Tuesday, October 20, 2020

3d Printed surface tests II

 My results of 3d printer surface testing were a bit disappointing, because the final finish achieved was still rougher than I wanted.  In the comments Heisler suggested that I try fine grit sandpaper and steel wool, so I fired up the printer and produced another sample block.

Since I had five sample positions, I thought that I would have one control, two for black gesso, and two for PVA, so that is what I did. Sanding was done in two steps with sand paper that I had to hand (100 and 220 grit).



1. Bare surface, right out of the printer
2. painted with black gesso and then sanded
3. sanded and then painted with black gesso
4. painted with PVA and then sanded
5. Sanded and then painted with PVA

The whole sample block was then sprayed with off white spray paint, and then given a quick (and sloppy) nuln oil wash. 

Pleasingly, all four of the surfaces are much smoother than my previous attempts, although the hoped for "answer" still eludes me.

3 comments:

Stew said...

I admit that I’m not exactly sure of what you’re trying to get at. But at this point I s as m pretty sure that you’re procrastinating from painting miniatures or those Normandy terrain pieces. 😀
But in my heart, I hope you find what you are looking for.

Lasgunpacker said...

Lol!

Was it so obvious?

daveb said...

I found this webpage/resource for dealing with printing lines, but I haven't had a chance to actually try it....
https://all3dp.com/how-to-smooth-pla-prints-without-any-sanding/