Takhion Fork Crown: Print 1!!

Well this is certainly exciting:

I really need a lightbox.

The first print of this arrived today, and it's pretty cool to be able to see and hold the real print after staring at it on a screen for so long! 

With working clamps!  

This rough print still needs to have its measurements checked and compatibility with fork blades tested, and once it's approved it will be wax printed for casting.  Unfortunately I won't be able to test it with fork blades until this coming weekend, but everything else can be checked and fixed before then.

The model is missing the textured edges that the original Takhion fork had.  I'm still trying to figure out if I'll put them in the final model or if it will be smooth.  

Only one clamp was printed because they're interchangeable, and these things are not the cheapest to print.  This particular crown was modeled to fit standard Takhion bars, but I still wanted to test them with 3TTT bars just to make sure things were lining up.

Success!

The final casts will be tapped for a bolt and have hinges installed in the clamps.  The upper clamps themselves will probably be 3D printed in stainless steel.

Passing the 3TTT test with flying colors.

This particular print is done with Shapeways' strong and flexible plastic for testing purposes.  It's based off of a Takhion crown, but the dimensions were referenced from a spare fork crown I had purchased from Nova Cycles.  The clamps have been slightly modified from the original Takhion clamps, but I want to try to have a version of those available to purchase in steel for those that need them.