Hi everyone, I hope someone has some experience with this sort of problem that could help me. I have a few SLS parts that are polished and need to be able to endure some constant contact with other parts. I have tried dyeing, but I feel painting gives me a much better surface finish, look and feel than dyeing. However, I've been trying to recreate some of the results shown in this tutorial: https://www.shapeways.com/tutorials/painting3dprintedsls in which they paint a part that's 2mm thick and the paint seeps through to the other side. All of my parts are 2mm or thinner, and none of the paints I've used seem to go through the part at all, resulting in the paint chipping once it gets in contact with the other parts and the white sls material showing through. I have used Tamiya acrylic paints, Revell aqua, Rust-oleum paint for plastic and Krylon paint for plastic. Any ideas on what might help the paint go through the sls material? I know most people are trying to avoid this and I can't really get it to happen.
Did you clean the parts before painting? The liquids used in the polishing process might be interfering with the paint.
I could be wrong, but I don't think any liquids are used in the polishing of Strong and Flexible parts.
Having seen the polishing process firsthand, yes they do use some liquid in the polishing process. I've no idea which type though. Not a polishing agent, maybe a lubricant to wash away the particles that have been abraded from the WSF parts?
Actually, I realized this and thought it could be a problem, so I tested both cleaning the polished part with water (under pressure) and scrubbing, and I also tested painting a few parts that have not been polished.. and the same issue occurs, the paint does not seem to go through the part at all. I was thinking maybe using some kind of thinning agent for the paint, but I would like to be able to use spray paints in the end.
The results in that tutorial are not very recent. It's possible that the porosity of the WSF has been reduced since then to generate better quality prints. There are many factors that could have made prints different over time - source powder, machine settings, machine upgrades, software upgrades, etc. Maybe someone from Shapeways can chime in and provide some history milestones?