My attempt at PLA smoothing with Acrylic Cement w/photos

Like most exclusive users of PLA, I've been on the hunt for something to help smooth PLA like acetone does to ABS. Based on some suggestions I've read (here and elsewhere) I decided to give Acrylic Cement a try. I used a junk PLA part I had laying around that was horribly layered due to my print bed being out of alignment. In this experiment I simply used a "dunk" method, lowering one end of the part in to the Acrylic Cement for about 20 seconds and then letting it air dry. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the results. I also used the cement to weld together a couple of pieces of PLA and it's indeed like super glue. It seems I finally have something I can use to splice together several rolls of PLA I have laying around with only 30' or so of filament left on each. I have not tried vapor smoothing with the cement as I don't know if it will work any better. Anyone have experience with that?


Right half of the part is where it was dipped in the chemical

Attachment 1975Attachment 1976

Soak your part in Hot water for about 1-3 minutes, then while your part is still in the water get a kitchen scourer or something thats coarse but not too course and scrub it while its in the water. Will give you a similar result without the chems.

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Originally Posted by Geoff

Soak your part in Hot water for about 1-3 minutes, then while your part is still in the water get a kitchen scourer or something thats coarse but not too course and scrub it while its in the water. Will give you a similar result without the chems.

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I gave that a try, even trying super hot water for 5+ minutes. It didn't make any noticeable difference. Perhaps my piece is simply in too bad of shape for this method to work. The acrylic cement method works great, but it doesn't gloss the piece like acetone does on ABS. It appears to be just as smooth, but it discolors the model. That might not be a major issue if you're using lighter color PLA filament.

- Try some XTC-3D, I think it will give you the gloss your looking for.

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Originally Posted by GOC

- Try some XTC-3D, I think it will give you the gloss your looking for.

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I heard that stuff isn't very good, I suggested it once and everyone said how much of a pain it was and how thick the coat is... you lose all detail.

- Tis true, I only like using it for my 'artsy' pieces that don't have a lot of detail. I also used it for a faceplate which worked pretty well, but I did have to do some sanding to get the plate to fit after coating.

*Side Note: The main reason I like this method is because its much safer than smoothing using Tetrahydrofuran or Dichloromethane

You can try DMC for better results. It's what we used to print PLA reinforced with nanocarbon fiber with syringe. Make sure it is well ventilated.

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Originally Posted by richardphat

You can try DMC for better results. It's what we used to print PLA reinforced with nanocarbon fiber with syringe. Make sure it is well ventilated.

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- I've heard of THF(Tetrahydrofuran) & DCM(Dichloromethane) but whats DMC?

Just a typo, it's much better to hear DMC both in french and english here then to say DCM.
Although it is technichally wrong, we used it as our intern department vocabulary.