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Reply to "Finishing 3D printed parts"

There's definitely a print failure of some sort in the top right corner of the nose.  I'd argue that the part should never have been sent out that way.  It also looks like you have some grooves lower on the side of the nose, those will also need filling and sanding to smooth.

As to finishing the rest of the nose, the first thing I would suggest is getting some rattle can primer and shooting some of the underside of the nose print as a test (once you remove or cure the excess resin).  Primer will fill the finest layering grooves to an extent, it may take care of most of them while the larger defects will still need more attention.  If the primer isn't sufficient, then I would suggest some very fine wet/dry sandpaper or sanding sticks, applied with a careful and gentle hand.  There's really not a better way to do it with the various details present.

While resin prints are typically higher resolution than FDM prints, it's a misconception that they will come out of the printer 100% smooth.  Parts can be oriented in the printer in such a way as to optimize the quality of surfaces, but such optimization is really only for surfaces at a very specific angle to the build plate.  All other surfaces by defualt cannot be optimized at the same time.  Curved surfaces are also nearly impossible to optimize by default, so something like the cab roof will likely need some post processing to make totally smooth.

I'm not knocking 3d printed parts by any means.  They are a great way to get things done that might not otherwise be available.  But they will often take some effort to achieve the quality of an injection molded part.  This is particularly acute when printed by a vendor such as Shapeways, where it is difficult or impossible to dictate orientation, or other parameters such as slicing thickness or exposure times.  All of those things play a role in the quality of the printed part.

Jim

Last edited by big train

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