First Phase“Fall in Love with 3D@eSUN Makers Group Online Sharing Activity”Wonderful Review

2015/09/16

First Phase“Fall in Love with 3D@eSUN Makers Group Online Sharing Activity”Wonderful Review

On the evening of September 13th,3D@eSUN Makers Group launched its first online sharing with enthusiastic scene response,there were 171 people in the group.

Theme of this phase is“3D Printing & Model Surface Treatment”,Crafts maker expert Mr “Rainy day” was invited to this activity,and started at half past nine at night.They could share and interact by sending voice,pictures,videos etc,also very detailed and intuitive.

“Rainy day” gave a introduction of himself first: he starts from art and employed himself in designing craft gifts in Guangdong for about ten years.With the popularization of 3D printing technology’s application,he started to pay attention on this industry and being very interested in it,then he joined in Maker activity.Having deep love for 3D printing,“Rainy day”bought one DIY 3D printer,he built up and print models himself,hoping it can be combined with demand of traditional handicraft industry.

During the process of exploring 3D printing,“Rainy day”summarized some experience gradually,and shared them from creating models,printing brace settings,printing process to finished polishing full process in detail,and surface treatment on printed products is the key part.

3D printed product has layered textures,which will lower its overall aesthetics.“Rainy day”primary used relatively original polished method: handwork and sandpaper.Some people asked that whether they can use sandblasting machine,“Rainy day”showed that sandblasting machine may be effective to products made by ABS,but won’t to PLA,because surface temperature’s raising will soften PLA,which will disappear its surface details.

“Rainy day” took the bowl model printed by eSUN’s upcoming copper material as an example,specifically introduced polished process of the model.For the copper is mainly made of PLA,he chose handwork and semi-mechanized combing to polish. 

Next are polished steps:
1.Grinding machine’s grinding wheel polish first pass
2.Coarse sandpaper polish second pass by hand
3.Coarse sandpaper polish once again
4.Fine sandpaper polish one pass
5.Buren polish
6.Wool round polish at last



After these six steps,copper will show perfect antique effect,you can truly feel it with the finished products’ images. 

“Rainy day” not only researched physical polish method,but also began his polish exploration in chemical field gradually,he is really working hard as an art student.At first,he chose “acetone fumigation” to polish products.

Acetone solution is poisonous,it’s very necessary to take protective measures and the place must be ventilated when doing experiments.Someone in the group suggested to use“ventilated cabinet”.【Please do not imitate easily when without professional equipment as protection】

This is the “temporary laboratory”of “Rainy day”,on the right is heating stove when fumigated,and the heating container is also very important,it should has high temperature resistance feature.

Pour acetone into container,use iron wire to hang the model that needed to polish in the container(make a small hole on the model),capping.The boiling point of acetone solution is 56.5℃,during fumigation,heating the container watertight,when the acetone solution begin to  bubble,you can put the model that needed to fumigate in carefully if you find that acetone vapors has fallen upon glass jars.Time for fume steam is very short,ranges from several seconds to one minute.If the timer is longer than needed,it will disappear surface details of product.

The experiment of “Rainy day” shows that acetone fumigation is not applicable to finished products that printed by PLA,next is ABS model’s acetone fumigation effect contrast:

Next shows the effect that fumigation has on model
The right one is model after fumigation
The left one is model after fumigation
We can see that fumigation has apparent effects on model,its surface is very smooth and almost all stripes had disappeared.

We should be prudential when using acetone for it’s boiling point is low,easy to volatilize(poisonous) and burn,it’s not recommended to imitate.Or you should make full preparations,use professional equipment and take safety measures,it’s really admirable that “Rainy day” can be so dedicated and brave.

One maker friend suggested to use ethyl acetate to do experiment,“Rainy day”did according to it but didn’t received good effects.In the image,support waste materials of ABS soaked in ethyl acetate solution for about 20 minutes,he found that soaking for a long time can be effective to ABS,as next picture show:

“Rainy day” is still trying and improving his fumigation experiment,if you want to know more details,please join our“Falling in love with 3D@eSUN Makers Group Online Sharing ”to communicate better:

After the link of sharing experience,“Rainy day”answered other people’s questions,there are also professional people put forward their suggestions, entire sharing communication lasted two hours,competent participants ran through whole process.

In order to thank you for selfless sharing of “Rainy day”,
Manager of this group,represented eSUN Makers and sent suit gift of new 3D printing pen & eMate printing material which were listed by Shenzhen Esun Industrial Co.,Ltd to express the appreciation.

Though this activity was over,the group was still lively,they didn’t stop discussing on 3D printing and creative thoughts,looking forward to next phase sharing activity.

Now we are levying theme and prizes of next phase:

We need masters!

You share your experience,I send my gifts!

3D printing,show your cool time!