Finishing printed objects

[michiel950 0]

Hi,

I am Michiel from Dremel and I have a question. I am interested in how you finish printed objects. Or perhaps I need to take it one step back: do you finish printed objects at all? If you do finish objects, how do you do this and are Dremel tools and accessories used? I am very interested in your experiences. Many thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Michiel

 

[IRobertI 520]

A dremel or other similar rotary tool will spin too fast and create too much friction to be useful in most cases I would think. Even slowly drilling a part may cause too much heat. Cooling with water helps in most cases but I think the speed of a rotary tool is simply a bit too much.

 

[jonnybischof 60]

I normally use a scalpel for post-processing. Usually that means scratching off the Brim / support material and other irregularities. I also clip / trim any edges with the blade. That doesn't really lead to good results, but it's fast.

There is a way of "chemical post-processing" by means of putting the printed object into a bath of a suitable solvent to abrade any small and thin irregularity. But I never tried that and I don't know any more details about this, except that there is some thread here in the forums about this topic.

Maybe you could develop a low power sand-blasting Dremel (with glass pearls but I don't know how that's called in english), I would definetly buy one

 

[xeno 108]

Dremel is just a bad tool, it has only two settings, melting plastic fast and insanly- I dont't want to hold it in my hands -fast.

I use a Proxxon, it is much better, 1- very good slow speed for plastics , 2- no more special 3.2mm bits 3-quiet !

 

[aaron 2]

I have found a dremel tool with wire brushes to work quite well.

 

[gr5 2,189]

Some parts are too delicate to use a sharp blade. For those one needs a dremel. But it will melt the PLA unfortunately. So it is difficult but better than a blade.

 

[illuminarti 18]

I often use a dremel with either sanding buffs for wide area clean up, and engraving tips for cleaning up hard to reach spots. As others have noted, temperature management is a problem - it's too easy to melt the plastic. I've also thought that some sort of small-scale sand-blasting tool would be ideal for cleaning up prints.

 

[jonnybischof 60]

I often use a dremel with either sanding buffs for wide area clean up, and engraving tips for cleaning up hard to reach spots. As others have noted, temperature management is a problem - it's too easy to melt the plastic. I've also thought that some sort of small-scale sand-blasting tool would be ideal for cleaning up prints.

 

Nice to see someone else also likes the idea

I was actually more serious about this than it sounded... I'd really like to have my own sandblasting tool.

...

Just googled around and it seems there actually are handheld sandblasters on the market. I've never seen one in an actual store though and I'm not very confident about buying from Ebay..

Make a Dremel Sandblaster!

 

[matengi 0]

If the surface can be reached without issues, dry and wet sanding gives a nice finish. I did this with this cover: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/car-stereo-din-iso-slot-cover-for-sd-cards

It looks now like the original plastic parts nearby.

 

[michiel950 0]

Thanks for all the replies!

 

[braddock 1]

I use a dremel 4000, at low speed using these

http://www.dremel.com/en-au/Accessories/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=511E

I also have a jewellery tumbler which might work well with ceramic media, havent tried it yet.

 

[illuminarti 18]

Yes, those are the abrasive buffs I use too.. although I seem to find that they can discolor the plastic sometimes - e.g., leave black marks. Something like those but smaller diameter would be really useful for cleaning up difficult spots

 

[braddock 1]

I have one of these, which is worn down to only about 5mm diamter from finishing sterling silver castings.. I haven't tried it on PLA yet, but it might be worth a go too,

http://www.dremel.com/en-us/Accessories/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?pid=425

 

[lennart-bruggink 3]

Maybe it is not as bad to make a dremel attachment for sandblasting.

In my unbiased view,

there should be a fitter to put onto the dremel,

a rotary fan which converts the rotating speed of the dremel to air speed

an inlet to a sand holder container which the container is airtight,

an outlet from that container ( preferably tangential entrance? to keep the particles suspended in air when coming out)

preferably an open point between the inlet and outlet of the container, to force air to go to the container, but to also have more carrying air,

and a nozzle

perhaps the dremel isn't really needed, i heard there is a fan/ compressor design on youmagine.com.

Just my 2 cents as a process engineer.

Paint skills!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ihfo64p4er80cgu/Naamloos.png

 

[simon 1]

I'm pretty sure a Dremmel doesn't provide enough power for making a sand blaster from. I would guess you would need a minimum of 500 Watts. My Dremmel chokes all the time with a small cutting disk. If you really want to make something like that I'd use a mains powered drill. In my limited experience of particle blasting, there's a very fine line between producing a nice (ish) finish, and messing your part up. I think there are better ways to finish your part.

 

[michiel950 0]

Maybe it is not as bad to make a dremel attachment for sandblasting.

In my unbiased view,

there should be a fitter to put onto the dremel,

a rotary fan which converts the rotating speed of the dremel to air speed

an inlet to a sand holder container which the container is airtight,

an outlet from that container ( preferably tangential entrance? to keep the particles suspended in air when coming out)

preferably an open point between the inlet and outlet of the container, to force air to go to the container, but to also have more carrying air,

and a nozzle

perhaps the dremel isn't really needed, i heard there is a fan/ compressor design on youmagine.com.

Just my 2 cents as a process engineer.

Paint skills!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ihfo64p4er80cgu/Naamloos.png

 

Hi,

The (sand)blasting concept is interesting. Who knows, could be something to look into for us.

Michiel

 

[skint 61]

Hi Michiel

I posted a link to post processing previously, this guy uses a dremel for various reasons. See the link mate.

http://makezine.com/projects/make-34/skill-builder-finishing-and-post-processing-your-3d-printed-objects/