Hey, my girlfriend finally told me what she wanted for her birthday: A replacement set of prosthetic fingers that are talon shaped.
She was born with defected fingers on her right hand and has had amputations. She had one set of talons at one point that were decorative and a ring stlye, but she sold them to pay for rent.
Now that she is financially stable and working towards getting her Furry outfit, she has asked this for her birthday. Her birthday is in November, and the last time she got a set it was from a friend of hers. I have no idea how to really go about finding this.
She requests that they be water resistant/proof and harder to fall off than a ring, kind of like a sleeve. Any ideas or advice?
Simple prosthetics can now be created rather inexpensively on a 3D printer. Not sure if anyone would do “decorative” fingers as opposed to functional, though.
If I was looking for these, the first place I would look would be etsy, which has many jewellers making custom pieces. There’s a fair amount of rubbish on the site, I think it’s fair to say, but there’s diamonds in the rough.
I’d recommend 3 D printing as well. Materials cost will be under $10. Printing will take a few hours. Hopefully, one of the Dopers with a 3 D printer will be in to discuss the pros and cons of various materials.
As for convincing somebody to do it, it should be easy. The project sounds and looks cool.
You could make a set of prosthetic fingers on a 3D printer, but it’s not as easy as just printing them out. Prosthetics need to be fitted very specifically to the person, so you’d have to either use a 3D scanner to get the shape right on the first try, or (more likely) make a series of alterations until you got it right. Fortunately 3D printing makes it easy to churn out multiple test pieces. Most cheap hobby printers can only print in hard mono-colored plastic. You’d need to paint it if you wanted it to be realistically flesh-toned, and it might not be comfortable to wear for long term use. Still it sounds like an interesting project, the kind of thing I’d be interested to help design and print if I wasn’t already badly backlogged with other design projects.
You might want to consider the implications before you go ahead with this. (I’ve had girlfriends who I would definitely not have wanted to equip with talons.)
Shapeways, a 3D printing service I’ve had some fun with, actually does offer full-color plastic printing these days, for developers. So, that might at least solve the painting angle.
And about the fitting—might it be possible to make and fit the prosthetic’s “socket” separately, maybe even using one of your girlfriend’s old prosthetic fingers as a base? That way, the more exacting fit for the finger could be done better and quicker, and leave a much rougher “base” for the more decorative “talon” portion could be attached to, later.
What the heck, if you haven’t made arrangements for the gift project already, PM me with the details—maybe we can work something out.
