inconsistent printing?

Received my batch of WSF prints today, among them are test prints of my 8cm bendy whale
https://www.shapeways.com/model/18979/flexible_whale_8cm.html

I ordered 2 copies initially because I needed to make up the $25, and was also thinking of giving one away, but one of the prints is 'thinner' than the other and had bits broken either during cleaning or shipping.

They should be identical... shouldn't the printing process be quite precise? maybe it was the cleaning process - one being cleaned more rigorously than the other?

I'd really want to have this in my shop, as I like small intricate things and I think others might find it appealing too, but I can't really make this model available if the result is this varied.

edit- sorry didn't mean to flood the topic.. but couldn't get more pics per post...

the ok print:

the thin broken print:

View attachment 329

ok print - flexes

broken print - doesn't flex...

Er1c,

You'll get a coupon for the broken print.

The process itself is precise but cleaning is done by hand and this does sometimes lead to mistakes. Sorry about that. We review and see what happened and improve accordingly.

We love the flex whale model: Peter Paul bought one and has it on his desk and uses it as a business card holder.

thanks for looking into it Joris

a business card holder, that's a nice use for it
I think Peter must have bought the 12cm version. I haven't made this smaller 8cm one available for sale yet.

please let me know whether this 8cm one can be printed and shipped safely (ie ok for potential customers)

E

Er1c,

Yes, it is fine for customers. This was human error and had nothing to do with your model itself.

Joris

after looking at the 2 prints more closely, I think the reason they turned out differently might be because they were printed in 2 different orientations.

I'm guessing this from the difference in surface textures (see photo 02a compared to 02b)

This might be a more likely cause than the cleaning process... I don't think compressed air can over-clean a print and reduce it's thickness

Er1c,

Orientation does affect detail levels but I would expect it to have such an impact on your particular part.

What is likely is that the part was not cleaned quickly enough. This causes "unfused" powder to fuse to the part and could account for the issues you had.

Joris

oh.... the broken print is thinner than the good print, so the good print was actually the one that has the excess material fused?
maybe it is a problem with my model being too thin?

or do you mean the thinner one had excess material fused, therefore the cleaning process had to be more rigorous, and the result was too much of the model 'cleaned' off?