Putty for white PLA ?

[ian 32]

Hi guys.

I have a few nice long print models that I want to use for a presentation model.

During the printing process, more due to my not perfect 3d archicad model, i got a few small wholes in the walls.

My question is, is there some form of filler or putty that I can use to infill these little gabs.

This solution would take me a few minutes to do instead of 5 hours printing.

Any ideas are warmly welcomed.

Thanks.

Ian

[Daid 306]

I have filled up some holes with manual extrusion (heat up the printer head, lower the bed, push some filament trough it and "print" by hand)

But just about anything that fills holes should work. How about some gum?

[alaris2 1]

if you find a good answer, I'd like to know too..

I've taken to sanding and painting as the only solution for now.

[futurejames 0]

Have you tried using a soldering iron with the filament as your solder?

If you do, let me know how it works. If you haven't by the weekend, I may try the experiment.

[alaris2 1]

I have. not very well is the answer - it makes a horrible mess of the tip too.

but on a plus note - if you ever need to 'drill' holes in PLA, use a soldering iron. it's awesome at it.

[alaris2 1]

I should add that I tried a hot air gun too.

this works very well (for a different purpose) provided you are super careful with the temp.

the different purpose was that I was trying to smooth the surface of a finished part without sanding it - you can semi-melt the surface PLA which reduces the layer strata lines and also gives a nice gloss finish.

I haven't tried this for melting in an extra piece of PLA - but it might conceivably work.

[rewolff 0]

As to the options of manipulating PLA outside the printer:

You can also weld with it! Take a straight piece of filament, put it in your dremel. Run the dremel at around 10k RPM and you'll be able to make nice welds. I've done this way of welding when I got a model helicopter in 1977. I've tried it a few times in the last few years, but my 3k RPM big drill simply isn't up to the job(*). Not fast enough. The dremel works fine on the lowest setting....

But so far I've only demonstrated that it should work. I haven't practised yet making nice welds.

(*) Each time it didn't work I said: Ok, this is not the right plastic where it will work. Turns out you have to go really fast. After PLA worked, I tried PMMA and polystyrene and those both worked in the dremel...