Surface Smoothness

[jon@kudo3D]

The mini rings photo on the campaign page is a 20 times blow up. If there is anything that your bare eye can detect, this photo should capture it. This is about the best we can achieve without lens modification. We do observe inconsistent surface smoothness for different printed rings, and it may be caused by the material stress. The ring with 10mm diameter has a material volume of only 40 mm-square.

The accumulative stress may not be high enough to cause relaxation. Please remember that the resin is still reacting even after the light is removed so shrinking is a continuous process during printing. To further improve the smoothness at high resolution, using the right type of resin is key. Low shrinkage is very important, otherwise, you could see the horizontal lines pop up when the cured resin relax its accumulative stress. Softer material may delay or prevent sudden relaxation of the material. Supports also have impact on how the cured resin moves after relaxation. This is the most likely reason for the occasional lines you see.

Please share your thoughts!

[Hedrus]

The post on the board here is missing the images. From the email they look amazing. Especially the head. The head seems to be completely smooth with no visible lines at all. What was the Z resolution on the head? Also what type of resin was used? Was it soft like you mentioned above?

From what you said above, would softer more flexible resins have less visible lines from lack of shrinkage and visible stress from layers? These things should be documented so we can figure out the best resins and settings to get smooth surfaces.

[jon@kudo3D]

Hi Hedrus - thanks for the comment. For the images, please refer to:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...n/posts/861662

Softer materials with the same shrinkage level would help. Materials with less resolution also help smooth out the surface. The angel is printed with XYZ 0.1 mm resolution using Makerjuice subG+, which is not soft at all. Horizontal lines happens more frequently on models with repeated patterns such as a square or a cylinder. We wish we could give an exact answer about the cause of the horizontal lines, but it could be a result of multiple factors. We will definitely conduct more research in the future about the unpredictable lines. Thanks again!

[abrahamalincoln]

Jon, I'd still like to see an example like the ring Russ Charles showed in the Kickstarter comments. It was off an EnvisionTEC machine. I really want to see what small text looks like. How sharp is it? I know you guys are super busy but I think a lot of us would appreciate it when you get a chance. Thanks!

[jon@kudo3D]

Hi Abrahamalincoln - We have been having a hard time to find a stl file that has a similar ring (also with the right license to print).

Does anyone else have any suggestions or files to share?

Thanks!

[Hugues]

This is quite impressive. At the moment i'm printing with filament extrusion, and well, the surface finish is not quite ok to make parts for my motorbike. I also tried with ABS but it shrinks a lot. Functional parts not visible inside the bike, fine.

[Hugues]

Not that i think it's needed, but if you have a few tiny bumps on your final part, could one spray a very fine layer of resin onto the finish part and cure it right away under a UV lamp ?

[Hedrus]

Hi Abrahamalincoln - We have been having a hard time to find a stl file that has a similar ring (also with the right license to print).

Does anyone else have any suggestions or files to share?

Thanks!

Post on here if you are having trouble finding anything. I am a 3d artist. I can make a ring with text on it in a few minutes if you need something. You could even give me a reference image to match. something like that would take a few minutes.

Kenzie

[Hedrus]

Not that i think it's needed, but if you have a few tiny bumps on your final part, could one spray a very fine layer of resin onto the finish part and cure it right away under a UV lamp ?

Couldn't you just use a self leveling primer spray paint?

[jon@kudo3D]

Hugues and Kenzie - you are both correct. Any paint or coating will smooth out the surface but will come at the expense of resolution. The thicker the paint, the more resolution will be lost.

Kenzie - thanks for the offer for the design!

https://grabcad.com/library/graduation-ring

We are going to contact the designer for permission. Would this ring work for you guys? Please let us know.

Thanks everyone!