Old dog learns old trick
One of my disappointments with FFF printing is the bleeding of paints and markings along layer lines. Any thin paint or markings tend to blur as the pigment is pulled into the layer lines by capillary action. While testing transparency techniques in another thread, I remembered the old scale modeler trick of using Future acrylic floor polish (now branded as Pledge Revive It floor gloss) on clear parts to improve clarity. Sure enough, it improves clarity even on FFF printed parts. Then I dipped some regular test prints to see what effect the dip has on paint and markings. The results were surprisingly good.
On the left you can see the effects of drawing a simple line with a Sharpie on a print done with 0.15mm layer heights with no treatment, and a similar dipped print on the right. There was surprisingly little bleed along the layer lines with only a single quick dip.
This is a cheap, no-mess (relatively), non-toxic post-processing step that might be worthwhile if you're dreading priming and painting large numbers of small prints.
RE: Old dog learns old trick
Do you think there's something unique to Pledge gloss, or will other (cheaper) gloss do?
RE: Old dog learns old trick
Do you think there's something unique to Pledge gloss, or will other (cheaper) gloss do?
I'm sure others will work. It's just that Future's stuff was known specifically to work well. You can actually search using that name and find lots of detailed articles from the scale modelers over the years, including hints about equivalent products in other countries. This is a lot like the Dawn dish soap recommendation for cleaning PEI. Others work but aren't a sure thing.
I'm understanding that Pledge is simply the new branding, though I am not finding the term "acrylic" on the new packaging. It seems to work well so far. You definitely want polish and not cleaner. I wonder if there's something a bit thicker that will seal the layer lines better.
RE: Old dog learns old trick
That could come in very handy
Thanks for the tip
Swiss_Cheese
The Filament Whisperer
RE: Old dog learns old trick
Interesting. I have noticed that problem with sharpies. The same bleeding problem doesn't seem to impact air brush acrylics. I use a spray acrylic to seal prints - hadn't considered a floor polish. Will have to pick some up to try. On Amazon - the revive it floor Gloss (versus revive it oil) is pretty pricey. Will have to look in the grocery store.
RE: Old dog learns old trick
The Future floor polish is essentially a (weak-ish) acrylic varnish with good flow and self-levelling properties, so it's not massively surprising that it achieves these sort of results. Good sot, though, and it might make an interesting substrate on which to lay down a base coat of you are painting a model.
RE: Old dog learns old trick
Floor polish to seal print? We use it to seal balsa wood also. I have a bottle in the shop and will give it a try.
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog