Acetone Finishing on PLA

[KevinMakes 22]

Still at it huh cloak. Did you end up buying an ultimaker for home use?

[KevinMakes 22]

I just printed a quick model face of a friend it and it came out real nice, even layer height, but as it was at 50mm/s, i got the usual moire pattern (its kinda hard to miss on a fresh black colorfabb piece, this is what i am curious about removing, but i though it was more related to actual print speed than export settings? will be very curious to know. i want to acetone it real bad but at the same time i kind of don't as it looks so smooth!

Here is the obj file. @KevinMakes, i printed it upside down like in the photo. sunken in a bit for grip as i dont print with infill or support material.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7izhtbap59l3n9f/Merged_euhe-exported.obj?dl=0

I did a quick read up about this angle of deviation thing, and from what i've read seems to be some kind of subvidided polygon/tri count increase of some sort which may not help me as i am already working with 200,000 polys already. I could be wrong though i did only spend 2 mins reading up on it, it may align them more favourably, but the moire is the topic in question for me.

Here is a photo of the back, which shows the result of low poly count, very visible, but its the back so I don't care, and it looks interesting. angle of deviation may make this better but im not sure about the moire patterning all over it. eitherway i am willing to give it a go just to see the difference.

On another note, i don't seem to get the moire effect as badly when printing in red, so will try red next.

 

Ill import the obj into solidworks if I can lol and see what I can do with it. sorry Ive been gone so long

[KevinMakes 22]

 

I just printed a quick model face of a friend it and it came out real nice, even layer height, but as it was at 50mm/s, i got the usual moire pattern (its kinda hard to miss on a fresh black colorfabb piece, this is what i am curious about removing, but i though it was more related to actual print speed than export settings? will be very curious to know. i want to acetone it real bad but at the same time i kind of don't as it looks so smooth!

Here is the obj file. @KevinMakes, i printed it upside down like in the photo. sunken in a bit for grip as i dont print with infill or support material.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/7izhtbap59l3n9f/Merged_euhe-exported.obj?dl=0

I did a quick read up about this angle of deviation thing, and from what i've read seems to be some kind of subvidided polygon/tri count increase of some sort which may not help me as i am already working with 200,000 polys already. I could be wrong though i did only spend 2 mins reading up on it, it may align them more favourably, but the moire is the topic in question for me.

Here is a photo of the back, which shows the result of low poly count, very visible, but its the back so I don't care, and it looks interesting. angle of deviation may make this better but im not sure about the moire patterning all over it. eitherway i am willing to give it a go just to see the difference.

On another note, i don't seem to get the moire effect as badly when printing in red, so will try red next.

 

Ill import the obj into solidworks if I can lol and see what I can do with it. sorry Ive been gone so long

 

can you shoot me a link to the file as a...stl, step, stp, Iges? 3dm?

[cloakfiend 995]

I only use obj, but i assume any 3d program can import it? I can import it into max or maya and re export an stl if you like?

...and yeah i got a um2 after all, glad the new improvements are minor on the um2+ or else i would feel a bit annoyed, i have no real issues with the feeder as it is because i only ûse colorfabb and when it clicks is a good indicator of the nozzle being slightly blocked. besides im too afraîd of taking it apart just to replace unbroken parts when its printing just fie as it is.

Edited January 6, 2016 by Guest

[cloakfiend 995]

ive been doing electro plating looking for alternative sprays and solutions to silver and have come to the conclusion that without industrial chems i just cant do it, i found an alternative to graphite that works better though and is only slighty more expensive, but you dont need as much so it works out. the trouble with graphite is that it doenst coat in a uniform fashion like silver. its like a virus, slowly spreads out from the source.

and here you can see how the pla shrinks with the acetone treatment, i never knew really how much before as i just saw cracks, but in the metal, it ripples over the crack, so basically if you are going to electroplate, then you need to be sure the acetone has finished warping the pla or else it will peel off overtime.

[cloakfiend 995]

and the um tr green bust in my fav metallic spray.. but this was at 50mm\s so i got the usûal moire all over it. id have to slow down if i want that less.

