A Tale Of Two Printings

The story all started when I wanted to add a TinyCircuits Accelerometer Tinyshield card to my O-Watch. During the O-Watch Kickstarter campaign, I had opted for the base model rather than the sensor model, which meant that the case on my O-Watch wasn't deep enough to hold the TinyScreen+, battery, and the accelerometer card.

Time to order a sensor case! The O-Watch team suggests ordering your case from either Sculpteo or Shapeways, but notes that Sculpteo is the preferred choice. Which of course made me curious: What's the difference between the two? Aren't 3D prints basically all the same? As it turns out: yes, and no.

I initially ordered a complete sensor case (the main case, the back, and the buttons) from Shapeways, with all the parts in stylish black. Shapeways' prices are a bit lower than Sculpteo's to begin with, plus I was able to find a discount code that lowered the price even more. Ordering the parts was straightforward, and payment was made via PayPal.

I was able to watch the status of the parts online as they progressed from pre-printing to printing to post-processing and shipping... Except that printing did not go smoothly for the buttons.

At first there was some misunderstanding that the single print which makes up the buttons is joined in the middle but intended to break apart into the two button parts, one for each side of the watch case. Shapeways thought the single print was a single part, and were concerned that they had damaged the part in post-printing. Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, they offered to re-print the part, but it still proved difficult to print. Eventually, they were able to print the buttons in white instead of black, and kindly discounted the price of the buttons due to the hassle to me.

I think that the Shapeways team handled things extremely professionally and were great about communications and doing their best to make their customer happy. Even though they weren't able to print the buttons in black (or, perhaps more accurately, they weren't satisfied with the quality of the button prints), overall they did a great job.

During this time, I decided to order the buttons from Sculpteo as well, so that I'd have a button set in case things didn't work out with Shapeways. Placing the order and payment was easy. And the buttons were printed and shipped fairly quickly without incident. In fact, they arrived before the shipment from Shapeways.

Curiosity reared its head, so I went ahead and ordered the other case parts from Sculpteo. What would be different about them?

As it turns out, both the Shapeways and Sculpteo cases arrived today!

Both shipments arrived very well padded in sturdy small boxes. The Shapeways parts were individually bagged, while the Sculpteo parts were placed in a single bag.

Here are some comparisons:

Sculpteo Pros:

• The preferred choice of the O-Watch team.
• All case parts printed quickly and without issues.
• Took about a week from ordering to receiving the custom-printed parts.
• The parts do seem to fit together slightly better (and I do mean SLIGHTLY) than the Shapeways parts. In particular the main case and back from Sculpteo really lock together and are difficult to pry apart.
• The Sculpteo parts have a slightly smoother, more polished feel. This isn't really a 'pro' so much as a subtle difference.

Shapeways Pros:

• Lower price.
• As you can see in the picture, the colors of the parts are darker, more of a true black than dark-dark-gray color.
• The parts have a slightly more matte rather than glossy appearance (though they do feel a wee bit rougher).
• This is very much a personal preference, but I like the Shapeways website a little more. It is easier to browse around for other interesting prints to buy, and I found a couple of neat (and fairly unique) gift ideas on it. The Sculpteo website seems designed for business customers, while Shapeways seems oriented more towards hobbyist and craft buyers.

All in all, this was an interesting and educational experience. If I had to do it again, I'd probably order the case and back from Shapeways (mostly because I like the look of them a little more, and it would cost less), and the buttons from Sculpteo. But I had positive experiences with both companies and with the magic of 3D printing.