The Good, the Bad and the (VERY) Ugly of PLA

[Edged]

My knowledge of 3D prints and PLA are very limited. What I do know, is that my general view towards them when they first appeared were always stand offish. I never really researched the why before now, so I just assumed it was a new tech that wasn’t quite realized for the common household at the time and I let it be. In short, I absolutely abhorred those striations and I wanted no part of it.

Fast forward to a few months ago, when I simply had to have a certain blaster, I decided to look into it again. At first I was seeing the same old quality I had grown to hate over the years until I happened upon a kit that looked pretty clean. I read a few reviews on the seller and noticed people were praising him for the quality of the kits and that their prep time was much shorter than others. That’s what I wanted to hear, so I decided to give it a go.

I asked the guy about about his stuff in comparison to others before it arrived. I figured he simply had a higher end machine, but that wasn’t it. He explained that it had much to do with many factors. The quality of the filament, maintaining and cleaning of the printer, but mostly designs that were optimized for printing. Too many, albeit talented, 3D artists were making models and sharing the files, but most of them while pretty as a render didn’t quite print out as such. He ended it his explaination by saying an experienced printer could make a great print on a $200 machine.

Making that kit was an absolute pleasure. I did balk at some of the problem areas where the lines were more difficult to get to in the beginning, but with some advice, encouragement, some needle files and persistence, I got them all out and I’m glad I stuck with it! My next kit was just as seemless. Made by a fellow RPF member who clearly not only had the talent, but also a love for the source material. This wasn’t a business for him, but a labor of love, so no shortcuts were taken and the kit shows in every way.

Which brings me to the reason I’m posting this. Now that both my projects are pretty much done, I decided I enjoyed doing this so much that I needed another. Unfortunately the guy who made
my first blaster didn’t have a kit for this one that I liked. Oddly enough his was very under-detailed. Maybe it was one of his first offerings as I noticed it was not listed on Etsy, but on his webpage only. In any event, I went with another guy who seemed to nail every tiny detail….unfortunately for me.

Honestly, I don’t even know how to proceed. I don’t know if I just got lucky with the first two kits and this is pretty much the standard for the majority of them? I’m guessing this was just rushed compared to the others I’ve had. DONT get me wrong, I love the kit itself. It’s very well designed, but I’m pretty disappointed by the quality of the pieces themselves. This is gonna take weeks before I can even lay any paint down.

I know I don’t have to illustrate it, but just look at the difference between the first kit and this one. It took me over hour to do the piece you see below in the second pic and that was a relatively “easy”
part in comparison. I don’t have a clue how to do these tiny individual pieces. It looks like what considered to be the ultimate selling point wound up being it’s ultimate downfall. I’ve already broken one of the pieces identical to it and now I don’t even wanna bother finishing it all.

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

For the type of projects we want on the RPF I’m always at a loss as to why makers use filament printers instead of resin printers and then mold/cast the cleaned-up resin prints in casting resin for strength, durability, and ease of assembly and finishing.

I’ve bought a few filament printed kits and I’ve never started them because I’ve been so sad/disappointed with the quality of the prints. My current family/work schedule has not afforded me the time for the amount of work needed to get those kits finished to my standards.

 

[orntar]

I have been trying to find a service to print a blaster kit for me. If I can get a shop to contact me at all, the price is either a lot higher than I thought, or they flat out tell me that I should print it in PLA. It’s strange.

 

[masterjedi322]

I have been trying to find a service to print a blaster kit for me. If I can get a shop to contact me at all, the price is either a lot higher than I thought, or they flat out tell me that I should print it in PLA. It’s strange.

I have both FDM and resin printers, and the resin printers are generally more expensive than their FDM equivalents. PLA is also a lot cheaper than resin. And PLA is the preferred filament of most because it’s inexpensive and easy to print.

So it’s the age old question of - quick, cheap, good - pick 2…

Sean

 

[Edged]

Interesting. I didn’t even realize you could use resin in this format. As a mold and pourable, sure, but not printed.

It’s definitely a bit of work, PLA, but I actually didn’t mind the prep time on the other, cleaner kits. It was kind of fulfilling taking something imperfect and making it look smooth as metal. That being said, a couple of days of of sanding/filler primer repeat is more than okay with me. This kit, however, is not. I’m not getting into all these tiny pieces with 120 grit. I like my finger tips! The amount of pressure/resistance needed is impossible while holding a tiny piece like that in your fingers. With the other kits I’ve mentioned I didn’t even need to go that low. I quickly roughed them up with 220 them primed and went upwards in grits from there before painting.

It’s too bad, I really wanted to add this one to my collection, but at this point I’m better off repairing the NERF A-280 like everyone else does.

 

[orntar]

I have both FDM and resin printers, and the resin printers are generally more expensive than their FDM equivalents. PLA is also a lot cheaper than resin. And PLA is the preferred filament of most because it’s inexpensive and easy to print.

So it’s the age old question of - quick, cheap, good - pick 2…

Sean

I understand it's would be more. I have an fdm printer and could print this blaster for about $2.

