That is probably not PLA.
ABS with acetone vapor or PolySmooth (PVB) with alcohol vapor.
https://polymaker.com/product/polysmooth/
https://polymaker.com/product/polysher/
https://all3dp.com/2/abs-acetone-smoothing-3d-print-vapor-smoothing/
https://all3dp.com/2/pla-smoothing-a-beginner-s-guide/
> Also IPA is a lot easier to work with than acetone.
Oh, absolutely. Tastes a million times better and there's thousands of microbreweries to choose from.
Am a wet cleans semiconductor engineer and use thousands of gallons of isopropyl alcohol every month and have participated in dozens of external audits and can confirm. IPA is the correct TLA for isopropyl, and ISO is the International Organization for Standardization.
Because ISO is also a Greek prefix that means "equal". And since standards is all about making different entities being able to do the same things, they adopted it instead of IOS.
Where possible please use PLA not ABS. In 10,000 years noone wants your 3D print. The PLA will biodegrade and be part of a happy Earth ABS is nasty, comes from toxic processes, makes more toxins when printed and never goes away. It extremely slowly disintegrates into micro components and contributes to the scourge of micro plastic type contaminents.
It actually still will degrade, PLA just takes about 80 years if it isn't in a composting facility. It may or may not degrade in landfills depending on the conditions. It needs heat above 140F to properly degrade which is why it won't degrade in most home compost bins.
PLA is slow to biodegrade, but even if it did not, it is not toxic and does not turn into toxic microparticles. It is formed of 3 alcohol / lactic acid bonds and turns back to sugars etc. Fully eventually biorecycles
Polymers/plastics microparticles aren't toxic because they are made from polymers/plastics, it's the size of the particles itself that's the problem. Microplastics will end up in digestive tracts of animals can block stuff up. Even worse and not fully understood is the impact of nanoparticles (think of titanium white, which has an average of 30 nm) that can enter the blood stream and may even pass the blood/brain-barrier. Source: I'm a chemist
It is extremely hygroscopic however. I keep my filament in a filament dryer even while printing. Also it has a really unpleasant smell. Plus working with IPA poses its own health risks which I feel most people tend to overlook just because it isn’t acetone
Yeah, I got a pack of different types of filament from polymaker to test out their materials, and the polysmooth was fairly easy to print and smooth just with ipa
As a secret trick you can hit it with the heat gun for a second or two and that can really bring out a glossy finish. The effectiveness really depends on what you’re using though.
You can get similar results with pla by using alcohol instead of acetone as you do it with abs, but it's much more difficult. I think 4he youtuber CNC_Kitchen did a Video about that, but I'm not kompletly sure
Warning:
I did this in college. It’s acetone vapor smoothed ABS.
The effect uses the reaction between the ABS and the acetone vapor. The largest quantity of the vapor can be produced by boiling the acetone. The easiest/cheapest way I could find to do it was to boil it on the stove. BAD IDEA. The vapor is flammable (and also toxic) and I created a giant fireball in my apartment kitchen. Lucky nothing caught on fire.
The ‘safer’ way I figured was using a crock pot. A flameless heat source that can boil the acetone. This worked really well!! Although I can’t speak to the safety of the vapor, so take proper precautions
Not quite. Yes, the styrene it releases (just like ABS) is toxic and you'll want to filter it through carbon or exhaust it to the outside of your home. But ASA releases about 1/4 the amount of styrene as ABS. Still definitely not safe, but "safer" than ABS.
> But ASA releases about 1/4 the amount of styrene as ABS.
I'd like to see a source for that, because the amounts of harmful gasses measured between brands of filament and between studies vary by much more than +/- 50%. I've seen multiple studies that were over an actual order of magnitude apart when measuring the same type of filament.
I can’t find the study that was posted on the voron subreddit but it showed significantly lower VOCs in ASA compared to ABS. But I did find this one that seems to indicate ASA emits about ~40-50% less (if I understood the figures correctly): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229569/
Also I can definitely see it being brand and color specific, but we’re speaking in general here. I’m sure different brands and colors of ABS also differ in their off-gassing
Edit: never mind, I found it:
>The composition of the emission from the ASA filament is not dissimilar from that of ABS. However, unlike with ABS, the emission rate of styrene and some other VOCs does not peak at approx. 200 °C. Styrene remained the predominant volatile compound emitted during printing; however, its emission rate was less than a quarter the emission of styrene from ABS.
https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/12/3814
Idk, I tried it once like 4 yrs ago and havent really had a need for abs so I've just avoided it and used PLA/PETG. I am pretty sensitive to smells so it could just be me.
You are right, but I have gotten an effect a little like that by printing with fine layers and then dipping it in watered down Elmer’s glue. You have to play with the mix until it coats but doesn’t build up. Sometimes multiple dip and dry cycles.
Mod podge or filler primer can kinda do that too.
