Replicating the Masonic Universities Scheme Travelling Loving Cup (the DKW Cup)
I was asked recently if I could make a replica of a cup which was originally presented to the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) Universities Scheme by RW Bro. David Kenneth Williamson PAGM, Founder President of the Universities Scheme, on his retirement. The aim of the DKW Cup is to encourage inter-visiting between Universities Scheme Lodges and further Freemasonry’s goals of fraternity and togetherness. The Cup can be claimed by any visiting Scheme Lodge with four or more of its members present at a meeting of the Lodge currently holding the Cup. You can find out more about the United Grand Lodge of England Universities Scheme here The Loving Cup (universitiesscheme.com).
The UGLE Universities Scheme has challenged all of its 80 plus member Lodges to take part in a walking team relay, covering the length and breadth of England and Wales. The challenge set is to visit every Masonic venue where a Scheme Lodge meets, and in so doing complete an appropriate 2021 miles, as Freemasonry emerges from what has been a unique 2020 and 2021. In order to protect the actual DKW Cup, the replica will be carried on the walk with the actual DKW Cup being presented at the start and the end of the journey. The #2021UGLEChallenge walk will set off from Freemasons’ Hall, London on June 9th, heading South East and travelling broadly clockwise around the country, before returning to Great Queen Street at the Quarterly Communication meeting on September 8th. The Universities Scheme believes the walk, in celebrating a much-anticipated return to Freemasonry will,
- Promote engagement between Scheme lodges;
- Promote Freemasonry in general;
- Help raise funds for the Duke of Edinburgh Memorial Fund, established by the United Grand Lodge of England
As a Freemason I was more than happy to support the initiative and set out to create something special…
Can I see the Cup?
Here comes the first problem, the cup isn’t readily available to hand.
OK, how do you make an accurate replica in terms of shape, size and look? Well it turns out it ‘s easier than it first looks as the cup is essentially a two dimensional profile rotated around a centre line. If I can create the profile I can turn the 2d image into a 3d model. The handles are a slightly different challenge but they can be drawn as a series of 2d curves and extruded to make them 3d.
Size matters...
I asked Peter to take several side-on profile images of the Cup which would allow me to import them in to Fusion 360 as a canvas and trace the outline of each section. In order to get an accurate size, I needed measurements of each of the key dimensions so I could calibrate the drawing size.
Main Body – Diameter 5.5 inches, Height of Bowl 6 inches
Base & Stem – Diameter of Base 4.25 inches, Height to base of Bowl 4.5 inches
Lid – Diameter 5.5 inches, Height 3.5 inches
2d to 3d, as if by magic
Once I had imported the profile images of the cup into Fusion360, I was able to calibrate the size of the key components by selecting the parts which had been measured and setting them to the actual dimensions.
I needed to take a bit of artistic licence with the lid as the image supplied wasn’t a true profile but a slightly downward facing shot. This meant that I needed to compensate for the parallax distortion when creating the sketch profile.
I created six separate components for ease of printing and assembly. They are the base and stem, body, lid, lid button and two mirrored handles.
Virtual Assembly
Once the 2d sketches had been created, I used the ‘revolve’ function to spin them around the centreline of the Cup. This created the four main body components to which I traced the handle profile, extruded it to 10mm thick and the created a mirror copy for the other handle.
By setting the component material in Fusion360 to ‘polished chrome’ I was able to create several photorealistic renders to send to the team for approval before I committed to physical printing.
I like to think it’s the high tech equivalent of ‘measure twice, cut once’.
Given the replica Cup will be knocked around as it travels its 2021 miles, I decided to make the physical construction as robust as possible.
When 3d printing an item, the main things which influence it’s strength other than the material used is whether you make item hollow, how many outline/perimeter shells are printed and how dense the infill is. For the main body I did hollow the centre section so that the body was 10mm thick. I printed the parts with 5 perimeter shells (usually 3) and 6 solid top and bottom layers knowing I would need to glue the parts together.
The infill was set to 20% to provide a rigid but light body.
Virtual to Physical
In total all of the six pieces took 26 hours to print with the body taking the longest at 17 hours. The material is PLA (Polylactic Acid) which is made from renewable sources such as corn starch and sugar cane, making it recyclable and biodegradable.
Construction time
Initially, I glued the components together with cyanoacrylate (super glue) which, after a quick (accidental) drop test, I decided to reassemble with two part epoxy resin which is much stronger and provides more structure to fill the gaps around the handle touch points.
The surface of a 3d printed component is quite rough due to the layer lines which are quite pronounced as the contours become more shallow. Generally you have two options to address this post-printing. You can lightly sand the surface and or use a few coats of spray primer which settles in the ridges and smooths the appearance of the surface. As the cup does not have any small details it is easier to flood it with primer to create a smooth base before the final top coat.
Make it shine
After spraying the cup with grey primer it was time to spray the top coat. For this I used a chrome spray paint from Amazon. I’ve used plenty of metallic paints before but never one which claims to create a reflective chrome appearance. After a couple of liberal coats, the cup looks like it is made from metal.
Finally, I popped a cheeky Fatlab Designs logo sticker to the base of the cup for a bit of shameless promotion and the cup is ready for its travels.
and the're off...
By the time you read this, the #2021UGLEChallenge will be well under way. The original DKW Cup will be safe and sound as the ‘Fatlab Forgery’ wends its way around the country with the brethren who are giving up their time to raise funds for charity and to promote Freemasonry.
If you see them on their travels give them a wave, take a pic and post it as I would love to see the cup on the road.
Dave
Absolutely extraordinary work David
It’s perfect for our challenge
Thanks so much for the help
Could not recommend your skill enough