be 3D and the handle would be cnc. I am new to the double edge razor community and its terminology--so thanks for the patience, kindness and answers. Looking forward to ordering an Era.

No need to clarify! Pretty much everyone is ignorant about this because no razor has ever been made like this. In fact, no product has ever been majority made this way.

Shane, what are the grip rings made of?

Shane, et al.

Thanks for the education and clarification. Like I said in my original post, "This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity." My ignorance has been eradicated (at least in this area  ). My confusion came from thinking that the word "top" meant only the cap. I see now that it means the cap and base plate. My curiosity has also been satisfied. It makes perfect sense to me that the cap and base plate would be 3D and the handle would be cnc. I am new to the double edge razor community and its terminology--so thanks for the patience, kindness and answers. Looking forward to ordering an Era.

No need to clarify! Pretty much everyone is ignorant about this because no razor has ever been made like this. In fact, no product has ever been majority made this way.

Exactly what 3D metal printing process are you using? Is it SLM or FDM using the newer PLA plastics infused with metal powder and binders that can be later sintered to burn out the PLA and binder leaving you a solid metal piece to be machined to final tolerances afterwards?

Shane, et al.

Thanks for the education and clarification. Like I said in my original post, "This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity." My ignorance has been eradicated (at least in this area  ). My confusion came from thinking that the word "top" meant only the cap. I see now that it means the cap and base plate. My curiosity has also been satisfied. It makes perfect sense to me that the cap and base plate would be 3D and the handle would be cnc. I am new to the double edge razor community and its terminology--so thanks for the patience, kindness and answers. Looking forward to ordering an Era.

No need to clarify! Pretty much everyone is ignorant about this because no razor has ever been made like this. In fact, no product has ever been majority made this way.

Exactly what 3D metal printing process are you using? Is it SLM or FDM using the newer PLA plastics infused with metal powder and binders that can be later sintered to burn out the PLA and binder leaving you a solid metal piece to be machined to final tolerances afterwards?

None of the above. Read back through this thread a few pages or, better yet, listen to my spot on the Lather Talk podcast where I go over it in detail. It's a novel process created by 3DEO that enables large-scale production through a hybrid process.

No need to clarify! Pretty much everyone is ignorant about this because no razor has ever been made like this. In fact, no product has ever been majority made this way.

Exactly what 3D metal printing process are you using? Is it SLM or FDM using the newer PLA plastics infused with metal powder and binders that can be later sintered to burn out the PLA and binder leaving you a solid metal piece to be machined to final tolerances afterwards?

None of the above. Read back through this thread a few pages or, better yet, listen to my spot on the Lather Talk podcast where I go over it in detail. It's a novel process created by 3DEO that enables large-scale production through a hybrid process.

I just read the website and patents, what I see is they've come up with a process and machine to do high volume metal binder jetting printing combined with a CNC finishing process in one package. There really isn't anything new as far as the processes goes what is innovative is they've combined them with the CAD design into one machine. That efficiency should make them the most cost effective method at the moment.

Shane, et al.

Thanks for the education and clarification. Like I said in my original post, "This question is coming from a place of ignorance and curiosity." My ignorance has been eradicated (at least in this area  ). My confusion came from thinking that the word "top" meant only the cap. I see now that it means the cap and base plate.

Not that this needs to be belabored, but where did you see the word “top”? In DE razor terminology, the word “top” could reasonably be assumed to mean just the top cap. I don’t see the word “top” used anywhere in the description of the Era. I do see where the razor “head” is referred to, and that term does encompass both the top cap and the baseplate combined.