Fireplace Grates with a Mission/Art Deco Influence

Rendering and Revision

Rendering this in 3D I decide the columns of horizontal bars on either side are just not right. The whole thing starts to look like a 1960’s era TV test pattern. Here’s where the macro approach really helps. I try an alternative, render the whole thing, decide it isn’t quite right, try another, repeat until it works. Literally days of what would have been painful, project killing, manual editing is reduced to a few hours. In the end breaking these columns up really works.

A 3D representation of the revised design, showing the through and non-through holes and a bevel around the outside edges.
3D view of the revised grate design

Time to do a prototype print. Simplified, fast print, make sure what’s on the screen is going to work.

A rough print of the grate design, still on the bed of a 3D printer. This simplified print has no bevel and shows lines where the print head laid down filament.
Rough Prototype

Temporarily mount it in place and decide if this gets the green light or not.

Prototype in place

We have potential here! I printed some legs to mark the corners of the mounting boxes so I could slot the prototype in and discovered that I’d made an error in transcribing the dimensions. Easy fix. Next, the bezel looked like it would be too small (on the side not pictured). The trouble of a prototype is always worth it. Solving these two problems averts disappointment.

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2 comments

    Rawle Johnson 1 year ago

    Fantastic! I absolutely love love love Mission style.

      Alan Langford 1 year ago

      Thanks, Rawle! Another “couple of weeks” project that took a couple of years, but was worth it.

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