Safety Razor

pinshape

Summary Real men shave with a razor holder they design and print themselves, leaving Gillette in the dust. The proof is in the picture - I've just shaved half my face with one. Instructions Needed: To create: top, bottom, and handle prints m3 nut and screw Print the three STL files on your favorite open-source 3-D printer. Insert an m3 nut into the nut trap in the handle. Mount a double-edge blade onto the top piece as shown in the picture. Then place the bottom on it and squeeze - the metal blade will bend slightly. This is necessary to angle the blade for optimal shaving. Push the m3 screw through the sandwich of the top, blade, and bottom - then screw it into the handle. You've just created a safety razor that retails between $20-80 online. If you're new to safety razors, ask your grandfather how to use one or check out The Art of Manliness or Life Hacker for tips. You can also watch a demo on YouTube. Economics: A 10-pack of Merkur Double Edge Platinum Blades costs about $5 - or 28 cents per blade on Amazon. The plastic used in the print and leftover m3s from building your RepRap are essentially free. A normal guy might go through one double-edge blade every two weeks if you switch sides regularly. This means blade costs for safety razor shaving come out to about $7/year. Gillette cartridges cost around $10 per cartridge. The website Real Men Real Style estimates the cost of shaving with drugstore blades at $300/year. In fairness, Fortune reports that Gillette claims they last five weeks, which puts the cost of just the cartridges at about $104/year instead of $300. You can judge for yourself based on your own blade life. If we use Real Men's numbers and assume men start shaving at 10-15 years old and live to around 75-80, you can estimate about 65 years of shaving - which would save you approximately $19,000. That's not bad at all. Improvements: I noticed that cut hair tends to get trapped in the ridges between layers - so this is another reason to improve open-source 3-D printer resolution. I made this design myself, so I'm not sure how often you'll need to print new components. The printed razor holder is much lighter than the traditional steel variety. I actually like this, but you might want to play around with fill settings or design to get something that suits your taste. The OpenSCAD files are included - they're a bit crude and not quite parametric, apologies. This is just a starting point for what could be a really good replacement product. Next version: I'd like to put the tabs on the bottom, then thin out the top and make it curved for an even closer shave. You can get the same effect with a curved top, but this is difficult to print. I'd love if someone hacked this design and created a women's razor.