hi, welcome to tinkerine experiments. thisis a new series where we will take different myths and rumors around 3d printing and testthem out for ourselves. today we are going to start things off withsomething simple. we will take these pla prints and some sandpaper to try to polish the surface.we have 320 grit sandpaper which is very fine and 100 grit sandpaper which is very rough.since we know pla starts to soften around 60 degrees celsius. we will be trying outa few methods. first of all, sanding non-stop and sanding periodically which isevery couple seconds to let it cool down and see if there is a difference. we will alsobe trying dry sanding and wet sanding to see if the water will help cool down the temperature on the pla model.here are the pla prints before the post-processing.
i can feel the pla heat up on both methodsbut it is less hot when periodically sanding. i can also feel the pla soften under the heat.this is the same when using 320 grit sandpaper. let's take a look at the results. 100 gritnon-stop sanding looks rough but it is actually smooth to the touch. you can see the pla smudgeand the surface is very stringy. the same can be seen in 100 grit periodically sanding,not much of a difference. 320 grit non-stop sanding looks smoother andless pla smudging and the stringy surface that we saw in non-stop.320 grit periodic sanding looks relatively the same as non-stop. surface is very smooth.let's move on to wet sanding. for wet sanding non-stop and periodically,i can't tell if the pla is smudging on the
surface or not but there is definitely noheat in sanding with both techniques. the same is seen in 320 grit sanding. we willjust have to see with the results. moving to the results.100 grit non-stop wet sanding is a bit scratchy but the surface is really smooth.100 grit periodically wet sanding achieved the same results as non-stop.320 grit non-stop wet sanding is very fine and smooth, and we don't see the stringy andsmudging on the surface like dry sanding. last in line, 320 grit periodically wet sandingachieves the same results but it takes a bit longer. here is a summary of all the sanding. well there you have it, we post processedthese two pla prints with dry sanding and
wet sanding. from our observation, it seemslike wet sanding produces a better surface finish than dry sanding. 320 grit sandpaperalso produces a finger and smoother surface
where to print 3d models,than 100 grit.therefore if you are looking to post-process your prints with sanding, i would recommendwet-sanding. if you liked our experiment, like and subscribebelow and leave a comment on what experiments you would like us to try in the future!thank you for watching.
