Hello, Is it possible to get something printed in UNglazed ceramic, or UNpolished steel? If so, how would I ask for that option? Thanks, Glenn
You can't get anything made in unglazed ceramic as the glaze is basically the only thing that holds it together. Without it the models are too brittle to ship. Unpolished stainless isn't offered and I don't see why you would want it. The "polishing" is meant to remove burrs from printing and excess support material. The models are actually still rather rough even though they're polished. Of course if you really need it you could ask support but I don't think it will be possible.
The ceramic is fired multiple times, one of them to give it strength before applying any glaze. Check the blog post about ceramics, as well as the ceramics page. It could be possible, just not avaliable.
i would love to have the option of ordering unpolished steel.... frankly there are some things that should be hand polished and not tossed around by machine...
Some of the things I have had printed in steel came back unevenly, inconsistently, or overpolished. I would just like the option of doing the polishing myself. As for the glaze, it looks to me like the glaze obscures details more than I'd like. I also like the look of "bisque" porcelain, and would like the option of producing objects with that appearance.
Apparently there's a lot of interest in un-glazed ceramic out there. I am really into the option too. It's not a matter of the un-glazed being "too brittle to ship" as some claim. It seems to more about "sellability." There's an extensive comment section here. Nancy Liang (employee) says, "The structures are indeed shippable between stages. Currently, we decided to opt for glaze only because the finishing for the other pieces are very rough (doesn't have to do with shippability), and isn't very commercially appealing--also the pricing would probably be close to the glaze because we still need to spray on the pre-glaze. We will look into this and refine for later releases." I'd say that this option appeals to a lot of people and who are the commercials if not us? Since Shapeways has just refined their ceramic processing, I'd say that now is an opportune time to release un-glazed options for ceramics. As part of this community, make your desire known and spread the word. I'm sure it's something that will be offered (at least in one of those "trial" periods) if enough people ask for it. I vote YES.
Sound like good requests to enter into and vote for with the new feedback tool here: https://feedback.shapeways.com/forums/111989-shapeways-feedba ck/category/37902-suggestions-3d-printing (At the moment you need to register separately for the tool, but if you use the same email as for the main site, it will be seamlessly integrated later)
Apart from the obvious colour difference, is there anything else that would change when an item has no glaze? Would the items be more accurate to the 3D design in terms of dimensions or would the "pre-glaze" cause the same effect (adding thickness and thus reducing detail etc)
I'm interested to know that as well. I recently received a glazed model and was disappointed at how much detail was lost under what appeared to be a thick layer of glaze (which was also marred by a small pinhole defect). If the pre-glaze is necessary to the strength of the object, but does not obscure details as much as the final glaze, that would make it more desirable in my view.
I posted the same question regarding unglazed ceramics back in October: https://www.shapeways.com/forum/index.php?t=msg&th=6843. In that post, I note the results of my communications with Shapeways:
If it is requested enough on Uservoice it will be considered. https://feedback.shapeways.com/forums/111989-shapeways-feedba ck