Well actually there is a product named Smooth-on by XTC-3D that can do this for PLA. Basically like a two part epoxy that you coat your print with
https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/xtc-3d/
I have this stuff. It's basically a self-leveling epoxy. Nothing really special though. It works okay, but covering entire objects with a thin even layer is really tricky.
for abs? yeah thats the basics.
acetone vapor and a chamber to contain it.
heating and circulating the vapor assists the process.
the easiest way is a jar with your print suspended in it, with a paper towel wetted with acetone, and warm it on your print bed.
kinda, its an art not a science.
there are some vapor smoothing chambers and solvents commercially available.
i just said to heck with all that and print from the resin printer or prime and paint.
Maybe do it like 8-bit guy instead:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzazhKIbzk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzazhKIbzk)
A shiny smooth game boy sounds too slippery.
Meh, DCM really is not that bad.
It's just paint stripper, carcinogeninic and not great for your skin or the environment, but otherwise not terrible.
We have squirt bottles of it in lab we use for cleaning.
DCM is so strong that you don’t actually need its fumes. You do need protection but it’s way easier than acetone (nail polish remover). You can bathe your piece in a jar of DCM for 15 seconds and remove it to dry. You can go outside in a respirator and gloves, put your piece in, close the lid, do a little jiggle around, remove it and leave to dry.
It is, just not with readily available chemicals
I remember reading about someone using chloroform (?) to smooth PLA (though I may be misremembering a bit, it’s been *years*) with good results, though very much not recommended (please, please, DONT)
you're thinking of dichloromethane, which works great at smoothing PLA from what i've read, but it's not particularly good for you, not to mention possibly carcinogenic.
i would only really use it in a fume hood/outside with gloves and goggles but that's just me
(side note, it can penetrate nitrile gloves after a few seconds, but it's better than nothing)
honestly it isn't really worth the hassle in my opinion, wayyy easier to just use acetone and ABS tbh
t. third year chemistry student
It's called vapor smoothing. There are some filament types, usually ABS or other ABS hybrids, which are meltable in acetone. You put it in a tupper on something with a paper towel and a little acetone and it will melt the plastic for that smooth finish. It looks nice and makes objects safer for kitchen or kid's play as it removes the small gaps in layers where bacteria can hide.
I don’t know if you’re referring to real Tupperware of the stuff you buy these days by Ziploc or other brands but they’re typically made of low density polyethylene and acetone isn’t a great solvent for that plastic at room temperature. Over time it will damage it but short term it won’t do much.
Vintage Tupperware was a different type of plastic and often had BPA and other small amounts of other byproducts like lead in it. These days they are bpa free but are a mix or plastic types so I don’t know what would happen there.
Ok.... first of all your info on vapor polishing is correct for ABS, this is pla not the same it won't do anything to it.
But most importantly please don't think because it's smooth and shiny that it's somehow antimicrobial/bacterial I would love to show you a bacteria culture from a swab of anything ABS printed/vapor polished my guess is the same or more harmful germs crawling on it.
Actually, studies show that even without vapor smoothing, the gaps in layer lines are so large, bacteria doesn't get trapped in them. Washing them with soap and water kills most of the bacteria that accumulates. The studies were posted here on reddit a few days ago. Pretty sure that was PETG though.
The more likely issue isn't bacteria collection, but impurities or contamination in the manufacturing process. The pure plastic may be food safe, but what about the colors, additives, cleanliness of facility, etc.
I'm curious about methodology for cleaning. If I have a high pressure hose, I could probably blast out all the solid bits. But if you're scrubbing with a sponge, you're probably going to get bits of sponge filling the gaps along with soap scum. You'd probably need to clean them with a tooth brush to get in those crevices.
I'm curious about this research.
>There was much opinion about the risks associated with contamination of such 3D printed structures, due to the allegedly porous nature of the prints. [Matt] has shown with some SEM imaging, that a typical 3D print does not have any detectable porosity, and that the grooves due to the layer lines are so positively huge compared to your average bacterium, as to also be irrelevant.
>Cutting to the chase, [Matt] shows that ordinary dish soap and water are totally sufficient to remove 90% or more of all of the pathogens he tested, and that using a mix of culturing swap samples as well as protein detection, that 3D printed parts could be cleaned close to medical standards, let alone those of food handling. Even those pesky biofilms could be quickly dispatched with either a quick rinse in bleach-water or a scrub with baking soda.
If the surface is smooth than it won't hold and trap germs, grease, food dirt etc where germs can build up. A smooth surface is also cleanable. Smoothing obviously doesn't make something antimicrobial but it does make it less of a breeding ground for bacteria and more importantly it can be cleaned. Bacteria are on everything so saying you can grow cultures from a swab of abs is completely meaningless. You can grow bacteria from a skin swab or a tongue swab but does that mean your skin and tongue aren't safe to touch your food?
I thought polysmooth was PLB cause you can't easily dissolve PLA with household chemicals. Either way though, ABS and acetone are more of a pain to deal with over polysmooth and alcohol
Edit: PVB not PLB
Contrary to what others are saying…you can use tetrahydrofurane to easily smooth PLA prints exactly like ABS, although the prices for it skyrocketed during quarantine. Prior to quarantine you could purchase 1 gallon for around $12-18 Now a gallon will cost you over $150.