I also don't mind paying a decent price for a good print. But when I could buy a resin printer, uv station and jug of resin for less than the estimate to print my parts, it make me wonder if the estimate is right.

 

[Edged]

Good lord. I just noticed this! This is OUTWARD facing piece! Seriously?! I just messaged the guy and told him he needs to take more care. Now that I know this isn’t necessary and can be avoided it’s just laziness or sheer rushing to pump out more kits for sales. Horrible.

 

[orntar]

Can you post a link to the kit?

 

[TazMan2000]

Some people are satisfied with FDM prints. Slap some paint on and it's complete. To me, it the layer lines look terrible and it looks worse than a toy. It's a lot of work cleaning up a PLA model. There really is no sharp detail and sanding will make it even worse. You can use photo-resin to pour over and fill in the layer lines, which is much better than multiple layers of paint, but it still smooths out detail.

It's best that the model is designed with a basic shape, so when printed in PLA, can be sanded down smooth. As James Kenobi 1138 said, the smaller parts should have been printed in resin to detail the piece. Some resin printers print so fine that cleanup is rather quick as the layer lines are microns thick rather than tenths of a mm, so resin casting a printed part is rather more work than necessary as the quality would almost be the same.

TazMan2000

 

[Edged]

You nailed it, Taz. Twice! I think that’s precisely it. Most people just glue these together and paint them and they think the world of it. They’re just happy to have a representation of a prop that hasn’t been officially released in their collections.

The second point you made even more so. Ironically, I passed on the A-280 by the guy who made the Bryar pistol I bought a few months back as his model wasn’t detailed enough. He did precisely what you said and just printed it all onto the main piece. It looked really flat, imo, and not at all screen accurate, so I went with someone else’s who had done all little details. Now I see the truth of it.

Here’s the two kits in question. By design and in a render the kit I got is clearly better looking, but at what expense?!

I’ve also included a pic of the Bryar I did and proof that a GOOD print can clean up amazingly! I probably went a little too crazy on it as I wanted it to be perfect, but you probably could have just used a few coats of filler primer on this and been fine.

 

[Sundowner]

I started using UV resin covered on my models. It is an absolute game changer. I put a coat on and set it outside or use a black light if its winter. It has really helped fill in those pesky layer lines.

 

[orntar]

That's really interesting. Do you use the same stuff 3d printers use?

 

[TazMan2000]

I started using UV resin covered on my models. It is an absolute game changer. I put a coat on and set it outside or use a black light if its winter. It has really helped fill in those pesky layer lines.

View attachment 1701181 View attachment 1701182 View attachment 1701183

Black lights would not work well for UV resin. What you need is a UV light that emits rays in the 405mm range. Black lights are have a range between 320 to 400nm. It will cure using a black light, but it's better to use LED's that are meant for the photo-resin. Although the black light will work on 385nm resin.

TazMan2000

 

[Sundowner]

That's really interesting. Do you use the same stuff 3d printers use?

I buy UV resin that people use to make jewelry. A lot goes a long way!

 

[4str0m3ch]

I buy UV resin that people use to make jewelry. A lot goes a long way!

How do you apply it?

 

[Sundowner]

How do you apply it?

I just brush it on. It’s great because it won’t cure unless it’s under UV so you can really take your time with it. I’ll brush it on and let it settle and level out then use UV light or set it outside.

 

[TerranCmdr]

As a designer and 3d printer myself, I've had the best luck with prints by combining resin and FDM parts, depending on the amount of detail needed. It definitely heavily depends on how the model is sliced up and orientation of the prints, but also on the print settings (for instance that cylinder posted above could have been a lot cleaner with the z-seam aligned.) That said though, desktop resin printers have gotten larger and much cheaper and printing full props out of resin is more affordable than ever.

I've also dabbled with using resin-smoothing on FDM prints with pretty high success. Really saves on all of the sanding time and gives the part more of a vac-formed look since the resin cures in the corners and rounds them off. I'll also caution against leaving any PLA prints out in the sun for longer than 15 minutes or so, or they will start to melt. Just my $0.02.

 

[Edged]

The guy refunded the entire price back to me. I didn’t ask for that at all. I guess he thought I would have left a bad review, which I wouldn’t have. I just wanted him to realize what printing on a a faster/larger layer setting resulted in. Oh well.

And I can attest about that sun part TerranCmdr ! I left something in the sun for a short while to help cure oil paint and sure enough, there was some melting!

 

[TazMan2000]

I also do most of my work on FDM printers. I first sand down the FDM print to get rid of most of the layer lines, then brush over a layer, of photo-resin, cure it, then sand, then perhaps another layer of resin. I usually use a very coarse sandpaper initially on the bare FDM surface, since I know the resin will fill in the scratches. Once I get more or less a smooth surface, I follow up with Rustoleum sandable primer.

TazMan2000

 

[Sundowner]

I just wanted to share a few things examples of just added UV resin without sanding