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I was worried about the metal shrinking, but I only had to increase the size of my prints by 1.6% to get the desired ring size. eg: The PLA ring had an inner diameter of 16.8mm and the casting had a diameter of 16.5mm.

Thanks for the info about the lack of tarnish. I'm glad I won't have to do much maintenance.



Since you cast this a few times, I have to ask: did you determine the shrink ratio empirically or were you able to look it up? This is a super cool project, and I'm impressed that you got it done before the wedding!


I looked around online and answers ranged from no shrinkage to 6%. For my first attempt I split the difference (3%), then measured the actual diameter with calipers. Also I tended to err on the side of making the ring too small, as it’s pretty easy to remove material from the inside of the ring.




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