PRACTICAL ways to finish ABS parts (Page 2 of 2)

This was a project for school in my sustainability class. The assignment was to design a product that could be handed down through the generations, or be a product that can utilize it's extended lifespan due to the nature of the product and its material. This was a modular concept where the bottle grows with the user. From being a baby bottle to a double wall insulated thermos, it can be utilized for more life stages of an individual's life. It would also help to cut down on the environmental cost of transportation of stainless steel products from china as more uses are designed into the thermos to replace other items.

No acetone bath was used. Just some sanding and a lot of glazing putty. Several coats of primer and a couple coats of stainless steel paint. I had brushed the paint on trying to get a brushed stainless steel look, but it didn't work out. Spraying is definitely a lot easier. I can't remember how many times I sanded down the paint trying to get the brushed look.

This is also the very first real project print that I printed out of the machine just after getting it. Was pretty happy it came when it did as it was just in the nick of time for the model build.

Crap that's nice

Thanks guys, that is good to hear. Kinda gives me the motivation to go back and rework it. I tend to be more function based in my concepts and aesthetics tends to take a back seat in my thinking. And though my concept was strong enough to carry me through the class, they were not too happy with the bottle's silhouette.

You could simply drain the vapors into a chamber that is lower and chilled so they condense when they get there.

If you are getting peltiers involved, you might be able to use one to chill the top of the container.  This would keep the vapor inside the container without needing to seal it and possibly create dangerous high pressure.

This is the problem with the room temperature acetone.  There isn't much convection or pressure, so the vapor stays in the bottom of the container.  Warming it gets it to spread out more.  Soaking the towel gets the vapor to originate higher up and drop down, but the quantity of the vapor is still low.  You might try setting the print in a smaller pot inside the can and then pouring acetone around it so the print is mostly below the surface of the liquid.

So after some further investigation I see that where the acetone has smoothed the print has less to do with the height of the print and more to do with the curvature of it. The steeper/more-vertical a slope is the more it has smoothed and glossy, while the tops of all of the spheres are clearly defined lines made by the 3d printer.

I will do another test on a tall vertical wall to see if I get better results with a more consistent slope.

I've made an acetone  polishing station using an old cofee maker. It's more convenient because it's cheap and you could see directly the results, in order to stop the polishing process when you desire (because you could see thru the glass whats happend).
I notice that the exposure time depends on the quantity of acetone and the size of the object. Usually it takes 15-20 min.