Organ Stop Key Chain

This is a pipe organ stop key chain for my dorm key. The organ stop design actually makes it really easy to grab from my pocket. I printed a jig for easily engraving names, so I was able to make several for friends. If someone is looking to make an organ console, I think this key chain should be accurate enough to serve. The stop is 2.75 in long if you need to scale it.

Overall, I think it turned out pretty accurate and very stable and durable.

How I Designed This

3D Shape

I traced this organ stop in Inventor from a key chain from wicks organ company. I used the picture as a canvas and traced the splines from that. The face needed to be blunted slightly so that it would not have insane overhangs on the curved edges.

Strength Improvement with Virtual Fibers

My first version broke in my pocket from use, so instead of printing the whole thing at a higher density, I added virtual fibers in the end to stabilize the small end potion. Virtual fibers are just tiny holes, or in this case rings, to print more shell layers rather than infill to increase the shell thickness/density locally rather than over the whole model. That worked well, but later I sat on it sideways and broke the top off. So I reinforced the front face down the spine as well with some virtual rings. That has held up so far.

Engraving

I tried printing my name into the face using indents originally because it was too small for multi-color. However, the indents barely showed up, and only if you were looking form a certain angle. So in the next version I laser engraved my name into the face with my name, which worked very well. I made a jig to engrave the face. You can zero either off the post on the side, or using the center hole in the second version of the key chain to line up and then switching to the smooth faced version.