Artificial fingernails for classical guitar

thingiverse

My fingernails break often, but I didn’t find generic artificial fingerpicks adequate.PATH TO A SOLUTION: Create a 3D scan of the fingers, then build a 3D printed, made-to-measure design around them.PROBLEM 1: Acoustic properties of the nail need to be addressed:Softness & springinessFriction with stringInternal structureSOLUTION: Separate the nail from the base. Flat printing gives the best internal texture and boundary texture. Moreover, it allows for a flexible choice of materials: Recall the Shore scale of 3D printing materials:PLA: 80DPETG: 76D (Ultimaker data sheets)FiberFlex: 40D (Fiberlogy data sheets)Equine hoof (keratin): 70D (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324722739_Nail_Properties_and_Bone_Health_A_Review)Foot sole: 30D (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foot.2012.01.003)Friction: The flat print allows tangential boundary structure without steps between layers.PROBLEM 2: The finger changes shape when bending, pushing the fingertip forward.SOLUTION: Reshape the midsection of the fingertip. The finger has a relatively fixed width at the nail and joint but is compressible in the mid-section. Build support around the compressible part.