Post-processing tricky pingent

[fergazz 60]

Hi community!

I've a challenge (one more! hehee). Make a little pingent with metal looks like. I never tryed coating before. Galvanization is a good deal or it requires high heat material properties? What technique should I look for? My best filament for heat toleration is PLA Tec, up to 110 degrees (at least).

I also have a bronzefill but pingent looks so tiny (0.8mm minimum) and probably it will be hard to polish for a shine finish... but maybe is the best choice!

That's a preview art sended by client (I will change lots of stuffs here). It could goes at maximum 30mm wide

Even if I didn't get this job I would like to know what kind of coating should I try for other aplications and tests

Cheers bros!

Edited March 28, 2017 by Guest

[cloakfiend 996]

Galvanisation requires only 30 degrees heat max. And is fairly painless and will achieve a glossy reflective finish with no sanding. However the solution you do it in is corrosive and you need to wear gloves. But you also need a good print to begin with. First choose either nickel or copper to plate with if you want to do it yourself easily or take it to get chromed somewhere else at a cost.

Edited April 6, 2017 by Guest

[fergazz 60]

Thank you for the feedback.

I will definitely try nickel, copper and how cost is to get chomed outside.

By the way I found a great beginner source written by "Enza3D" to anyone looking for post processing tips, Metal Plating (the right name for "metal looks like" ) is on the bottom of the page:

https://www.3dhubs.com/knowledge-base/post-processing-fdm-printed-parts#introduction

For those looking for advanced tips just follow @cloakfiend specially his topic about "Blended PLA with acetone" or something like that... awesome stuff!

[geert_2 558]

A bit late, but still: in car tuning shops, they do have spray paints that give a chrome or gold effect (or any other desired colors with mirror-effect, as in christmas balls).

On Youtube you find a lot of demo videos. Search for "spray on chrome", or "spray paint mirror chrome effect", or similar.

It seems to consist of cleaning, spraying on an activator, rinsing with water, spraying on chrome, rinsing with water again, spraying on a sealant varnish, rinsing, drying with compressed air. It also seems to work well on flexible materials, even leather.

For example these:

 

 

[cloakfiend 996]

Nice, I saw some videos of people in india doing this kind of stuff to statues, I wonder of the coating is conductive?

In the mean time I'm gonna get some of this and will report back.....

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Nice, I saw some videos of people in india doing this kind of stuff to statues, I wonder of the coating is conductive?

In the mean time I'm gonna get some of this and will report back.....

Did you check the prices of the setups? Wow....

[geert_2 558]

...

I wonder of the coating is conductive?

...

If you would like to try it, maybe you could ask a couple of manufacturers to send a few worthless scrap parts with defects or so, for free? Just to evaluate the surface finish and quality.

I have also wondered if this is a layer of metal, or metal flakes, chrome powder, or some special optical effect in plastic? But it seems that it has to be covered with a sort of varnish, so probably won't be conductive afterwards.

I also wondered about scratch-resistance: better or worse than normal paints? The old method in which a shiny chrome layer was put on with vapor, in headlamp mirrors, was extremely weak and susceptible to scratches. You couldn't even wipe it with a soft cloth. But this method seems to be different?

[cloakfiend 996]

Yeah, I think you can wipe it and stuff after, as I saw them handling the statues and they looked very perfect. But the video was sd, not hd so i can't tell if it covers slight imperfections or anything. The only way to tell is to try it. I kinda though it would be expensive, if its too much, I'll just invest in a larger magnetic stirrer and jug with more copper spate solution and just plate as per normal, at least I know the plating gets thicker the longer i do it so i can't get a nice thick (0.2mm lol) coating easily.

Ill do a electroplating tut when i have time, been very busy lately.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

.....Ill do a electroplating tut when i have time, been very busy lately.

When you are ready, but I will be looking for that. Some of those paint setups were about 7,000 US. I think the lowest was 2,000 US.

[cloakfiend 996]

OK so i won't do it then.

$2000 dollars.... damn, I can buy a hell of a lot of copper with that and copper sulphate. I wonder how much surface area you can cover out of the 2000 bucks? The only problem is storage and stuff, a small setup setup is dirt cheap, so id defo go for that if you've only got small stuff to do. My copper face machine was intended for small rings and stuff ,but I've pretty much dismantled it and plate much larger stuff as you've seen. It definitely takes some getting used to!!! when it doesn't work, its very annoying. The silver spray is also VERY expensive, and the graphite almost useless to plate without experience far cheaper.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

Yeah, some of those setups look like some sort of Sci-Fi IV setup for a multitenticled beastie and require a lot of space to spray with a spray booth as well.

There was one I found a while back that was not nearly as complex. I will have to look for it. Was still expensive though.