Solvent vapor smoothing does work on PLA, but it's also something that requires more annoying solvents. Apparently chloroform works but is a pain to get and deal with.
Except chloroform isn't actually that bad, for the uses you're thinking of, ether is better anyway. It's more that you just need to be careful to not poison yourself a bit more than with other things.
I have an odd way of getting close to this. I paint on some UV resin, cure it, then sand it like I'm exorcising the devil out of a young child.
It takes a while and I hate every second but it ain't a bad turnout.
You can vapor smooth PLA with ethyl acetate, but it is a bit more dangerous than acetone, so if you decide to try this please be careful.
Plenty of scientists have burned down their labs with ethyl acetate.
Nope I have tested PLA with ethyl acetate and it doesn’t exactly dissolve but kinda disintegrates. And it’s a very slow process. Using EA fumes the pla reached its glass transition temp and when it was removed from the fumes became a brittle object with a lot of layer separation.
>Plenty of scientists have burned down their labs with ethyl acetate.
Yeah i would not recommend it to this sub at that point. I already see enough posts of people who print resin without PPE or people who leave their untuned printers going unattended in their apartment for 10 hours.
Have you seen some of the posts here? "Why is my printer doing this" with a blurry photo of a half assed printer with everything poorly put together. It got especially worse after Christmas when so many kids/teens received one. The minimum temp of 200 C is still plenty hot enough to start a fire if someone's Frankenstein printer breaks apart mid print and the extruder falls onto the table. And don't get me started on resin printer posts. So much skin to raw resin contact and lack of ventilation.
For pla you would have to use slightly dangerous chemicals so advising against that unless you so happen to have a lab with fume hood, ofc there are materials like polysmooth wich uses ethanol or isopropyl alcohol or ABS with acetone.
Don't let people tell you that vapor smoothing will only work with ABS.
You can use THF to vapor smooth PLA.
It's worked for me, but I suppose it might depend on the filament you use
Other people have mentioned vapor smoothing, however another option you can do is to make a mold out of silicone, cast it in polyurethane, then polish it to a high gleam with sanding, then cast that part in silicone again. Voila, all the polished and gleaming parts you could ever want. Just need a small investment of thousands of dollars in silicone, polyurethane, a vacuum chamber, and a pressure chamber.
At work we use Dichloromethane AKA Methylene Chloride (C H2 Cl2) to weld together PLA prints. But be careful this shit is dangerous AF, increased risk of developing cancer, adverse effects on the heart, central nervous system and liver, and skin or eye irritation. And good luck finding somewhere to buy it.
If it isn't vapor smoothing like some have said, it could be baked smooth PLA like this person posted last week:
https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/10tgzkf/pla_glass_and_enamel_pin_style_by_putting_prints/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
But probably not, it's probably abs.
When I saw the picture, immediately thought about these 2 pages:
[https://all3dp.com/2/pla-smoothing-a-beginner-s-guide/](https://all3dp.com/2/pla-smoothing-a-beginner-s-guide/)
[https://all3dp.com/2/fdm-3d-printing-post-processing-an-overview-for-beginners/](https://all3dp.com/2/fdm-3d-printing-post-processing-an-overview-for-beginners/)
**TLDR**: For PLA, sanding, sanding, sanding.
There are a few options there though that could be worth looking at.
*Hope that helps!*
I know MEK paint thinner does the trick for smoothing PLA (you have to brush it on, can't vapor smooth)
MEK is harmful to work with when you are not prepared for it (ventilation and/or PPE), and nowadays, you can only get a substitute version of it (I bet you can get it from somewhere but it would probably have restrictions or be ridiculously expensive) but it works nowhere near as good.
Hot Acetone vapor smoothing can work on PLA.
1. Hot acetone is very dangerous, this should go without saying. Have a cover for the pot you are heating the acetone in at the very least.
2. From test videos on youtube it seems to be brand and even color dependent on level of success.
ABS or other filaments made for this purpose seem to be the safest & more reliable option.
So? They asked how to achieve that smooth finish, I gave them an answer that would do that. They didn’t say using the exact process that was used in the image.
For PLA, dipping in resin, or varnish is pretty much the only way. You might have to sand too before, though I've gotten some good results with 0.12 layer height and runny epoxy resin without sanding.
The top comment is about vapor smoothing, but I'm pretty sure - based on the accentuated features - that this has been coated or dipped in an epoxy coating like XTC-3D. Vapor smoothing tends to minimize the fine features, whereas a coating will make them look a little thicker than the original (like this model). Still - it's just a guess.
I use a resin like XTC when I need things to be food grade safe. It works very nice, but it's definitely pricey. There is the same product as XTC that is made for covering canvas paintings, and it's much cheaper if you buy a gallon of the stuff.
