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WIP (Transparent) Helmet Visor [Advice?] [message #43735] Thu, 09 February 2012 13:31 UTC Go to previous message
avatar AD-Edge is currently offline AD-Edge
Messages: 62
Registered: June 2008
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Hey guys, I just received my latest order from shapeways (which was epic!)

I have a character printed out, along with his helmet, and what Im currently trying to sort out is the glass visor which slots into the helmet.
My first test print of the visor was in FD, and I hoped that it would be thin enough to be transparent so you can see the characters face behind in the helmet.

You can see in the pictures below, the visor was a slightly yellow tinged opaque colour due to a small layer of wax on the surface from the printing process.

http://i.imgur.com/EGkMH.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/Qhmra.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/EnQME.jpg


After cleaning most of it off with Acetone, the visor is no longer yellowish, but its still no where near as transparent as I was hoping. The edges seem a lot better (where the model curves around) which leads me to believe that the orientation of the printed surface also effects the transparency and Ive read in other threads about this white frosting on the surface which sometimes happens with FD (making FD less desired as the material for this object).

http://i.imgur.com/ETmCd.jpg

So my question is - does anyone have any advice or ideas on how I can make this more transparent.
My ideas so far are to either polish it somehow to make the surface smooth (might help?) or to simply reprint with much thinner walls or in another material (Im thinking Transparent Detail is the obvious next one to test)

The wall thickness of this is probably around 5mm at the thickest parts, so I have a bit of room to optimise there for sure.


Cheers!

-Alex


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