3D Printing Blog
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Normally a lot of 3D printers rely on 3M Blue Masking Tape to cover the build plate with. This specific tape offers good adhesion to the built plate, provides an even surface and most of all is great for 3D printing parts over it. The reason for that is because the tape has slightly uneven surface and is enough heat resistant to provide a good adhesion of the printed part on it. The not so good side of things is that the 3D blue masking tape is pretty expensive and you can relatively easy damage it while you are trying to remove the 3D printed model from it when it is finished, especially if the model is pretty small or flat. So we did some tests using different types of tape in order to see if they will be able to provide similar good results like the tape from 3M, but will cost less. Unfortunately these tests did end with only partial success, nevertheless we are going to share our findings as they might be useful to some of you…
We did try using Kapton tape over the Blue masking tape on the build plate that we already had and while it is enough heat resistant, the parts printed on top may not stick that well to it. We have observed some of the edges of larger printed 3D models starting to warp and that is something that you would want to avoid. For smaller 3D prints however the Kapton tape with PLA filament does work pretty well and the bottom part of the model ends up shinier and smoother than when printing on other rougher surfaces.
Trying out the common white painter tape that is much cheaper alternative to the 3M Scotch blue masking tape it does not work out that great. The main problem that the common white painter masking tape has is that it is not so heat resistant and the glue can start to let go, even though the object you are printing on top may initially stick very well to the tape it can start to warp at the edges. With that said however the white masking tape could still be useable for smaller 3D prints. The advantage it has besides the lower price is that you can easily remove the tape from the build plate and with it the 3D printed object will very easily be removed from the build plate.
We have also tried other different types of tapes, but unfortunately the results we’ve got were not that good. The main problem was low heat resistance in most of the tapes that ended up in the glue giving up or the tape starting to curl, also the 3D printer part starting to warp at the edges is another common problem. With Kapton tape and the common white masking tape you can pretty much have good results when using on printers that do not have a heated build plate and printing PLA. On printers using ABS filament for printing and a heated build plate the Kapton tape should work much better however, so you can try it.
Spray Painting Your 3D Printed Models
11 Sep2014
3D printer filaments do come in many different colors, but sometimes you may not have the right color you need to print directly using it and instead can just spray paint your printed object that is using different color filament. We are using spray paints designed for painting lexan bodies for radio controlled models (RC cars) as they work pretty well, providing good paint coverage, sticking well and remain on the painted object even when you are flexing it (something that may be a problem if using auto paint sprays). You can of course try with different types of paint, using acrylic paint with a brush or an airbrush may also provide good results, especially if you want to paint details in different colors and not the whole object in a single color. On the photo above you can see a sample 3D printed object using transparent PLA filament for printing along with a spray can of black RC car color paint.
Here is the result of doing just two layers of coating of the transparent 3D printed object with the black paint – it is no longer transparent and the paint has very good coverage. The finer detail of the object is preserved, but if you add more layers of paint on top you could see that some of the finer detail may not be visible anymore, so you should be careful. The resulting paint creates a matte color finish, so we have a matte black, but if you want to have a glossy effect you can add on top of the paint a layer or two using a clear coating spray. Just be careful as there are two types of clear coating sprays available – one is resulting in a glossy coating and the other is for matte coating, and since the paint you use will most likely already have a matte effect covering it further with clear matte spray may just add some extra protection.
Do You Need a 3D Scanner for Your 3D Printer
10 Sep2014
3D scanners are not that new as a technology, however with the increased interest in 3D printing in the last few years the interest in 3D scanners has also increased significantly, and that goes especially when talking about affordable 3D printers and 3D scanners. A 3D scanner should in theory allow you to scan a real world object into a 3D model that later on you will be able to print into a physical object again with the help of a 3D printer. This could be especially useful for people that are interested in 3D printing, however are not very keen on learning 3D modeling. You should however be very aware of the fact that 3D scanning, much like 3D printing, may be a bit overhyped and is not as easy as it may be represented by companies willing to sell you their products for 3D scanning. This is especially true when we are talking about more affordable 3D scanner solutions that are at a sub $1000 USD level, but can also be very true for models that going higher in terms of price at like $2000-$3000 USD that can still be considered as cheaper consumer oriented products. Nevertheless the concept of 3D scanning is something that we are also interested in with both its advantages and disadvantages at the consumer level of products as there are significantly better and more expensive professional models available, similar to such 3D printers, but our focus is on the more affordable solutions targeted at the normal users.
The first thing about 3D scanners that is often not getting enough attention is the quality you can expect to get when you scan a real world object. You should be prepared not to expect a great level of detail of the 3D model that you will get as a result from a 3D scan, while the general shape and some of the detail will mostly be preserved, the finer details will most likely be lost. Also be prepared to spend some more time initially getting to know what the best conditions for scanning are and how to properly use your 3D scanner for best results. 3D scanning usually takes some time and this can greatly vary from one 3D scanner to another, and then you may also need some additional time to work on the scanned 3D model as well. The software that stiches all of the data that gets acquired during the scanning process that should create a solid three-dimensional model is not perfect and very often you may need to fine tune the model for the best results. Do note that most consumer oriented 3D scanners also do allow very limited size of the scanned objects and if they offer more freedom and larger scale scanning often the results are not as good as with smaller objects. Still 3D scanners are a fun thing to play and experiment with, just do not get unrealistic expectations on what the resulting 3D scanned models will look like. You should also be prepared that when you 3D print a 3D scanned object in a single color the final result may be even less detailed than what the 3D model you got.
On the images above you can see the MakerBot Digitizer along with an original Gnome figure that was created in a 3D modeling software and then printed in 3D and painted to make it look really nice. Then the figure has been scanned with the MakerBot Digitizer and printed again on a 3D printer from the scanned 3D resulting model. While the end result still looks quite good, you can clearly see that most of the finer details are gone and there are some differences in the larger details that no longer seem as distinguishable as on the original 3D print of the Gnome. Of course adding color might help in making the two Gnomes seem lore alike, however this is a good example that should bring your expectations from 3D scanners to a more reasonable level.