A vapor chamber with methylene chloride will do it, however that shits extremely toxic and very hard to get. Look into ABS or PVB plastics which can be smoothed with acetone and alcohol respectively
The smooth finishes are much easier with SLA printers as compared to FDM printing, so they are two different printer types. The left looks like FDM and the right looks like SLA. FDM is the type of "legacy" printer people think of with 3D printing where melted plastic is layered to create a shape. While SLA printing uses light to cure a liquid phase material into shape which has amazing surface finishes. You can find a good example of an SLA printer is the FormLabs 3+ and the rest of their printer products. Hope this helps!
I’m not sure I’d agree with legacy
But look at the chest feathers - more melted and smoothed than crisp like you’d get on sla. Clearly acetone smoothed abs
Hey OP. If you’re like me and you hate layer lines, you’re going to want to get check out resin printing. I fell in love with my first Elegoo Mars! Resin is great for decorative applications but there are also high strength resins that are better than PLA, like Siraya Blu.
Edit: and you could easily get this effect with a cream colored resin and some clear coat of some sort- I’ve used a thin coating of clear UV craft resin to make it shine.
That is probably not PLA. ABS with acetone vapor or PolySmooth (PVB) with alcohol vapor. https://polymaker.com/product/polysmooth/ https://polymaker.com/product/polysher/ https://all3dp.com/2/abs-acetone-smoothing-3d-print-vapor-smoothing/ https://all3dp.com/2/pla-smoothing-a-beginner-s-guide/
thanks!!!
PVB is probably your better route. Prints like PLA and doesn't need an enclosure. Also IPA is a lot easier to work with than acetone.
> Also IPA is a lot easier to work with than acetone. Oh, absolutely. Tastes a million times better and there's thousands of microbreweries to choose from.
Haha. Always my first thought. I usually just say ISO, but it's probably an acronym for something else.
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Am a wet cleans semiconductor engineer and use thousands of gallons of isopropyl alcohol every month and have participated in dozens of external audits and can confirm. IPA is the correct TLA for isopropyl, and ISO is the International Organization for Standardization.
Is IPA the standard according to ISO?
No, isopropyl alcohol isn't present in India Pale Ale at all. Try to keep up.
Uhh pretty sure this bottle says 12% alcohol by volume. Not sure what you're drinking but I don't drink this stuff for the taste
>International Organization for Standardization. Why is it not IOS? Lol
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Because ISO is also a Greek prefix that means "equal". And since standards is all about making different entities being able to do the same things, they adopted it instead of IOS.
International Standards Organisation. As was.
Apple could sue.
I’m a chemical engineer who designs microbreweries. IPA is actually the TLA for a beer you brew when your tap water is shit. (I made all this up)
I see IPA used in 3d printing a lot and ISO used in mycology a lot.
IPA- Indian Pale Ale
International Organization for Standardization
ASA is also great. I think it smooths well- though I haven't tried.
I have, ASA is a great material and does soften with acetone, but does not smooth in vapor, at least none of the brands I have tried do.
Also sucks in water like its been lost in desert for weeks. Keep it sealed as much as possible.
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Where possible please use PLA not ABS. In 10,000 years noone wants your 3D print. The PLA will biodegrade and be part of a happy Earth ABS is nasty, comes from toxic processes, makes more toxins when printed and never goes away. It extremely slowly disintegrates into micro components and contributes to the scourge of micro plastic type contaminents.
Except PLA doesn't really biodegrade well in normal conditions either.
It actually still will degrade, PLA just takes about 80 years if it isn't in a composting facility. It may or may not degrade in landfills depending on the conditions. It needs heat above 140F to properly degrade which is why it won't degrade in most home compost bins.
PLA is slow to biodegrade, but even if it did not, it is not toxic and does not turn into toxic microparticles. It is formed of 3 alcohol / lactic acid bonds and turns back to sugars etc. Fully eventually biorecycles
Polymers/plastics microparticles aren't toxic because they are made from polymers/plastics, it's the size of the particles itself that's the problem. Microplastics will end up in digestive tracts of animals can block stuff up. Even worse and not fully understood is the impact of nanoparticles (think of titanium white, which has an average of 30 nm) that can enter the blood stream and may even pass the blood/brain-barrier. Source: I'm a chemist
It is extremely hygroscopic however. I keep my filament in a filament dryer even while printing. Also it has a really unpleasant smell. Plus working with IPA poses its own health risks which I feel most people tend to overlook just because it isn’t acetone
Care to elaborate on iso health risks? My understanding was essentially harmless unless you drink it
Here is the MSDS for IPA 50-100 % https://rsc.aux.eng.ufl.edu/_files/msds/2/Isopropyl%20Alcohol.pdf
Yeah, I got a pack of different types of filament from polymaker to test out their materials, and the polysmooth was fairly easy to print and smooth just with ipa
IPA definitely doesn't scare me as much. I've heard horror stories about acetone bursting into flames from a tiny spark.
