buildlog.net

http://www.wired.com/design/2013/03/3d-print-smoothing

I was hoping this would be my tablespoon of acetone in a gallon of water parts tumbling micro chemical abrasion technique (that I never tried), but the acetone vapor technique is pretty cool and hacker/hobby friendly.

Just wish there was something as good for PLA. It's the only thing I use.

As a hardcore ABS fan, this is something I might consider trying at some point. However, I breathe enough toxic (and toxicish) things already, I don;t think I need to add acetone to the list.

JeremyBP wrote:As a hardcore ABS fan, this is something I might consider trying at some point. However, I breathe enough toxic (and toxicish) things already, I don;t think I need to add acetone to the list.

The article states that most of the fumes stay in the container with the 3D printed part. If I did this, I'd either do it outside, or actively vent it to the outside.

You can smooth PLA with acetone too.

It takes quite a bit of fiddling and can end with burnt eyebrows, however.
The trick is to first let a container heat up so all the water evaporates (it's the water that actually causes the white discoloration during the process). Also, the acetone vapors have to be rather high temp for it to work (which brings me back to burnt eyebrows). Finally, the acetone that recirculates and condenses back deposits this odd film of PLA at the bottom, which causes the object to stick to whatever is underneath it. Sometimes it even covers the base of the object.

It's very very finicky and doesn't work always, but once it works, the result is pretty nice.

Edit: Contrary to popular belief, acetone DOES dissolve PLA, just not very well... I use it to remove PLA residue from the glass bed, for example.

Liberty4Ever wrote:The article states that most of the fumes stay in the container with the 3D printed part. If I did this, I'd either do it outside, or actively vent it to the outside.

Yeah, that's true. Still makes my lungs twinge thinking about it.

Acetone vapours aren't that bad. Really.

Blurgble.

I figure acetone is an organic solvent, and I'm organic!

Blurgble indeed!

Hey, at least it's not as bad as methyl ethyl ketone or methylene chloride.

(I was kidding... Thought it might be good idea to state that clearly, just in case someone stumbles upon this and thinks i was seriously advising inhaling acetone is a good idea. That said, it's worth noting that acetone is, for the most part, "just" an irritant. It also acts as a depressant in large enough quantities.)

I had always imagined that it dissolves my brain.

Not that I'm careful with it at all. I mean it's nail polish remover. Can't be that bad.

Of course, I was reading yesterday how automotive workers used to use benzene to wash the crud off their hands, pre-Gojo