learning to love twitter
Last night's print came out so horribly I decided to tweet it as a general sort of example to the community of how bad it can be when a print goes awry. Within the hour I had a very good answer to the problem, one I never would have realized was to blame. I knew we had filament spooling problems but I didn't know that tension was producing the blorps as well as the voids! The voids were hidden by support material so till I started cleaning the print off I didn't see them. I have thrown it in the trash and pulled it back out several times this morning and finally decided that with heated tools and sanding and so on, it just might work anyway. So I'm going to refurbish another crapped out print. I've done a few! If parts don't break off in the process, I can usually make it work, and often a bit of wire and nail polish reattaches very well.
Okay, let me make it more concrete because I might have someone's attention, though I doubt it. I hope not, frankly, it'd be embarassing!
So the hot tools, that's my microtorch, an old burnt dinner knife (cheap stainless type), and assorted metal picks and scrapers. I leave the torch going, it's on a stand and sits nicely, and heat the metal tools to melt the plastic to smooth, fill, and remove bits. I have a 3d pen and some PLA on the way for it, so I'll be able to fill voids quite nicely with that. With careful work, the part can be brought up till I can paint it and make something nice out of it that works. I wouldn't recommend this for machine parts, but for these boxes I do, it's effective. My first box is composed entirely of failed prints from prototypes! with sanding, melting, and cutting I was able to make them all come together in one well-battered and time honoured travelling suitcase!
So you can apply traditional finishing techniques to this plastic, and don't be afraid to use heat to smooth, edit, and change your print. You can even warm the whole thing up till it's pliable and adjust it as a whole! I did this with my abs peacock feather earrings. I put them on parchment paper in the toaster oven. Just when I could smell the plastic I took them out and pressed them into the parchment against a hard surface using a cold spatula. They flattened out quite nicely and got significantly less ugly. given how hideous they still are, that's something. I have no idea who would welcome these things and they're likely to wind up at the thrift store being pitied but not bought till someone wants the shepherd's hooks they're on. So ugly!
Okay, let me make it more concrete because I might have someone's attention, though I doubt it. I hope not, frankly, it'd be embarassing!
So the hot tools, that's my microtorch, an old burnt dinner knife (cheap stainless type), and assorted metal picks and scrapers. I leave the torch going, it's on a stand and sits nicely, and heat the metal tools to melt the plastic to smooth, fill, and remove bits. I have a 3d pen and some PLA on the way for it, so I'll be able to fill voids quite nicely with that. With careful work, the part can be brought up till I can paint it and make something nice out of it that works. I wouldn't recommend this for machine parts, but for these boxes I do, it's effective. My first box is composed entirely of failed prints from prototypes! with sanding, melting, and cutting I was able to make them all come together in one well-battered and time honoured travelling suitcase!
So you can apply traditional finishing techniques to this plastic, and don't be afraid to use heat to smooth, edit, and change your print. You can even warm the whole thing up till it's pliable and adjust it as a whole! I did this with my abs peacock feather earrings. I put them on parchment paper in the toaster oven. Just when I could smell the plastic I took them out and pressed them into the parchment against a hard surface using a cold spatula. They flattened out quite nicely and got significantly less ugly. given how hideous they still are, that's something. I have no idea who would welcome these things and they're likely to wind up at the thrift store being pitied but not bought till someone wants the shepherd's hooks they're on. So ugly!