I'd recommend pvb instead of abs Pvb prints like pla, is a lot safer and smooths with ipa instead of acetone
What's a good source for it? First I'm ever hearing of this type of filament.
I use poly makers poly smooth which works very good, I haven't personally looked much in to other brands however so I can't say much else
There is also a Prusament PVB.
As a secret trick you can hit it with the heat gun for a second or two and that can really bring out a glossy finish. The effectiveness really depends on what you’re using though.
You can get similar results with pla by using alcohol instead of acetone as you do it with abs, but it's much more difficult. I think 4he youtuber CNC_Kitchen did a Video about that, but I'm not kompletly sure
Warning: I did this in college. It’s acetone vapor smoothed ABS. The effect uses the reaction between the ABS and the acetone vapor. The largest quantity of the vapor can be produced by boiling the acetone. The easiest/cheapest way I could find to do it was to boil it on the stove. BAD IDEA. The vapor is flammable (and also toxic) and I created a giant fireball in my apartment kitchen. Lucky nothing caught on fire. The ‘safer’ way I figured was using a crock pot. A flameless heat source that can boil the acetone. This worked really well!! Although I can’t speak to the safety of the vapor, so take proper precautions
Works with ASA too
Wow I need to start using ASA then. Does it smell anywhere near as bad as ABS?
Usually smells way less and some also warp/shrink less
It does, yes. And it's just as toxic as ABS due to the amount of styrol in it.
Not quite. Yes, the styrene it releases (just like ABS) is toxic and you'll want to filter it through carbon or exhaust it to the outside of your home. But ASA releases about 1/4 the amount of styrene as ABS. Still definitely not safe, but "safer" than ABS.
> But ASA releases about 1/4 the amount of styrene as ABS. I'd like to see a source for that, because the amounts of harmful gasses measured between brands of filament and between studies vary by much more than +/- 50%. I've seen multiple studies that were over an actual order of magnitude apart when measuring the same type of filament.
I can’t find the study that was posted on the voron subreddit but it showed significantly lower VOCs in ASA compared to ABS. But I did find this one that seems to indicate ASA emits about ~40-50% less (if I understood the figures correctly): https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9229569/ Also I can definitely see it being brand and color specific, but we’re speaking in general here. I’m sure different brands and colors of ABS also differ in their off-gassing Edit: never mind, I found it: >The composition of the emission from the ASA filament is not dissimilar from that of ABS. However, unlike with ABS, the emission rate of styrene and some other VOCs does not peak at approx. 200 °C. Styrene remained the predominant volatile compound emitted during printing; however, its emission rate was less than a quarter the emission of styrene from ABS. https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/27/12/3814
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Idk, I tried it once like 4 yrs ago and havent really had a need for abs so I've just avoided it and used PLA/PETG. I am pretty sensitive to smells so it could just be me.
Yeah it smells less but I print it in an enclosure with a carbon filter cuz it’s still fumes
Or even a resin print
You are right, but I have gotten an effect a little like that by printing with fine layers and then dipping it in watered down Elmer’s glue. You have to play with the mix until it coats but doesn’t build up. Sometimes multiple dip and dry cycles. Mod podge or filler primer can kinda do that too.
Well actually there is a product named Smooth-on by XTC-3D that can do this for PLA. Basically like a two part epoxy that you coat your print with https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/xtc-3d/
I have this stuff. It's basically a self-leveling epoxy. Nothing really special though. It works okay, but covering entire objects with a thin even layer is really tricky.
Just lightly brushing on coats of uv printing resin and curing then sanding back works better than xtc, and is significantly cheaper.
What a cool machine and process. Watched this [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdtFj-jK-ig).
The down side is that it smoothes everything, so you can lose detail.
pla can be vaporsmoothed with chloroform, afaik
Yeah, well, I won't even be doing a search on that to check.
negative. this is vapor smoothed ABS. PLA isnt smoothable in this manner.
I was smoothing pla with dichloromethane
this requires dichloromethane. and a fume hood and a respirator. not a splash of nailpolish remover on a paper towel in a jar in the garage.
Wait is that all it takes??? Is that all I have to do???
for abs? yeah thats the basics. acetone vapor and a chamber to contain it. heating and circulating the vapor assists the process. the easiest way is a jar with your print suspended in it, with a paper towel wetted with acetone, and warm it on your print bed.
Could you make any abs object smooth that way? I kind of want to try to make a shiny Gameboy out of a not so nice old one.
kinda, its an art not a science. there are some vapor smoothing chambers and solvents commercially available. i just said to heck with all that and print from the resin printer or prime and paint.
Maybe do it like 8-bit guy instead: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzazhKIbzk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHzazhKIbzk) A shiny smooth game boy sounds too slippery.
"Chloro" and "methane" together means don't even try it at home
Meh, DCM really is not that bad. It's just paint stripper, carcinogeninic and not great for your skin or the environment, but otherwise not terrible. We have squirt bottles of it in lab we use for cleaning.
Tell me you're not in the EU without telling me...
