• Tweet

• Tweet

Improving a print through abrasion

This is the fifth in a series of posts about ways to get even better print results from your 3D printer. ¹  The prior posts provided information on calibrating hardware, upgrading hardware, calibrating software, and maintenance.  Please keep sending in your hints, tips, hacks, and suggestions!  Today’s post is about one of the most common kinds of finishing techniques:

1. Abrasion.Removing excess plastic by abrasion is an obvious way to improve the look of a printed object.  Here are the tools I use to clean up a printed object:
   1. Needle nose pliers or wire cutters to remove any large strings of plastic or plastic blobs.
   2. A spackle or putty knife to pop off any large blobs.  This is the same spackle knife I use to remove printed objects from the print platform.
   3. A utility knife to clean, smooth, and sometimes even carve parts.
   4. Sandpaper or emery board.
   5. I have been known, on occasion, to rub a printed object on concrete to sand down an edge.
   6. I’ve also used drill bits to ream out holes or clean off edges.

What other techniques do you use to abrade a printed model to get a better printed result?

1. Photo courtesy of jwcline [↩]