Advice sought on SLS-printed Nylon prototype - what tolerances & how to best finish?

Here is an example of a painted sls prototype. It takes some effort but SLS mechanical properties are great and the accuracy is good. It is a nice way to bridge a product into production. The product in the image is suitable for end use and has emi-rfi paint under the cosmetic finish.

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As far as hole diameters go, the smaller the hole is the more it needs to be over-sized in the model. This is an issue with local heating and passive fusing of material on the inside of the holes. Shapeways covers this in their design guide. The parts in the picture were printed by Xometry, The grips are cast urethane by Anza Inc. in Cincinatti.

Galen Powers

Machining on printed parts is a very easy thing I do it all the time just have someone take your model extrude it from a shape that will either go in your lathe or mill and print it at a high quality like a form2 printer in two halves with a .010" gap. I have been doing this for over 10 years using our Objet on metal parts. It works great and is very easy to do.