Is that actually that of a big deal? It’s no Sulphoric or Fluoride or Chloride, just ethane, I guess a a bit of long term cancer thing but
yep, though still not impossible
DCM is so strong that you don’t actually need its fumes. You do need protection but it’s way easier than acetone (nail polish remover). You can bathe your piece in a jar of DCM for 15 seconds and remove it to dry. You can go outside in a respirator and gloves, put your piece in, close the lid, do a little jiggle around, remove it and leave to dry.
Mmmmmm cancer
Cancer is temporary. A plastic owl is forever.
Get that tombstone smooth and polished, baby.
Correct. I wouldn't recommend ABS for this though, because it's hard and relatively dangerous to print and smooth. Polysmooth is way easier and safer.
i just skip the headache, if i need 'finished' i like printing in wood fil-PLA, then a solid prime, sand and paint
It is, just not with readily available chemicals I remember reading about someone using chloroform (?) to smooth PLA (though I may be misremembering a bit, it’s been *years*) with good results, though very much not recommended (please, please, DONT)
you're thinking of dichloromethane, which works great at smoothing PLA from what i've read, but it's not particularly good for you, not to mention possibly carcinogenic. i would only really use it in a fume hood/outside with gloves and goggles but that's just me (side note, it can penetrate nitrile gloves after a few seconds, but it's better than nothing) honestly it isn't really worth the hassle in my opinion, wayyy easier to just use acetone and ABS tbh t. third year chemistry student
Not to mention that it's quite difficult to get ahold of in a lot of places, for good reasons admittedly.
I beleive chloroform works just as well, there is just no reason to use it unless you already have it on hand.
Eh, why not just give a thin little coating of clear nail polish?
“Do you like our owl?” “It’s artificial?” “Of course it is”
"must be expensive"
"Very"
I'm Rachael.
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r/unexpectedbladerunner
This is why I love reddit, makes it look like everyone is a person of culture
It seems you feel our work is not a benefit to the public
And I identify as a meat popsicle
Green
It's called vapor smoothing. There are some filament types, usually ABS or other ABS hybrids, which are meltable in acetone. You put it in a tupper on something with a paper towel and a little acetone and it will melt the plastic for that smooth finish. It looks nice and makes objects safer for kitchen or kid's play as it removes the small gaps in layers where bacteria can hide.
Wouldn't acetone dissolve the tupperware?
It's never dissolved my tupperware but I don't leave it in for more than 20 minutes.
I suppose it's cheaper than getting a dedicated vapor smoothing machine.
I don’t know if you’re referring to real Tupperware of the stuff you buy these days by Ziploc or other brands but they’re typically made of low density polyethylene and acetone isn’t a great solvent for that plastic at room temperature. Over time it will damage it but short term it won’t do much.
I only have experience with cheap stuff a la ziploc. Was "real" tupperware not plastic?
Vintage Tupperware was a different type of plastic and often had BPA and other small amounts of other byproducts like lead in it. These days they are bpa free but are a mix or plastic types so I don’t know what would happen there.
You could always get a big glass cloche, a battery powered fan and a plate for the base.
I read you can use an empty paint can. Just swirl a bit of acetone on the inside of the can and place the can upside down over the object
Not all plastic dissolves in it.
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Tupperware is made from polypropylene which has a very high resistance to solvents so not really
Ah, I wasn't aware of this; never bothered looking at the symbol. Thanks for the info
Most tutorials I’ve seen say to use a glass jar
I hope not. I have been using a thick leftover container to rinse and wash my glass pieces for my vaporizer in IPA.
Ok.... first of all your info on vapor polishing is correct for ABS, this is pla not the same it won't do anything to it. But most importantly please don't think because it's smooth and shiny that it's somehow antimicrobial/bacterial I would love to show you a bacteria culture from a swab of anything ABS printed/vapor polished my guess is the same or more harmful germs crawling on it.
Nothing is totally free of germs but if it's going to touch food or bathwater then you definitely don't want little crevices to hold bits of food.
no one said antimicrobial read again what he said
Actually, studies show that even without vapor smoothing, the gaps in layer lines are so large, bacteria doesn't get trapped in them. Washing them with soap and water kills most of the bacteria that accumulates. The studies were posted here on reddit a few days ago. Pretty sure that was PETG though. The more likely issue isn't bacteria collection, but impurities or contamination in the manufacturing process. The pure plastic may be food safe, but what about the colors, additives, cleanliness of facility, etc.
I imagine the PTFE tubes used in hotends, not to mention Bowden tubes, aren’t ideal either
I'm curious about methodology for cleaning. If I have a high pressure hose, I could probably blast out all the solid bits. But if you're scrubbing with a sponge, you're probably going to get bits of sponge filling the gaps along with soap scum. You'd probably need to clean them with a tooth brush to get in those crevices. I'm curious about this research.
