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Does anyone on these boards successfully use acetone to smooth their FDM printed prints? I've been 3D printing for a while, but I haven't had the nerve or know-how to actually try and smooth the layering lines on my prints using Acetone. How safe is it, and what's the best way to do it? Has anyone here done it in the past?
There are people here who have, and continue to do it.
It's not exactly safe, acetone is not the best thing to breathe in. As long as you stay in a well-ventilated place you should be fine.
I've tried it before with mixed results. If you go too long, the shell of the model will sink in and the internal support will be visible. Not long enough and the model won't be smooth...
Yea, I have good luck with it. It boils at 133F (56C) so you can do it on your head bed. You can set the heat bed to about 75C and put a large glass jar on it. I got this gigantic glass jar at WalMart. You don't want a 'sealing' lid. It needs to be able to vent. I put in about 3 tablespoons of acetone. I've built a metal stand out of the bottom of a quart paint can. I cut the bottom off and..., heck, here's a quick drawing of my support in a jar:
Attachment 867
I cut the bottom off of the paint can at about 1". I then cut and folded the edge up to leave 3 feet touching. That way it always sits flat and does not rock. Then I took coat hanger and made a lift. Instead of using my heat bed, I now put 150-degree water in a big frying pan and set my glass jar in that. I put the acetone in and when it starts to bubble (vaporize) I lower my part in for a about 30 seconds. If you go too long you can wreck your part. It does a great job for my needs. It will be soft when it comes out so don't touch it. Sometimes it takes overnight before its hard again. You can repeat if necessary. But be careful because you can mess the part up really quickly. Be safe and do this outside or with an organic mask on. Acetone is highly flammable so be careful. Three tablespoons won't make a bomb or blow your house up but you could get scorched.
Interesting. I never event considered smoothing my prints, but I was reading about some guy that did this successfully on reddit.
This is what he does:And the end results:Quote:
I used a cheap pot w/glass lid, heat plate, 3 small pieces of delrin, a small piece of glass and acetone.
Heat the plate to 110c
Put a Layer (1/4)" of acetone in the pot.
Place the delrin pieces evenly spaced to hold the glass above the acetone.
Place the pot with lid on the heater for a few min to heat.
Then set the glass w/parts on the delrin supports
Lid on
The parts were in the pot for 10 min. I think 5min would of been fine for what I needed.
Let dry for a few hours after removal.
http://i.imgur.com/hNkfby2.jpg