| solosam | 01 Feb 2014 9:23 a.m. PST |
I recently tried printing my first 3d prototype miniature. The size and scale turned out okay, but Shapeways left it with an unpleasant rough surface. As it is, the model is not suitable for reproducing in metal or resin. Are there any other printers that can produce a better, smoother finish? It doesn't have to be another load-and-print service like Shapeways, any toy prototyper with decent rates will do. |
| Rhysius Cambrensis | 01 Feb 2014 10:47 a.m. PST |
Can you not fine sand it? Remember to use a mask if you do. |
| hzcmcpheron | 01 Feb 2014 12:16 p.m. PST |
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| Markconz | 01 Feb 2014 1:34 p.m. PST |
Choose a Fine Detail or Ultra Fine Detail print from Shapeways. More expensive but it doesn't have the graininess apparently. |
| Wellspring | 01 Feb 2014 2:57 p.m. PST |
FD and especially FUD are highly appropriate for collecting and playing with. BUT, I would not call them appropriate for mastering. On Taccoms there are several people (Onslaught and Troublemaker games come immediately to mind, though there are others) who use services to produce 3d prints suitable for mastering. |
| elsyrsyn | 01 Feb 2014 3:54 p.m. PST |
I used 3darttopart.com, and was pleased with the result. Doug |
| Turtle | 05 Feb 2014 6:53 a.m. PST |
I can recommend 2 that I've used, and 1 that has gotten good reviews from associates. Moddler is one, very good work, even on my rather difficult model. ownage.com
Ignore what their website says, they are very much taking contract prints. They're a high quality printer that's kind of a weird secret among the 3D modeling community. visionproto.com
Haven't used this printer, but it comes highly recommended. All three printers are experienced in making gaming miniature prints, and have machines that can do very high quality prints. |
| John Bear Ross | 07 Feb 2014 10:42 a.m. PST |
Fine Line Prototyping have a wide variety of processes and machines available, as well as an automated quoting service. finelineprototyping.com Best,
JBR |
| solosam | 08 Feb 2014 1:21 p.m. PST |
Ack! I tried submitting my sculpt to Fine Line and it came back between $200 USD and $400 USD depending on my material. While I have no doubt it would provide high-quality prints, for those prices I could have paid someone to sculpt it in green stuff for me! I submitted quotes to some of the other folks here and I'll see what happens. |
| Turtle | 09 Feb 2014 3:28 a.m. PST |
You can ask for quality, or low cost, but not both. Shapeways is a low cost consumer 3D printer, very rarely does their stuff work for casting due to fragility and surface quality. Although you can try using a primer to deliberately fill in the roughness. Sure, you could pay some traditional sculptor to make a green, but you lose the many benefits for going digital, such as being able to modify after sculpting, print at different scales, and more. |
| Lfseeney | 10 Feb 2014 8:11 p.m. PST |
Check out the B9 Creator forms, some one there might do it for a bit less, as they mostly make rings with it, detail is no issue, can do 5 microns. |
| solosam | 13 Feb 2014 3:16 a.m. PST |
You can ask for quality, or low cost, but not both. Ain't that the truth. Shapeways is very much an example of "you get what you pay for." I was corresponding with someone who said Shapeways actually has printers capable of extremely fine work, but they don't use the right resins because they want to keep their prices down. Anyway, I've got some new prototypes off to the printers. I'll post reviews of the folks I deal with when the project is done. |
| solosam | 13 Feb 2014 8:52 a.m. PST |
Has anybody experimented with brush-on green stuff to make Shapeways smoother? |
| Turtle | 13 Feb 2014 3:17 p.m. PST |
That might be a bit too thick. Brush on green stuff was meant to fill in bubbles in crappy finecast or get rid of super rough areas. The roughness of Shapeways prints is finer than that. |
| BattleGuys | 13 Feb 2014 6:33 p.m. PST |
Solosam, All u can do is an acetone vapor smoothing technique |
| Turtle | 14 Feb 2014 5:27 a.m. PST |
I've only seen that used on stuff coming out of low res makerbot style printers, and that turns that ridiculously smooth, and with no hard detail at all. Like using a road surfacing tractor to smooth out a blemish on a miniature. Is there some variant on that that will avoid blasting away all detail with acetone vapor? |
| Crusoe the Painter | 20 Feb 2014 11:31 a.m. PST |
KraftWurx has a LOT of options, and their printing rates are super cheap. They also offer perfactory prints, which is what Raging Heros uses for their masters, and high res wax prints. link link |
| Angel Barracks | 21 Feb 2014 6:42 a.m. PST |
I have a perfactory model, it is very very close to as neat as plastic injection moulding. |
| Crusoe the Painter | 21 Feb 2014 9:49 p.m. PST |
Okay, so wow, I found their "ProQuote" tool, and ordered a perfactory print in nano ultra. $23 USD for a 28mm print including shipping. I don't know if this is a gaffe, or legit, or if they will honor it. I will let you guys know. |
| Lfseeney | 24 Feb 2014 7:11 p.m. PST |
Drop a line to the folks on the B9 Creator forum. They are mostly jewelers making rings and gem settings, so 15mm is a bit big for them :) They can cast in a resin that allows direct lost wax mold making as well. One of them might be willing to do some for hire work. |
| WillieB | 09 Mar 2014 3:23 p.m. PST |
Smoothing down the Shapeways 'Strong, White and Flexible' material isn't as hard as you might think. As soon as you get the models just soak them in Sol PLus floorcleaner for about 14 days. The resin in the cleaning product ( it actually lays a film over your tiles)will seep into the sintered nylon and fill most if not all of the pores. Most of the roughness will be gone and one or two light coats of good polyurethane primer will do the rest. |
| Psyckosama | 11 Jun 2014 10:23 a.m. PST |
Shapeways now offers Wax casting. |
worries about not losing his rules stuff.
