Wax Filament

[Wes@MachWax]

Last week, we sent out a few spools for testing. One of the gentlemen agreed to cast that Yoda print for me. I wanted to smooth it out a bit, so I made a new print @ 50micron. I also tried some techniques to smooth the surface finish. I kept getting a hole in the same spot on the neck. I think the .stl I got from thingiverse is the cause of this. Because of this, I also tested to see how well it takes additive wax. This wasn't a parameter we had in mind when designing the filament, but I was pleased with how easy it was to bind new wax to the old wax. We don't have proper tools for this, so I improvised by using a lamp dimmer, and the soldering iron that I like the least for that task. I also tried a candle, and some dental picks, but I preferred the soldering iron over this method.

The order was kept for all pictures. They were just rotated 90 degrees between takes.

These are before any manipulation. Some with the supports still attached.


And post op. The far left had the neck hole filled, and polished a little with a shop towel, and mineral spirits. The middle one was brutally assaulted with a heat gun. I tried to be gentle, but it melted a bit more than I would have liked. A pen type heat gun would have probably done better than the full size I was using. The right side one was filled in the neck area, as well as the ear holes. I also built the ears up to make up for the pieces that came off with the support pieces. I also polished this one a little with mineral spirits. The right one is the only one that was printed at 50 micron. The other two were at 200 micron.