Easy Post-processing with Acetone in Spraycan :)

[yzorg 9]

Hi guys,

Maybe some already know this.. i recently found this and was surprised:

- Acetone in Spaycans

i gave it a test for post processing ABS prints and it works good.

Not the healthiest solution btw.. (well ventilated area)

i go for 3 coats with complete drying in-between and some grinding.

 

[skint 61]

Give it a try on some PLA too

 

[cloakfiend 995]

Lol, you read my mind. I just ruined a model because i dunked it waaay to long and it had some holes in it and just exploded on me. If you use it on pla then make sure you have no holes in the structure. And dont use it on flat thin surfaces. When you soak pla and then leave it overnight, it actually smooths more than it looks after half an hour. Im still experimenting, but this would be better than brushing it on which is uneven, just to remove the roughness of where youve sanded with fine sandpaper.

[cloakfiend 995]

However if you do this method a lot, it could get quite expensive, as i know spray cans aren't cheap. Perhaps find a plant watering spray bottle that is acetone proof instead, it would be just as effective, but you'd still be wasting more acetone than dunking unfortunately, but at least you'd be saving on spraycans. Just a thought.

[cloakfiend 995]

This method does not work on PLA just to let you know. It requires proper soaking. Even brushing it on directly gives very weak results in my opinion.

 

[yzorg 9]

Acetone has no useful effect on PLA prints guys...

you can coat a PLA print with ABS slurry though.

 

[reibuehl 42]

@yzorg: What would you use to apply the ABS slurry, a regular brush or something more special?

 

[cloakfiend 995]

Sorry yzorg but you are wrong with regards to acetone doing nothing to pla prints. but of course it depends on which pla you are using, as does the effectiveness of acetone on different types of abs.

if you dont belive me....

 

 

 

 

You just have to print higher rez, but you get more detail as a result!

I hate acetone on ABS it looks lame and gloopy in my opinion. I think people just like it because it looks glossy. Like apple products, lol.

@reibuehl you have to get a vat of acetone and simply dunk your model in it for about 30 seconds, then a bit of light sanding in the problem areas, and another quick dunk, and you will have something far superior to someone doing the same model with ABS.

 

[yzorg 9]

Sorry yzorg but you are wrong with regards to acetone doing nothing to pla prints. but of course it depends on which pla you are using, as does the effectiveness of acetone on different types of abs.

 

Hm interesting. i wonder what brands of PLA you got. I definitely want to see this myself.

I know that PLA (atleast mine is) a non-crystaline plastic and should be quite immune to this kind of solvent.

In my case with all my PLA brands theres absolutely no benefit from acetone.

I had a PLA part in a jar of acetone for several days...

sometime it even got worse.. my parts get more brittle and have less interlayer adhesion.

After the acetone evaporated.. Furthermore will leave a ugly white myst on the surface.

With ABS on the other hand i can have my prints waterproofed, solidified and glossy by just spraying a little acetone.

The effects on the surface quite strong.. small features may distort and a little loss of detail is always there.

Gloss is what we want in some cases and i still can easily spray it with matte coat if needed.

@ Reibuehl

I would dip it and place it on Backing paper afterwards.

try to have your slurry quite fluid and not honey-like.

 

[cloakfiend 995]

FYI i use only colorfabb PLA so far black and blue. Both standard cheap 100m rolls for like 20bucks or so. They both appear to look weird and shiny silky straight from the printer but after the acetone they change into some other plastic on a molecular level. It takes about 3 days for the process to completely cure from my personal experience. I did a print at 0.1 today and a small object looks perfect after one 30second dip amd the other i noticed skipping during print so has some lines, but still is smooth. It the printer had not skipped i rekon it could also potentially look much better. Even at 0.08 insted of 0.06 or higher.

I was thinking of getting a resin printer, but the costs compared to this are like way more than 20x so im happy maintaing the ultimaker i use and getting near perfect highrez prints after my acetone process, but you MUST make sure you dont get ANY nozzle jams, so the sooner someone gets a better nozzle that prevents jams i think ill put off getting any resin printers. They arent perfect either, but there its tons more waste that is non recyclable and costs waaay more. £50worth of print in resin equates to about £2 - £4 in filament maybe less. You can afford to mess about with filament but not resin yet.

[cloakfiend 995]

.....and yeah you gotta spray it afterwards or just accept the 'mist' its hit and miss with that sometimes i get it sometimes i dont? Sometimes where i sand i get it somtimes i get it only where i didnt? Weird but im happy to spray after as then i can choose whatever colour i like and imcan spray it with gloss or matte as well, and the model has more detail than vapouring the hell out of it eitherway.

Get yourself some colorfabb 'avoid white' calibrate and clean up your printer and test away at different layer heights im going to show in a post of direct comparison of one 30s dip in 0.1 layer height that printed perfectly to the same model before the dip, and the results speak for themselves. No sanding whatsoever. But i would if your printer prints certain layers messed up due to cura or other reasons. As cura is responsible in some cases as ive seen various models on multiple websites printed with the same messups in the same areas.

Also dont overdoo the dipping as the acetone leaks in slowly and warping will occur. Same goes for if the acetone gets inside any internal structures, your model will be doomed unless you print with a much thicker shell i use minimum of 1, but i may go to 1.2 (the whole factor of 0.4 thing). Ok enough hijacking your post, sorry...

[meduza 191]

I am actually pretty sure that the PLA is NOT beeing affected by the Acetone, but the Colorfabb stuff is a PLA/PHA mix and the PHA portion might be Acetone soluble.

Hmm... wonder if i have some acetone at home to try...

 

[meduza 191]

Just tried, and the Ultimaker PLA seemed to not get that affected by the Acetone, but the white colorfabb PLA/PHA is actually getting smoother surface with acetone!

Will try this a little longer

 

[cloakfiend 995]

Lol! you used white, i didnt like my white results, looked too globby i didnt even get round to trying to dip it as the prints weren't good enough to begin with. Heres one.

Check all my vids if you dont believe me, i ditched ABS a while ago. you have to keep it submerged for 20-30 secs. here is my latest vid with the stock blue ultimaker PLA i got with my ultimaker 2. sorry for the silly tune im getting tired of trying to convince people that this is the way to go. i know pure PLA wont get affected by acetone i never said it will, but the colorfabb stuff sure as hell does, i dont care what anyone says!!!! lol.

here my latest vid to prove ultimaker pla smooths at 0.1 even with only one dip. maybe not so well on very flat areas, but steep stuff looks almost perfect. im sure a light sand would make it great.

The beauty is that you wont lose any detail unlike the abs method. maybe if you leave it for like an hour or so or even many minutes which i wouldn't recomend. As the PLA turns to rubber and needs time to settle.

Only colorfabb green doesn't appear to do much for me but then again i tried it with nail polish mix, so it wasn't pure, so that was probably my fault. I bet now that it does.

 

Keep dipping!!!! spread the word. Lol!