Look at these images 1. 2. 3. 4. As you can see 1 & 2 shows Polished Gold Steel as expected but 3 & 4 image? In 4th image is supposed to be Polished Gold Steel but it is not goldish enough! Compare to the second photo! I asked for a refund so I can reprint the product and indeed Shapeways refund me the money. But they told me that the 4th image is within the torelance of what Polished Gold Steel should look like! What do you think?
An expected tolerance is rather nebulous if it can't be backed up with hard measurements. Is there even such a thing as a measurement instrument that can screen objects to see if they fall within that certain ranges of color, smoothness, reflectivity, etc. prior to shipping? In theory they could post photos on the materials pages showing expected ranges of appearance as delineated by such measurement standards. Having said that photos of finished parts can also look vastly different in different photos or when seen with the naked eye, being influenced by camera, lighting, exposure time, object geometry, etc. and the same would apply to photos taken by Shapeways for a materials page. But finish quality/plating problems as sporadically reported by customers are not exactly a new development. There must be a way to successfully screen for such things in the 21st century.
I'm not doubting you :-D With them side by side, in the same lighting, I can talk to others about how we should show the possible variations.
When i take them I will take the photos you requested : ) something else now... why heatmap view on automated wallthickness check does not work? when i used to check this tool it gave me green or red. now only grey!!!
I would say it wasn't gold finished AT ALL I had that with a nickel steel piece...I had one turn up in "stainless steel" and the same design in "nickel steel" and they were identical. I complained and they agreed that it had likely just not been coated at all and reprinted rather than refunded. I would say yours was just the base stainless steel
The plain finish ranges from a steel color which would be much like the nickel platting, to a more bronze color. Depending on the infusion process, and how much bronze comes to the surface. I don't know how much this effects the plating process, but I do know there are variations in the plated finishes.
The bullion bar clearly did not make it to the correct finishing line. SW should reprint & ship it for free. -S
As the OP mentioned, we've already refunded. But I agree, the side by side does make the bar look like it's not coated at all.