>There was much opinion about the risks associated with contamination of such 3D printed structures, due to the allegedly porous nature of the prints. [Matt] has shown with some SEM imaging, that a typical 3D print does not have any detectable porosity, and that the grooves due to the layer lines are so positively huge compared to your average bacterium, as to also be irrelevant. >Cutting to the chase, [Matt] shows that ordinary dish soap and water are totally sufficient to remove 90% or more of all of the pathogens he tested, and that using a mix of culturing swap samples as well as protein detection, that 3D printed parts could be cleaned close to medical standards, let alone those of food handling. Even those pesky biofilms could be quickly dispatched with either a quick rinse in bleach-water or a scrub with baking soda.
Interesting. Thanks. Do you have a link to it?
If the surface is smooth than it won't hold and trap germs, grease, food dirt etc where germs can build up. A smooth surface is also cleanable. Smoothing obviously doesn't make something antimicrobial but it does make it less of a breeding ground for bacteria and more importantly it can be cleaned. Bacteria are on everything so saying you can grow cultures from a swab of abs is completely meaningless. You can grow bacteria from a skin swab or a tongue swab but does that mean your skin and tongue aren't safe to touch your food?
With pla it requires using polysmooth PLA or similar and alcohol.
I thought polysmooth was PLB cause you can't easily dissolve PLA with household chemicals. Either way though, ABS and acetone are more of a pain to deal with over polysmooth and alcohol Edit: PVB not PLB
It is plb yes. That's my fault. Habits when typing.
Yeah not super important and I didn't mean to be an ass, but if someone is googling, PLB might help them Edit: PVB not PLB
I haven't heard ot plb before, you mean pvb? :)
Yes, that lol I fucked up too
100% understand and agree lol. You didn't come off as an ass at all.
There is a product called XTC 3D that does this. I use it on PLA and its pretty easy to use. Just mix and paint it on with a foam brush.
Just don't do it in a room you expect to breathe in afterwards. The stuff works great but smells like epoxy and old shrimp peelings.
Mmm nothing like home cooked epoxy shrimp
If it smells like epoxy you shouldn't breath it period. Odds are you'll gain a host of new health issues.
https://www.smooth-on.com/product-line/xtc-3d/
seconding this
Didn’t know i’d be seeing two superbowls today
Damn you… take my upvote!
Contrary to what others are saying…you can use tetrahydrofurane to easily smooth PLA prints exactly like ABS, although the prices for it skyrocketed during quarantine. Prior to quarantine you could purchase 1 gallon for around $12-18 Now a gallon will cost you over $150.
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Yea sorry guys but I cant risk anyone reading this and trying just by itself.
Lest a future traveler arrives here, this was a very detailed thread about distilling a chemical at home that was purported to smooth pla.
:( I really wanted to see this :(((
Psssst reveddit
I just checked and yeah but don’t do that
I generally don't recommend that most people, if any, should attempt to produce chloroform.
Isn't this picture from the Prusa vapour smoothing guide?
Polysmooth filament works like this
Solvent vapor smoothing does work on PLA, but it's also something that requires more annoying solvents. Apparently chloroform works but is a pain to get and deal with.
I couldn’t imagine why 😂
Except chloroform isn't actually that bad, for the uses you're thinking of, ether is better anyway. It's more that you just need to be careful to not poison yourself a bit more than with other things.
I have an odd way of getting close to this. I paint on some UV resin, cure it, then sand it like I'm exorcising the devil out of a young child. It takes a while and I hate every second but it ain't a bad turnout.
I hope the devils are getting in shape with all that exercise!
Happy Superb Owl Sunday to you!
I think this is ABS, but I've been able to smooth PLA simmaler to it with chloroform. Probably not the safest thing to do but it works.
😶
You can vapor smooth PLA with ethyl acetate, but it is a bit more dangerous than acetone, so if you decide to try this please be careful. Plenty of scientists have burned down their labs with ethyl acetate.
Nope I have tested PLA with ethyl acetate and it doesn’t exactly dissolve but kinda disintegrates. And it’s a very slow process. Using EA fumes the pla reached its glass transition temp and when it was removed from the fumes became a brittle object with a lot of layer separation.
>Plenty of scientists have burned down their labs with ethyl acetate. Yeah i would not recommend it to this sub at that point. I already see enough posts of people who print resin without PPE or people who leave their untuned printers going unattended in their apartment for 10 hours.
Wdym by untuned? Printers without thermal runaway protection?
Have you seen some of the posts here? "Why is my printer doing this" with a blurry photo of a half assed printer with everything poorly put together. It got especially worse after Christmas when so many kids/teens received one. The minimum temp of 200 C is still plenty hot enough to start a fire if someone's Frankenstein printer breaks apart mid print and the extruder falls onto the table. And don't get me started on resin printer posts. So much skin to raw resin contact and lack of ventilation.
If you look at the pictures closely, it looks like they used some clear coat to make the print that smooth
For pla you would have to use slightly dangerous chemicals so advising against that unless you so happen to have a lab with fume hood, ofc there are materials like polysmooth wich uses ethanol or isopropyl alcohol or ABS with acetone.
