Transparent Filament Advise
Hi Folks,
I’m hoping to receive filament and printing advice with attempting to print transparent columns that will contain sediments for flow experiments with water. Basically, a cylinder, something like 200mm tall and 20mm ID that would allow customized sensor ports. I’d like to have the print as transparent as possible as well as water tight. Filaments I’m looking at purchasing are clear or natural: ABS, Polycarbonate and PMMA but I’m open to any suggestions. My hope is that some of you may have some experience with attempting transparency and would be willing to share your knowledge with giving filament as well as printing advise as I know some filaments are finicky.
Thanks!
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
Pre-emptively for maximum clarity you're going to be limited to a vase-mode style print with a single perimeter, and likely a fair amount of post processing.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
Yes. Thank you. I'm diving into all I can find about vase mode. However, what are you thinking in regards to post-processing? Sanding, maybe? I'm also wondering about something like a high gloss spray paint or maybe experimenting with what I'm reading about in regards to acetone smoothing that some filaments respond too.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
Yes. Thank you. I'm diving into all I can find about vase mode. However, what are you thinking in regards to post-processing? Sanding, maybe? I'm also wondering about something like a high gloss spray paint or maybe experimenting with what I'm reading about in regards to acetone smoothing that some filaments respond too.
Depends on the filament. For example, there is polysmooth which can be smoothed (though maybe not to the extent you want) with isopropyl alcohol vapor. Acetone and ABS, as you already know. Rumour has it regular PLA can be smoothed with MEK, but that's not a pleasant solvent to work with and I wouldn't do that unless you already know what MEK stands for and what precautions you need to take when using it.
There are many videos of these methods on youtube; a search there will give you a good visual of what you are going to get.
PLA (and other plastics like PC) will take a very good polish if you are willing to put in the elbow work and sand it properly to blend the layer lines out; regular grits and then something like micromesh sanding pads to take it to high gloss and transparency once you have the surface smooth. Care will need to be taken to sand wet; otherwise your plastic will heat and start to melt rather than sand, leaving undesirable results. While I have no significant experience with 3d printed parts beyond testing out how well it polishes with this method, I've used micromesh on many hand-cut edges of acrylic (PMMA) sheets to clean them up, with fantastic results.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
At least for PLA, "natural" is not clear when printed. It has more of a translucent milky white look to it. "Clear" PLA is actually pretty clear when printed. Most of what would make it look not clear is print artifacts, which could be removed with post processing as others have noticed. I don't yet have experience printing anything other than PLA and PETG but at least some grades of polycarbonate are optically clear and would be my starting point. The gotcha is that polycarbonate is highly hygroscopic and given your usage, not sure what that would mean.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
Check this out:
BTW: sanding is not what you want 😉
Often linked posts:
Going small with MMU2
Real Multi Material
My prints on Instagram
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
Thank very much VintagePC. You’ve given me a lot of new and good information to research. Thank you also William.m51. PLA is easy to print so if I can get close to transparent with it, would be nice. Might need to experiment with MEK, however. And thank you Nikolai.r. That was a good video.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
BTW: sanding is not what you want 😉
It is not preferable because of the work involved, but done properly it can and will get you a perfect finish that is very transparent.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
It is not preferable because of the work involved, but done properly it can and will get you a perfect finish that is very transparent.
Sanding? The surface is way to rough after that. Do you maybe mean polishing?
Often linked posts:
Going small with MMU2
Real Multi Material
My prints on Instagram
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
It is not preferable because of the work involved, but done properly it can and will get you a perfect finish that is very transparent.
Sanding? The surface is way to rough after that. Do you maybe mean polishing?
They're referred to as sanding pads. https://www.amazon.com/MICRO-MESH-SOFT-TOUCH-SANDING/dp/B000H6EC4C for example. There's no difference in what one is doing so I still view it as sanding. but it goes well beyond standard sanding grits.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
Hi Cyclops,
I have done some watertight prints in PMMA and had some success with impregnating the parts with thinned polyester resin. If done carefully (without trapping too many bubbles in the part) you can get very clear parts that are completely watertight.
I will share my process with you if you want but is is unfortunately somewhat more complicated than smoothing.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
That sounds great Justus.s. I would very much appreciate if you'd share your technique. I also recently ordered some PMMA from PushPlastics. What source are you using for PMMA?
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
I am a big fan of Polysmooth Clear. That is probably the best you will get. It prints out like PLA, and comes out translucent but not clear. Next you don't need the $300 Polysher. Just fill a spray bottle with 91% alcohol, but the print in a sealed plastic box, then cover the print with an alcohol spray every 5 or 10 minutes. That makes it very smooth. Print in vase mode if you want your final result to be clear. Otherwise, the internal part of the print will never be completely clear.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
The filament i use was ordered from 365tageoffen.de but they do not have it stocked anymore.
The offer at pushplastic is similar to the one I got, anyway.
What continent are you on? The resin situation is probably very different in the US.
About the technique for watertight acrylic prints:
- I used very low infill density, because the liquid resin is actually cheaper than the PMMA filament
- as liquid resin I used my own mix of MMA (Methyl Meth Acrylate), BP (Benzoyl Peroxide)-hardener and UV-initiator (Irgacure 2022) but commercial resin mixes with MMA or vinylic resins work well too
- submerged the parts in the thin resin hardener mix (for pure MMA no thinning is neccesary because it already flows quicker than water),
it should not be too warm and bright otherwise the underside of your part will start to stick to the bottom of the container
- wait until no more bubbles are visible in the part, maybe help a little by shaking
- carefully take it out (closed vertices should point down to keep as much resin as possible in)
- harden with either dry heat (70°C) or UV-light (depending on initiator sunlight or fluorescent light works well)
I had success even with just inhibited MMA and photoinitiator but that takes very long to dry out (~2h).
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
For the first parts I dripped the MMA UV-initiator mix on the parts with a pipette and hardened them under fluorescent light. 1% Irgacure 2022 is enough with strong lights.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
check here
http://fenneclabs.net/index.php/2018/12/09/3d-printing-transparent-parts-using-fdm-fff-printer/
and here
https://www.diyphotography.net/3d-printing-lenses-is-now-a-thing-and-you-can-make-them-yourself/
i tryed this technique with fillamentum cpe filament , worked great.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
For all the work and mess involved... would you not be better served just buying and machining some acrylic tube?
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
For all the work and mess involved... would you not be better served just buying and machining some acrylic tube?
If machining is an option then yes of course. For me it is not because I do not have the tools to work acrylic.
The drip method i described above is kinda low work, you just drip it on the parts that need sealing. However it is not as transparent as machined and polished parts, that is for sure.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
For all the work and mess involved... would you not be better served just buying and machining some acrylic tube?
If machining is an option then yes of course. For me it is not because I do not have the tools to work acrylic.
The drip method i described above is kinda low work, you just drip it on the parts that need sealing. However it is not as transparent as machined and polished parts, that is for sure.
Sure, but I was directing this at the OP. Sounds like their application is relatively straightforward geometry where you can just use standard wood or metal drills/taps to make holes for sensors and hoses. Or, worst-case if you do not have a tap, drill a hole and heat a metal hose fitting or thread-matching bolt to melt it in and make threads that way.
Re: Transparent Filament Advise
Thanks Allen. I knew nothing of this Polysmooth but it sure sounds intriguing. I also saw a youtube video that looked fantastic for transparency.