I am a huge crypto fan, and miner. I've been a reader of this forum for some time now, but I finally have a reason to create an account and post.
-Background-
I am a Mechanical Engineering student at Saginaw Valley State University. My roommates and I mine Dogecoin on the side, and I have always wanted to have a physical crypto-coin. I received an email last week that our foundry will be open February 1st for students that want to cast aluminum parts. I immediately hopped on Autodesk Inventor, and went to work. My goal was to design a coin that was useful. The QR back was inspired by paper wallets. I figured a single coin could have a QR of someone's virtual wallet, and could send out money via stores. I was thinking of having info similar to a debit card, and you could just type in a pin. But so far I haven't seen that happen. So another practical use is have the deposit QR to receive coins (and maybe a QR under it to withdraw).
-The Design Phase-
The design was tricky. What could I possibly stick on it?? All other coins I've seen were poorly slapped together and 3D printed with low quality (no offense). I originally had lettering around the coin, but casting issues would make it impossible. So I had to opt-out for that.
The QR spot was raised .5mm, so it is better protected from dirt, but is still sheltered by the 1mm brim of the coin. You could always stick a 3D printed band where the letters were originally designed, and put your address codes.
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l629/Joseph_Romano/So%20coin/DOGE_COIN1_zpse10940d0.pnghttp://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l629/Joseph_Romano/So%20coin/DOGE_COIN_zps438808da.png(Original design exported as realistic rendering)
-The Cast-
Today I received the 3D printed coins, and I was excited. Overall, it took about an hour to make the mold with my OCD kicking in.
The coin's mold is actually carefully packed sand. Luckily our foundry has one of the best professors, and helped me make it so clean.
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l629/Joseph_Romano/So%20coin/IMG_4187_zps139231e8.jpghttp://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l629/Joseph_Romano/So%20coin/IMG_4186_zpsa17e104a.jpg(The coins in the bottom half & the complete mold)
The pour went smooth, but left a lot of extra metal.. which meant hours of careful machining.
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l629/Joseph_Romano/So%20coin/IMG_4191_zps7157fa10.jpghttp://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l629/Joseph_Romano/So%20coin/IMG_4193_zps1393fad5.jpg-The Finished Product-
This is somewhat the finished product. I have yet to polish it yet. Right not it is grey from the sandblasting after machining it.
I will probably try 3D printing that Ring with "In Doge We Trust" for the hell of it.
I was also thinking of putting them in nicely encased frames with both the finished product and its 3D printed counterpart. Then maybe auctioning off one of the sets for a charity.
http://i1127.photobucket.com/albums/l629/Joseph_Romano/So%20coin/IMG_4196_zpsdbe0b19e.jpg(The coin after sandblasting, with its orange 3D printed counterpart)
The files for the coin can be found in my public Dropbox here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/vq6k3x8oj0mgvmu/Y6-Y0I8ksDI do not like charging for my files. I believe this will be a fun thing for people to 3D print and improve upon. the doge_coin2 files are the ones I casted, and do not have words. It is also filleted and drafted for casting. The STEP file is included for that version too. The STL file of the first version is exported in x10 size. Shapeways is weird with inventor, and will need x10 scale STLs to print to-scale.
Any and all donations would go towards my education, supplies, and doing more crypto projects.
If anyone has any ideas on a new project for me to attempt, please let me know. I also dabble in coding as well.
Thanks for reading!
