so i wanted to find a method of smoothing my 3d models without using acetone. so, i did a little bit a research andi think i've found the perfect method stick around to see how you can smoothyour 3d prints okay. so here we have the darth vader melted mask from one of my previous videos. you can check that out from the link inthe description below or from a little i up in the top right hand corner. what you'll notice is that the lines aren'tvery smooth at all and are very prominent so what we will do is grab the littleplastic container and our z-poxy pt 39 resin
now i'm going to eye-ball it here and we'll pour some into the plastic container and as you can see there that's theclear resin ready to go! now the next step is we needto add the hardener to complete the epoxy. so once again i'm eye-balling it here and there's the hardener. now i've sped up this footage but this is me mixing in the hardener and the resin together so they react.
now you can see that the mixture is verycloudy and it will eventually go clear once it goes on to the model itself. so what we'll do is we'll grab out trustypaintbrush and start applying the z-poxy to our darth vader melted mask model. let's start the time-lapse footage! okay so while i'm applying the epoxy here i'll tell you a little bit about the product. so it's from a company called zap and the exact name the product is thez-poxy pt-39 and its
quoted as being a thirty minutesolution. so, to me though, i woulddefinitely leave it for 12 hours because i just don't see it setting any timesooner than that. now this is a good alternative toacetone smoothing as well as another product out there called xtc 3d from a company calledsmooth-on. i picked this particular one up offebay and i paid about thirty one dollars australian and you can find this overseas as wellso if you're living in the us or canada
you'll be able to purchase this productas well. i'll just pop a picture of the box up on the screen so you can see it. and there it is. this is the very firsttime i've used the product as well. so what you're seeing here is my firstattempt and i i think it really shows for a beginner at least anyway, how a firstattempt could actually turn out. now with a little bit more practice, iknow i can get a better job of this in the future, so for everyone watching don't judge me onthis. this is just my first time. so after all that rambling let's have alook and see what the final product
actually looks like after its been sitting for about 12 hours. so, after all that awesome time lapse footage , here we go! now you'll see it's really nice and smooth and all those ugly lines from before are allgone. awesome! now this is was my first time using the z-poxy solution, so i ran into a few issues and i thought i would discuss them in like a top 10 countdown things not to do. so here we go! number ten! make sure you do this in awell-ventilated area because even though
it says that there is no odours, it does get quite fumey, so make sure you are definitely in awell-ventilated area. number nine! okay, so these two things here are youmost important things, so no matter what wear gloves. this stuff is an epoxy so it's justlike super glue. and it will stick to your hands so, what everyou do, just make sure you wear gloves. number eight! make sure you have the right tools for the job so in this case make sure you've got the right size brushesfor the right size application.
in this example i would have used a finer brush for the more intricate details inside the model whereas on the outside i would haveused probably a slightly bigger brush number seven! make sure you've got some isopropyl alcohol handy for rinsing your brushes and the container as well. because it will stick to it and if youdon't get rid of it it'll just be a lumpy mess. number six! if you don't want your 3d model to stickto your desk or table after you apply the z-poxy solution i would make sure you put something underneath it
like a placemat or some baking paper. number five! whatever you do don't pick up your model for at least i would say 12 hours i did mine in the first hour or two and idid leave some finger prints on the model itself you can see a right here and even though it doesn't really distract from it much i think that it looks a little bit unprofessional number four! one of things that it does say on the z-poxy bottles
is to make sure you puncture the top ofthe bottle. what i did instead is i chopped threemillimeters off the top and now i find the solution comes out alot easier. before it was like a really really thick syrup that was just so hard to squeeze out. now, it just pours out! number three! one of the other things that i should have done is attach the model to some sort of stand. with double-sided tape or blue tac. now the reason i should have done this is because when you get to the edges
it gets really hard to apply it smoothly and also if you put it on paper, that'swhat it looks like. number two! now this is definitelysomething to look out for. next time when i was doing somethinglike this with all the intricate spaces in here, i would start here first instead of startingon the outside. reason being is that you can get intoall the fine places without having to worry about moving the model too much and you can also tip it up onits side.
hold it there. no problems whatsoever! you can see into the crevices a lot better whereas if you do the outside first allthis stuff in here is a lot harder to get to which is what i found. so starting here first, ending here. number one.so this is probably one ofthe most important tips that i've got for you. when you get to your 3d model, try not tolather it on too thick. if you have a look around hismouth he looks like a drooling bulldog.
now while that looks cool it's not theeffect that i was going for this model so next time i would just put it on.... notthick but not too thin either. that's it for another episode of 3d burn.i really hope you enjoyed it.
photopolymer resin for 3d printing,if you did, give me a big thumbs up andmaybe even leave me a comment down below. if you do enjoy the content that i'mproviding, please make sure you subscribe as itreally helps me a lot. and as always imagine, learn, create. bye!
