painting and finishing your model

wanted to share something i modeled and printed recently. this was done in all abs. it was too big to be printed on my m2 in one shot so i had split the model in two, printed it then solvent bonded the pieces together. i do alot of automotive painting and airbrushing so i decided to put a nice finish on this piece. i rough sanded it smooth then did a few coats of a high build urethane primer on it. i sanded it smooth. i mixed a light bronze shade of basecoat then took an airbrush and distressed. once it was all done i mixed up some matte automotive clearcoat and put 2 coats on it.

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:178538

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That's really spectacular Jim. Really clean work. Thanks for sharing it.

That looks fabulous! Airbrushing has such a nice finish to it. Great job!

Haha wow thanks. I posted that about a year ago lol. Long time no see rob.

Funny. I was just cruising the forum looking for threads that had no responses. Didn't even look at the date. Been busy with other things and now getting back to printing. I'm adding a dual head Hexagon rig to my Makerfarm. It's really nice. Not my design but I'm helping test it and work out bugs.

Thats cool. I havent really gotten into the dual extrusion yet. Makergear came out with a dual head setup for my m2 which is really killer. I havent jumped on it yet. Dual really only interests me for support material.

Same here but it underlines the need to do thorough research before undertaking a big project like implementing dual heads. My whole goal for it was to do support material too. Now that I've gotten the two heads working, I began to look for dissolvable filament. When I found it, I began to read about it for the first time carefully. It's PVA and if it jams, it's likely to destroy a head because it can't be dissolved or overheated to bake away like ABS or PLA. Now I'm a bit afraid to use it with my brand new Hexagon heads. I've started another post asking if anyone has used it and if they've had problems. No responses yet.

Either way, I'm excited. I sometimes do prototypes for consumer products and two colors of filament will make them look more finished in some cases. It was definitely not a waste of effort. Plus, if one head jams, I still have another one ready to go in an instant so I can finish a print. That's a benefit I had not considered earlier.

pva dissolves easily just in water. if it jams just pull out what you can and soak the hot end in water overnight. also get yourself a 2mm drill bit. its great for clearing out anything in the filament path. no way will pva or any plastic destroy your hot end if it jams.

Hi Jim,

So what do you make of this: http://www.amazon.com/Gizmo-Dorks-Fi.../dp/B00ITZQVFQ

See the Product Description:
PVA is a water-soluble synthetic polymer. PVA is degradable and dissolves quickly in water. It is the perfect filament to use as support material for it's dissolvable properties. Generally, PVA is used in conjunction with PLA not ABS because it adheres well to PLA. The extrusion temperature difference can also be problematic with ABS. Importantly, PVA should not be allowed to sit at temperatures higher than 200°C for an extended period of time, known as pyrolysis. It will form jams which are extremely difficult to remove. Unlike PLA and ABS, you cannot remove the jam by increasing the temperature. Clearing the jam in the nozzle will often require it to be re-drilled or replaced altogether, so be careful!

Funny actually. I have never heard a single person complain or mention that. That happens with any plastic really if it sits cooking in your hot end. Look at the black crusty crap that gets on your nozzle over time. It must just happen more quickly with pva. In any case if you get a jamb your hot end isnt junk. I always have a 2mm drill bit around specifically for running down the hot end just to clean the main path. If you need to clean it beyond that then there are many higher strength solvents to put it in. Methylene chloride is what i usualy use.

Ok, sounds good. I don't why they'd have such a dire warning. Logincally, it doesn't make sense. If the support can be dissolved in water, they why can't the plastic in the hot end be dissolved by water. Both have either passed through or endered at the same temperature. So if plastic extruded at 200C can dissolve in water, why wouldn't plastic heated to 200C and still in the hot end dissolve at 200C? They must be talking about proprietary printers that you can't disassemble very easily. For instance, I was in a MicroCenter on Wednesday and they have Makerbot printers. The salesman was holding this sort of large black cartridge and seemed to be having a hard time getting it apart. Then I noticed some heat sink fins. It was a cartridge with a hot end inside that you plug in somehow. It looked both easy to use and overly complex at the same time. I guess if you can't get your printer's hot end off and apart easily, then a PVA clog might be disastrous.

I appreciate your wisdom. I'll get some and not be so worried. Your confidence that it won't be a problem makes me feel better because I built this whole dual extruder rig specifically to use dissolvable support material.