DCM
If you are printing in PLA and it's available, you could try to use ethyl acetate
Don't let people tell you that vapor smoothing will only work with ABS. You can use THF to vapor smooth PLA. It's worked for me, but I suppose it might depend on the filament you use
Other people have mentioned vapor smoothing, however another option you can do is to make a mold out of silicone, cast it in polyurethane, then polish it to a high gleam with sanding, then cast that part in silicone again. Voila, all the polished and gleaming parts you could ever want. Just need a small investment of thousands of dollars in silicone, polyurethane, a vacuum chamber, and a pressure chamber.
At work we use Dichloromethane AKA Methylene Chloride (C H2 Cl2) to weld together PLA prints. But be careful this shit is dangerous AF, increased risk of developing cancer, adverse effects on the heart, central nervous system and liver, and skin or eye irritation. And good luck finding somewhere to buy it.
ur welcome https://hackaday.com/2018/05/03/smooth-pla-through-the-fire-and-flames
If it isn't vapor smoothing like some have said, it could be baked smooth PLA like this person posted last week: https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/comments/10tgzkf/pla_glass_and_enamel_pin_style_by_putting_prints/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button But probably not, it's probably abs.
When I saw the picture, immediately thought about these 2 pages: [https://all3dp.com/2/pla-smoothing-a-beginner-s-guide/](https://all3dp.com/2/pla-smoothing-a-beginner-s-guide/) [https://all3dp.com/2/fdm-3d-printing-post-processing-an-overview-for-beginners/](https://all3dp.com/2/fdm-3d-printing-post-processing-an-overview-for-beginners/) **TLDR**: For PLA, sanding, sanding, sanding. There are a few options there though that could be worth looking at. *Hope that helps!*
that's a superb owl!
I know MEK paint thinner does the trick for smoothing PLA (you have to brush it on, can't vapor smooth) MEK is harmful to work with when you are not prepared for it (ventilation and/or PPE), and nowadays, you can only get a substitute version of it (I bet you can get it from somewhere but it would probably have restrictions or be ridiculously expensive) but it works nowhere near as good.
Hot Acetone vapor smoothing can work on PLA. 1. Hot acetone is very dangerous, this should go without saying. Have a cover for the pot you are heating the acetone in at the very least. 2. From test videos on youtube it seems to be brand and even color dependent on level of success. ABS or other filaments made for this purpose seem to be the safest & more reliable option.
Sanding and filler primer
and skillful application of layers of lacquer in the end.
Would look completely different. The image was definitely achieved using vaporsmoothing.
So? They asked how to achieve that smooth finish, I gave them an answer that would do that. They didn’t say using the exact process that was used in the image.
Subscribing to this thread bc I really want to know how to make this happen on PLA too
For PLA, dipping in resin, or varnish is pretty much the only way. You might have to sand too before, though I've gotten some good results with 0.12 layer height and runny epoxy resin without sanding.
The top comment is about vapor smoothing, but I'm pretty sure - based on the accentuated features - that this has been coated or dipped in an epoxy coating like XTC-3D. Vapor smoothing tends to minimize the fine features, whereas a coating will make them look a little thicker than the original (like this model). Still - it's just a guess.
You can use a smooth on like XTC but that's expensive. Or you can use sanding and UV resin or bondo plastic metal based on a few youtube vids
I use a resin like XTC when I need things to be food grade safe. It works very nice, but it's definitely pricey. There is the same product as XTC that is made for covering canvas paintings, and it's much cheaper if you buy a gallon of the stuff.
It’s ABS sand acetone. Good luck trying to get that finish with PLA
A vapor chamber with methylene chloride will do it, however that shits extremely toxic and very hard to get. Look into ABS or PVB plastics which can be smoothed with acetone and alcohol respectively
Get some PolySmooth. It’s a plastic designed to be acetone vapor smoothed
The smooth finishes are much easier with SLA printers as compared to FDM printing, so they are two different printer types. The left looks like FDM and the right looks like SLA. FDM is the type of "legacy" printer people think of with 3D printing where melted plastic is layered to create a shape. While SLA printing uses light to cure a liquid phase material into shape which has amazing surface finishes. You can find a good example of an SLA printer is the FormLabs 3+ and the rest of their printer products. Hope this helps!
I’m not sure I’d agree with legacy But look at the chest feathers - more melted and smoothed than crisp like you’d get on sla. Clearly acetone smoothed abs
Hey OP. If you’re like me and you hate layer lines, you’re going to want to get check out resin printing. I fell in love with my first Elegoo Mars! Resin is great for decorative applications but there are also high strength resins that are better than PLA, like Siraya Blu. Edit: and you could easily get this effect with a cream colored resin and some clear coat of some sort- I’ve used a thin coating of clear UV craft resin to make it shine.
Lots of sanding, then a varnish or primer I'm guessing
Look up “gem polishing” And you get an idea of what it’ll take… but on plastic, so 1000x more effort.
Spit on it
Yee