Got some Bronzefill :-)

So I got aroll of this stuff for my birthday.

read up on it and it's pretty easy to print with. 200c, cold bed. Zero warp.

My first print is a honda logo as the guy I'm doing a christmas exchange with this year has a honda goldwing. What better little doodad than the polished bronze keyring.

36% and looking good.

So I have now had to add to my collection of stuff for 3d printing: steelwool for polishing, sanding paper/cloth (got paper up here but there's loads of different grit cloth in my wood working shed) also added some copper metal polish.

My plan is to print it. Take rough edge off with a quick sand, then polish with different grades of steel wool. Then use the polish and finally buff with my rotary tool and a buffing pad.

More shortly :-)

Right first bronzefill item finished.

This is the initial finished print. The raw print has the look and feel of rough stoneware ceramic.
Attachment 3587

And a couple after sanding, wirewooling, polishing and buffing.

Attachment 3588

Attachment 3589

It does look and feel like bronze. The lighting in here at night is bit crap for photos. I'll take another pic tomorrow in sunlight :-)
The buffing wheel rounded the edges and gave it an aged look. Love the way the honda came out.
Have to say I'm seriously impressed.

Prints easy, looks and feels like metal.
Nobody would ever guess it had been printed.

Cool beans !

Right I'm going to try the cuddling owls in a small size next.

Got to say this stuff is expensive (well it is if it's not your birthday lol) but based on just this one print - it's definitely worth it :-)

Nice, I have some coming this week looking forward to trying it, going to do the usual keyrings and small things first, but ideally I want to get some Pirates of the Carribean coins done for the kids to hand out at school, they are popular items.

I was amazed how easy it was to print overhangs etc with Bronzefill. Nice results!

Been looking for a rock tumber or some other device where I can put my model into and let it spin together with some stuff that grinds it. Any ideas?

EDIT: Sorry for hijacking your thread :P

Please, can I ask where you got the bronzefill from?
I know you said it was a present, but any clue as to where I can source it from would be appreciated

cheers

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jaykay2PT

Please, can I ask where you got the bronzefill from?
I know you said it was a present, but any clue as to where I can source it from would be appreciated

cheers

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I got mine from Colorfabb: http://colorfabb.com/bronzefill

Quick reply! THANK YOU and a supplier in Europe (I forgot to say I am in Portugal)

yep colorfab are the manufacturers.
You can get it direct from them - there are also a few suppliers in the uk who sell it.

Here's a tip for you that I should have used last night lol

Print models hollow, then make hole in the base and fill with modelling clay. Then glue a bit of felt over the base. And you've cut down massively on material used but still got the weight.
It's what colorfabb were doing at the tct show :-)

I - however - printed the cuddling owls out with 20% infill. Attachment 3613


Oh yeah and one other thing I discovered. wirewool makes a right mess. I'd recommend using it outside otherwise you get covered in little bits of wire.

Some people claim they get spiked and need to use gloves. I didn't have any problem using it barehanded. But bear that in mind.
It's much easier to get into the detailed sections than sand paper as well.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

Oh yeah and one other thing I discovered. wirewool makes a right mess. I'd recommend using it outside otherwise you get covered in little bits of wire.

Some people claim they get spiked and need to use gloves. I didn't have any problem using it barehanded. But bear that in mind.
It's much easier to get into the detailed sections than sand paper as well.

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You may find something like one of the fibreglass pens works well for clean-up (http://uk.farnell.com/duratool/d0226...4mm/dp/2102028). Can be fitted with different inserts, I have some brass ones. But do use latex gloves because they're worse than wirewool for little bits.

yeah something like that could be useful for the really fiddly bits. I can easily make something very similiar. My days of buying plastic gadgets are mostly behind me :-)

Now the owls I printed were about 5cm tall.
Takes a fair bit of sanding and polishing as you can't really use mechanical methods without risking removing or melting too much material.
Be very careful with powered buffing wheels. They actually melt the plastic and remove it more than the sanding if you press too hard.
And rather than polishing tend to re-dull the material.

I found best way was to work my way down the grades of wirewool. Gets into the crevices much easier than sanding paper.

