I recently printed the same part with Shapeways' mid-tier polished nylon, and with glass-filled nylon from Shapeways' sculpture-friendly competitor. I was expecting the glass-filled nylon to be a lot rougher. However, that wasn't the case at all. It's actually
much smoother than the polished nylon from Shapeways, as well as being significantly more rigid. The two parts were just about the same price.
This leaves me with several thoughts:
1. Does anyone know whether the smoothness comes from the material difference, or the post-processing? If it's the post-processing, I'm really disappointed that Shapeways is doing such a mediocre job. I honestly didn't know how smooth nylon could be until I got the glass-filled version from the other company. In fact, it's noticeably smoother than Shapeways'
premium nylon, and that's at least twice as expensive!
2. Given that the pricing is the same, I'd love to see Shapeways carry glass-filled nylon. The added rigidity makes it very useful for designs where you want as little flex as possible.
Has anyone else had this experience too?