How to smooth PETG
After some repair I have looked for some form of Petg smoothing ie an annealed shiny finish.
I’ve sanded and tried dabbing aceatone sp on with no success .
heat gun is next 😱
RE: How to smooth PETG
Acetone definitely won't work, PET is very chemically stable and and although there are some solvents, they are not a good idea for "home" use. Acetone can be used for ABS, isopropyl for Polysmooth and similar. For PET I suppose sanding, a primer and some paint is the way to go. Heat gun will do "something" but not sure if it will look nice - worth a try, on a test sample first 😉
RE:
here an article to various possibilities:
https://all3dp.com/2/petg-smoothing/
I print mainly ASA, which is easy to handle with sandpaper and/or acetone.
wbr,
Karl
Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.
How to smooth PETG
@spiffy-wolf
Sand paper, filler, primer, more sand paper, more filler, more primer, then more sand paper and then several coats of finish spray paint combined with sanding and several more coats of spray paint.
You can also smooth it with Dichloromethane, but you may find you'll wish you hadn't.
Optionally you could print with ABS or ASA and you can smooth with ACETONE or Acetone Vapors.
Enjoy
Swiss_Cheese
The Filament Whisperer
Fastest
Sand lightly, then start layering on thin coats of spray acrylic lacquer. The more you invest in sanding the ridges out, the less layers you will need. You could sand, spray, dry to hard, sand - the #'s of cycles will be smaller if you take the alternate approach, but your acrylic lacquer will need to be dry to hard (two to three days between coats)
It takes about three coats of lacquer with sanding to get a glossy smooth finish.
You have to think about 3D prints as if you made them out of rough, tough wood. Wood is much easier to work, but harder to shape. With PETG you can get beautiful finish, but it takes a lot of elbow grease.
RE:
Has anyone tried airbrushing with UV resin, then zapping with UV light on PETG?, I know it works with PLA and some other materials, but dont know if there is a resin that will cure / stick to PETG.
(Edit: Apparently epoxy resin can be used)
Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.
RE: How to smooth PETG
@spiffy-wolf
Sand paper, filler, primer, more sand paper, more filler, more primer, then more sand paper and then several coats of finish spray paint combined with sanding and several more coats of spray paint.
You can also smooth it with Dichloromethane, but you may find you'll wish you hadn't.
Optionally you could print with ABS or ASA and you can smooth with ACETONE or Acetone Vapors.
Enjoy
Swiss_Cheese
If Dichloromethane would work why would I regret it other than it being a dangerous solvent? also have any of you tried D-limonene or tetrahydrofuran (THF) because from my research they seem safer than Dichloromethane. I've also used Weld-On #4 for bonding PETG parts together and wonder if there is anything that would prevent this from being used for smoothing either vapour or just painting on a light coat.