In the final stage, instead of airbrushing the clear gloss coat, you should dip them in the varnish completely and then leave them to dry. Cover the item with a plastic container to protect the coat from dust. You will have a perfect mirror transparency.
I used to polish acrylic in a dental lab. The process was messy, but quick... We used wet fine pumice with a wet cloth wheel on a bench grinder. Stage 2 was a plastic brush with pumice and last was the red tripoli with a fine buff. All were mounted on bench grinders and super efficient. We could polish 30 retainers in 45 min, sometimes less if there was one person per machine! We used clear acrylic, powder + liquid then cured under pressure for 15 min. but I would love to try it with a 3D printed item. You coild get a beatiful liquid clear polish with that method! The only thing is it tends to thin out areas & some detail would be lost if you polished too hard
I’ll be giving this a go pretty soon. Have two models I’m working on which need clear parts and my clear resin arrived yesterday. Thanks for all these fantastic tutorials!!
Yeah, sanding is certainly not an option for me, since the model I am doing has many bends and dips, where flat sandpaper simply won't get through. Wonder if I could go straight into coating instead.
Hint: Do not wash the print. If the clear part is separate and not uber detailed, there is no need to wash in alcohol. Alcohol will cloud the print significantly. Instead leave it to cure on a box or paper with natural light or in your curing machine.
Yeah, I had that problem, where print looks astonishing, but alcohol ruins it, making the print turn milky/matte. What made it worse- the UV curing made it turn yellow. I will try your method, hopefully it works, and the print doesn't stay sticky.
What if you don’t sand at all? I‘be used resin to remove scratch marks from acrylics by just brushing or dipping it works ok, it can create distortion if is optical quality but it does get clear just make sure that you shake off as much excess resin before curing. Nice job !
Try micromesh. Starts at 1500 and goes up to 12000 grit. Commonly used with epoxy to leave a crystal-clear finish, no clear coat needed, so no risk of orange peel or thicker areas causing shimmering and bending the light weird
From my experience, depending on the part you don't need to go to all the way with the sandpapers and you can even forget the clear coat. As he says, it's better for flat parts, but you can do it for some curved ones (that doesn't have some details on it) so, my workaround is just doubling the grit for every step (like going from 300 to 600, then to 1200 and then to 2000) and if you feel confident you can use some electric drill with those sanding discs and there are some with some foam so it's not that harsh on your piece, just be sure to not get the part too hot or it will start to shatter. Anyway, after the 2000 grit sandpaper you need to polish it with some polishing pads and some polishing compound (like Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, which works great IMO) and then just a quick buffing and if you have a good car wax you can use it too. You will make it crystal clear without the need of a clear coat. With an electric drill you can do every step in like 2 minutes or so for parts like these and ready to use, no drying time needed
Or you can not poison yourself like an idiot and go through a hundred bucks of trash and just buy high clear resin and follow the directions then spray with polish 💅
In the final stage, instead of airbrushing the clear gloss coat, you should dip them in the varnish completely and then leave them to dry. Cover the item with a plastic container to protect the coat from dust. You will have a perfect mirror transparency.
I used to polish acrylic in a dental lab. The process was messy, but quick... We used wet fine pumice with a wet cloth wheel on a bench grinder. Stage 2 was a plastic brush with pumice and last was the red tripoli with a fine buff. All were mounted on bench grinders and super efficient. We could polish 30 retainers in 45 min, sometimes less if there was one person per machine! We used clear acrylic, powder + liquid then cured under pressure for 15 min. but I would love to try it with a 3D printed item. You coild get a beatiful liquid clear polish with that method! The only thing is it tends to thin out areas & some detail would be lost if you polished too hard
I’ll be giving this a go pretty soon. Have two models I’m working on which need clear parts and my clear resin arrived yesterday. Thanks for all these fantastic tutorials!!
A few drops of dish soap in the water bottle will significantly reduce the sandpaper clogging.
Yeah, sanding is certainly not an option for me, since the model I am doing has many bends and dips, where flat sandpaper simply won't get through.
Wonder if I could go straight into coating instead.
Hint: Do not wash the print. If the clear part is separate and not uber detailed, there is no need to wash in alcohol. Alcohol will cloud the print significantly. Instead leave it to cure on a box or paper with natural light or in your curing machine.
Yeah, I had that problem, where print looks astonishing, but alcohol ruins it, making the print turn milky/matte. What made it worse- the UV curing made it turn yellow.
I will try your method, hopefully it works, and the print doesn't stay sticky.
@@digimaks did you try this? I'm going to perform some test in a few days.
didn't like the video, I loved it! great vid, love the content, you earned yourself a subscriber.
Well that isn’t a good comment… it’s a great one! 🤣. Thanks so much for the sub!
What ??!! 😂
What if you don’t sand at all? I‘be used resin to remove scratch marks from acrylics by just brushing or dipping it works ok, it can create distortion if is optical quality but it does get clear just make sure that you shake off as much excess resin before curing. Nice job !
But does it yellow like every other clear coat after 3 months to a year?
Try micromesh. Starts at 1500 and goes up to 12000 grit. Commonly used with epoxy to leave a crystal-clear finish, no clear coat needed, so no risk of orange peel or thicker areas causing shimmering and bending the light weird
Thanks for the tip. I’ll try it out.
Have you tried polishing compound? I would think the polish used for headlights would work for this too.
Not yet! I’ve had a few people suggest it so I gotta get some and try it out. Thanks for the comment.
Is the sanding and clear coating done before or after curing? How long would you cure clear resins?
If you want it more clear get polishing compound
You can use future and get more cystal effect
Yeah probably could
how do you known when to switch grits?
For clear clear result use 3m polishing powder and dremel
Thanks for the tip! I'm going to have to look into that!
Do you cure the parts before doing all this? If so, how long did you cure for?
From my experience, depending on the part you don't need to go to all the way with the sandpapers and you can even forget the clear coat. As he says, it's better for flat parts, but you can do it for some curved ones (that doesn't have some details on it) so, my workaround is just doubling the grit for every step (like going from 300 to 600, then to 1200 and then to 2000) and if you feel confident you can use some electric drill with those sanding discs and there are some with some foam so it's not that harsh on your piece, just be sure to not get the part too hot or it will start to shatter. Anyway, after the 2000 grit sandpaper you need to polish it with some polishing pads and some polishing compound (like Meguiar's Ultimate Compound, which works great IMO) and then just a quick buffing and if you have a good car wax you can use it too. You will make it crystal clear without the need of a clear coat. With an electric drill you can do every step in like 2 minutes or so for parts like these and ready to use, no drying time needed
What type of resin did you use?
I used epax clear hard resin.
Which clear resin did you use?
I used epax clear resin.
@ItsMeaDMaDe Was it the hard resin-clear?
what resin ?
Epax clear hard resin.
amzn.to/3IUAlEg
Sepia tone spectacles lol
Or you can not poison yourself like an idiot and go through a hundred bucks of trash and just buy high clear resin and follow the directions then spray with polish 💅
You act like a micron will instantly kill you. 😂 he has PPE and ventilation. You wouldn’t last a second in any trade.
Fantastic work, it looks soo good, this video will help me alot
Glad I could help!
Good job
Thanks!!