Finishing 3D Printed Parts in One Step

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• All hardware want to show off their production

ready shiny prototypes.

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Start with a good print

• 3D printing isn’t like magic yet. So practice good printing techniques in general.

• Learn the settings in the slicer.

• Choose a filament with final desired color or close to it to avoid requirement of heavy painting later.

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• Use the smallest layer height (which in most printer is .1mm or less). This is absolutely important. Make sure the first layer is also printed in smallest height (or highest resolution).

Striation or stringy surface when printed with large layer height.

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Start with a good print

• We started with the face plate upside down (attaching to the hot plate) to get the best finish to start with.

• Start with a new Kapton tape (for ABS) and clean the surface to get rid of any debris. We used IPA (from Walmart, optional) to remove surface oil, if any

• For finer features, use slower speed. Avoid faster speed in general if not absolutely necessary.

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Start with a good print

• Use a dense infill. We used 100% infill, But a thicker shell may also suffice. (A good amount of material is removed while sanding).

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Start with a good print

Sanding

• Use five to six gradually increasing grades of sand paper (we used papers with grit 100, 240, 400, 600, 1500 and 2000).

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Sanding • Sanding with 100 grit is the most important part to remove any odd bumps or

deep scratches. We washed it occasionally to verify. Its very important to verify in every stages (under good light) or else, once moved up to higher grit papers, the scratches neglected will become prominent and may have to start over.

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Sanding

• Initially the surface will look ashed.

Sanded with 100 grit paper

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Sanding

• However once you start using 600 and higher, the surface will start to become cleaner and it becomes very smooth.

Sanded with 600 grit paper

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Polish (Optional)

• Plastic finish compound was bought from walmart (~$6). It gives you a shine that is comparable to a regular injection molded plastic.

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Question?

• More detail on: https://rumy.io/blog/finishing-3d-printed-parts

• Go to https://rumy.io and click contact.

• Thanks for reading through.

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