Then use the polish and rub down with a soft cloth.

Oh yeah and make sure to clean the nozzle off after printing, bits tend to accumulate around the tip.

Currently printing a hollow ganesh that'll fill with clay.

So far I've benn printing at .2mm and 50mms print speed. And using makerware - 'cos it's just quicker and for stuff like this works fine.

If you have never used one of those then do not underestimate what they can remove! Can be quite vicious and will take copper off of a PCB without too much effort. Was thinking they would be good for getting into the more intricate bits of the part. Anyway, just a suggestion.

FrankV they sound just the job, I am certainly going to order those, THANK YOU

I was going to order some of this stuff today, went to their website and they are out of stock! My luck lol

Same here! will be waiting now for them to have it again

MY son has a roll inbound, ordered it from Printedsolid.com, our local Colorlabs distributor. Does anyone think a vibrating tumbler with crushed walnut shells would work for smoothing it out?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by JohnA136

MY son has a roll inbound, ordered it from Printedsolid.com, our local Colorlabs distributor. Does anyone think a vibrating tumbler with crushed walnut shells would work for smoothing it out?

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Not from what I watched, http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...eFill-Filament

yep barnacules pretty much tried eberything and came down on sanding and wire wool.

However they don't easily remove print lines from recessed areas.

So I'm going to try the felt buffing wheel on my rotary tool as the first stage rather than the last.

Here's the latest pic:
Attachment 3641

The contrast between the raw print ganesh and the polished owls is amazing.

Basically without polishing prints look and feel like they're made from a rough stoneware ceramic.
Which actually fits the ganesh model probably better than polishing as it's taken from a very old statue.

So you actually get two very different finishes from the one filament.

I printed genesh hollow, so I'm going to stuff him with clay for weight and try the buffing wheel as a first stage treatment.

Ah - that's right. I weighed ganesh.

Bronzefill is 2.74 times denser than pla.

So to work out how much you're going to use for a particular print just multiply the grams the slicer it gives you by 2.74.
Or use that to add filament density to the slicer's settings.

Bear in mind a roll of bronzefill weighs 750gms. Sounds good - till you work out the length.
You only get the same length of filament as you'd get with 273 grams of pla.
ie: just over a quarter roll.

Use sparingly and make hollow figures wherever possible.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

yep barnacules pretty much tried eberything and came down on sanding and wire wool.

However they don't easily remove print lines from recessed areas.

So I'm going to try the felt buffing wheel on my rotary tool as the first stage rather than the last.

Here's the latest pic:
Attachment 3641

The contrast between the raw print ganesh and the polished owls is amazing.

Basically without polishing prints look and feel like they're made from a rough stoneware ceramic.
Which actually fits the ganesh model probably better than polishing as it's taken from a very old statue.

So you actually get two very different finishes from the one filament.

I printed genesh hollow, so I'm going to stuff him with clay for weight and try the buffing wheel as a first stage treatment.

Ah - that's right. I weighed ganesh.

Bronzefill is 2.74 times denser than pla.

So to work out how much you're going to use for a particular print just multiply the grams the slicer it gives you by 2.74.
Or use that to add filament density to the slicer's settings.

Bear in mind a roll of bronzefill weighs 750gms. Sounds good - till you work out the length.
You only get the same length of filament as you'd get with 273 grams of pla.
ie: just over a quarter roll.

Use sparingly and make hollow figures wherever possible.

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Thanks for all the info. And yeah, hopefully the price goes down some on that filament. Not even sure if anyone else make's it yet.

no nobody else is making it. Although when they look at what it's selling for and that it's selling like hot cakes in the arctic - I suspect similiar filaments are definitely in development at avariety of companies.

So the actual cost in real terms - ie: how much stuff you can print with a roll.

Is.........(drumroll please) 12x more expensive than decent pla !!!!!!!!!

Wow.
to put this into perspective, ninjaflex is only about 5-6x more expensive than basic pla.

I wonder how much 3d printing bureaus charge for printing with metal powder ?
Okay it's not got the whole 'I printed this myself' vibe. But it could well be a cheaper option.