Some of you may recognize my name from a few various topics. I dabble… a lot… in a lot of things. I’ve made a few scripts and will continue to work on that, but I’m not posting for that right now. As the title implies I plan on running experiments on making custom sleeves. Getting the process right will be tricky but it’s the type of thing I do have some experience in.
I was approached by someone very excited about this project that offered to help get it started. Start up costs are expensive, but much of it I already have covered (a few grand in hardware required that I already have). The material costs through the experimentation process will add up quickly and a test group of one is shitty testing.
If you want to contribute, cool we’ll talk about that later. What I want to do over this weekend is gauge interest in this project. The original inquirer thought I was just going to model the casts and inserts and send them out as .stl files, but I’m talking about full, custom manufacture to requested specifications. While it would be great to get you guys making your own sleeves for yourselves and your own conditions, working with polymers like this isn’t easy and takes a shit load of practice. As an anecdote, my former research partner and I set aside a full week just to practice accurately producing plates of polyacrylamide by hand. It was hell. I think it would be best to consolidate efforts to get some product out the door and develop a handbook for community use.
Quite interested. I would like a custom V2k sleeve or several!
Currently I modify “Tenga US” sleeves but have a list of shortcomings I would like to address.
the concept here is simply, brilliant. No other company is offering this at the moment. I have been in touch with the OP and have already pledged to support this endeavor!
As promised, a quick CAD of the basic parameters that you have provided so far. It’s modelled to fit you and the Handy. There are still a lot of other improvements I want to add to this, but I wanted to use this as a demonstration of what I can quickly cobble together as a proof of concept. It’s also worth noting that it’s modeled upside down. It’s meant to stand vertically during the cure from the visible face.
Now that I have something more concrete we can discuss the other details however you wish; either here, the fancy new chat feature, or in DMs.
I was already doing this and other casting projects for myself. My biggest concern is just running sufficient iterations while experimenting with the mix. My intention is to create a sort of handbook to reduce overall cost to all the other DIY guys and makers.
It also seems that guy went in with no experience and no equipment. For instance, silicone is one of the most expensive materials to use. Unless specifically requested of me, I would use TPE or TPU. One thing I’m excited to try out is mixed media molds like printing a TPU insert as both a filler and internal structure for a silicone or TPE cast. This would reduce the cost of silicone casting and provide interesting sensations.
The V2k has only one offering with only the surface texture that is not much of a texture at all. I have modified a Fleshlight to work as a suction sleeve with a very small success but the Tenga sleeves are much more to my liking.
The upside for Tengs is several textures are available. The material they are made from is pleasantly soft and the textures are great fun.
The downside is that they are not intended for that use and are a little too streechy. I would like them to be just a little more substantial toward the base perhaps. They also have a hole at the side near the top I don’t want. For use in the V2k the sleeve needs a different base, not the wad of plastic used to secure the sleeve into the Tenga holder. Also they tend to smell bad.
Sorry about the silence for the past month. I’ve been having to try to find a new place to live. I’ll be picking up this project again when that happens.