[cloakfiend 995]

ok, plating larger stuff without silver is proving harder than I thought. I think I need another anode or two. not all parts were coated, like 95%, still better than any of my attempts that scale with graphite. I think I may start calculating surface area son, lol. my luck is running out. this tr um green pla is not as smooth as colorfabb after acetone, but it will do considering its all I have.

this was done using the brush on method. #btw

and the back for te curious...

[cloakfiend 995]

here is one of my first prints, now in copper! was a real pain to do and needed a lot of cleanup.

[cloakfiend 995]

here i have the steel look vs aged copper, same model, but one ran out of filament near he end, lol. i knew it was just a matter of time, lol.

[cloakfiend 995]

and my evil antique baby dolls head, lol.

and one just after the acetone.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Guest

[danilius 118]

cah-reeeeepy

[cloakfiend 995]

@danilius here is my latest print and ac. Less creepy very happy with the result, its near perfect, ill spray it silver in the morning. This is just acetone and nothing else. I think i will cry when i run out of this UM filament it never splits. I bought 3 or 4 new different ones to experiment with, but have a feeling they wont match this one....could be wrong though.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Guest

[Springclip 13]

Try Acetyl Acetate instead with PLA. It smooths PLA plastics like acetone.

[cloakfiend 995]

What do you mean it smooths PLA like acetone. Im using acetone? If you mean ABS then no thanks, i want sharp details. If it melts too much like acetone and abs then you lose way more detail than Pla and acetone. Thats my sole reason for doing it. No piece of abs from a cloud chamber will ever hold as much detail as a piece of acetoned pla. Period. It might make it shiny, but way less detailed at the same time.

However i will try it out as im always open to new suggestions. anyone in the uk know where to get some? Boots?

Edited January 21, 2016 by Guest

[Springclip 13]

Yes, you can use ETHYL Acetate to smooth PLA in much the same manner as acetone will smooth ABS. However, ETHYL Acetate on PLA might not meet your requirement to hold maximum detail. ETHYL Acetate will eventually melt PLA. Nail polish removers contain acetyl acetate.

For smoothing, I've tried paint-on products like XTC 3D with variable results. It seems to be less work to paint a glaze on (vs. vapour) and with practice you can directly control how much detail you want to retain in complicated areas. However an absolute requirement for XTC 3D is a method of properly clamping your object so you can rotate it without touching it.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Guest

[Springclip 13]

Whoops. I meant ETHYL Acetate and not Acetyl Acetate.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Guest

[cloakfiend 995]

I tried a few nail polish removers, with no luck, only the pure acetone ones did the job for me.

Ahh yes ethyl acetate, yeah im familiar with that, i prefer straght acetone for detail. Use ethyl for low res stuff.

Edited January 21, 2016 by Guest

[cloakfiend 995]

here it is sprayed...

[cloakfiend 995]

ok my new filaments arrived today, and so far transparent red is the winner. its almost as good as the UM and not splitting either. i tried to clean off the white residue with caustic soda but ended up cracking the model so dont use that stuff. here is the model just after the acetone.

[cloakfiend 995]

ok, heres what it looks like after you put caustic soda on acetoned pla. interesting from man art point of view, but basically the model is ruined, lol. Its copper coated so you can see it better.

Edited January 22, 2016 by Guest

[Franny500 9]

Cloakfiend was you the guy chugging acetone in the video early on in this thread. I was laughing away in my office at that. Saw TheDeug's name somewhere and that confused me a bit.

Good video though man. I needed someadvice on a smoothing option for PLA and found the video very informative. Don't have time to read all the thread at the moment but skimmed it and you've done some good stuff. Consider me a fan, especially if the video is yours. Hilarious!!

[Franny500 9]

nearly chugging**^

[cloakfiend 995]

yeah that was me, lol.

[Franny500 9]

Class.

Keep up the good work

[MarcusWolschon 7]

About 3DSolex: They write about a 6 month guarante for the TF2K couplers

(http://3dsolex.com/teflon-replacements)

and just in the next sentence tell you "no guarantee".

Sadly I can't find any "contact" or "about us" with an email address on their site.

So I can't ask.

They don't even tell you what country/continent 3DSolex is located in.