3D Printed Props = Bemused?

Birdie

Birdie

Master Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
Okay, this is something that's been bemusing me for a long time, I just wanted to know how other members feel. Time and time again, and more and more prevalently, I see others members selling and/or showing off 3d printed props that are covered in print lines. To me, this looks horrible, and is something no-one would have got away with in the dark times before printing without negative comment. These days it seems like there is a selective blindness to the quality of 3d printed props that look like papercraft.

Now I know that 3d prints can be cleaned up to look nice, but it seems many sellers are just churning stuff out from home printers and selling as is for the same price that a 'clean' resin cast would have gone for back in the day, and no-one bats an eyelid. Am I the only one to be disillusioned/mystified by this pattern?
 
shuktuki said:
always sand the 3d printed props then filler primer then sand then filler then polish and paint.... for me the only change is i am not building something from scratch... the rest is the same... if you leave layer lines whats the point in making it.
Click to expand...

I think 3D printing is a good start point. It just seems to have become a start and end point for many.
 
Birdie said:
I think 3D printing is a good start point. It just seems to have become a start and end point for many.
Click to expand...

i would agree....even i have printed more than scratch built recently but i am planning a custom blade runner world pistol inspired by pistol... still in the planning stage at the moment but i hope i will come up with a nice prop when its done.



20228888_1635393626473814_416030875572356363_n.jpg
 
Your not alone Birdie
Nothing wrong with 3D printing. but when the person does not take the time to get all the details right when you clearly have enough reference photos. that Just yanks my Chain. I have bought 3D prints that I have literally thrown away it was such a joke. the finishing part i'm still working on. have only purchased I think four. two of which I know will be quality work.

But I miss the good old days
 
I completely agree here. I see indeed 3D prints popping up that I would never buy myself. Many of them just looks "cheap". I also love prop replica's that much more when they are "crafted", not "printed". A 3D-print can be a good starting point, but like said above: it has to be a starting point. No printlines should be visible. A nice paintjob to finish it off.

Also, A 3D-print is just plastic... If a prop was made in metal, a metal replica is the way to go. For instance: I would NEVER buy a Cross of Coronado, or a Headpiece of the Staff of Ra that is 3D-printed. These things should be heavy, metal and goldplated.

No, all in all, I do not like 3D-printing a lot. It takes away all the charm and can't compare to a prop that's made by a real craftsman...
 
I just bought my printer and I'm new at it, but here is my 2 cents. I bought the printer to compliment
the rest of my machines. Just like every other tool that I have, they all have their place. I have a CNC mill
but that doesn't mean that that is the only tool that I use. Same with my lathe. To me there is no end all
be all tool in my shop. They all work together to make the final product.
 
Absolutely, I'm not anti-technology, my laser cutter is an absolute godsend, but so are my dremel, lathe, sanders and sculpting tools and materials.


Hammerdon said:
I just bought my printer and I'm new at it, but here is my 2 cents. I bought the printer to compliment
the rest of my machines. Just like every other tool that I have, they all have their place. I have a CNC mill
but that doesn't mean that that is the only tool that I use. Same with my lathe. To me there is no end all
be all tool in my shop. They all work together to make the final product.
Click to expand...
 
If you're going to make a mold from the 3D print, be careful what kind of primer you use. I've had some primers, e.g. Plastikote, inhibit my urethane's cure. That's just from residue left in the mold. The urethane was never in direct contact with the primer. The mold was ruined.
 
I agree with you that 3D printing is and should be just another tool in the tool box.

It is so disappointing when someone tries to use a 3D printer to do everything.
It's terrible when something that could have been cut cleanly on a tablesaw, or built up from sheet material is instead 3D printed with a gazillion print lines on it that have to be filled and sanded out - often spending more time and energy trying to make the part presentable than it would have taken to make it a different way.

3D printing can be a great tool, but it should be used appropriately. Not for everything.

And I certainly agree with the original post about accepting essentially "unfinished" 3D prints being sold at prices as if they were of the same quality as a finished piece.
Would we be so accepting of castings with thumb prints, bubbles and scratches? It's basically the same thing.
 
Duncanator said:
3D printed with a gazillion print lines on it that have to be filled and sanded out - often spending more time and energy trying to make the part presentable than it would have taken to make it a different way.
Click to expand...

This is one of my big problems with the tech, certainly on the cheaper machines. The biggest issue is the danger of sanding out detail and ending up with a very 'soft' result. Of course, there has always been crappy resin casts too, but very often they were fixable in problem areas like bubbles and seam-lines. Print-lines, unfortunately, run through the whole model.

If a run is going to be reliant on a 3d print, my feeling is the seller should print the master, do all the clean up, then mould and cast it. Obviously it's a lot easier, if not necessarily cheaper, just to hit 'print' and pass-on all the leg-work to the buyer....
 
Agreed! And if the 3D print seller is going to pass on the leg-work to the buyer, then the price should reflect that.

I've bought 3D prints and mediocre castings before just to use as reference to make a better version, but I'm only willing to pay so much for those reference pieces.
 
Duncanator said:
Agreed! And if the 3D print seller is going to pass on the leg-work to the buyer, then the price should reflect that.
Click to expand...

I agree, but you have to consider the time invested in printing the items, because (I'd assume) the seller is trying to turn some sort of profit. I think it's the duty of the buyer to make a decision as to whether or not it's worth buying a 3D printed item (at the going price) for whatever it is they are making. Just my 2 cents. I totally agree some people should put more time into finishing their prints though, I really don't like seeing layer lines.
 
I have never seen anything come off a 3d printer that I would consider a "finished" product. Be it FDM, SLA etc. , there is always more work to be done.
 
thegoodlifeADI said:
I agree, but you have to consider the time invested in printing the items, because (I'd assume) the seller is trying to turn some sort of profit. I think it's the duty of the buyer to make a decision as to whether or not it's worth buying a 3D printed item (at the going price) for whatever it is they are making. Just my 2 cents. I totally agree some people should put more time into finishing their prints though, I really don't like seeing layer lines.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. Every tool has a list of material and labor costs that a seller wants to recoup. If the price is reasonable for the quality of the item, it'll sell. If they are priced too high, no one will buy them. That's the market.

I think we were just bemoaning the apparent shift in the public-at-large's level of quality acceptance of 3D printing edge chatter vs a finished surface.
 
There is definitely a place for 3D printing in modern prop replicas and prop making in general (as well as aiding in making greebles and bits for costumes). It's definitely not the end-all-be-all that some make it out to be, and some of the prices do make me, someone who does 3D printing, balk. Doubly so when it's people selling prints on eBay of files they found for free off the Thingiverse; this is why I always post my stuff under the CC noncommercial license and regularly "patrol" for anyone trying to sell my files. This month I've found two, and of those only one was understanding when I told him what he was doing; the other was far less decent.

Personally, I give people an option between buying a "raw" print vs one that I have put more time into to give it a smooth finish. I can do the work of smoothing the print and such, but anyone wanting to do it themselves at least has the option for a significantly lesser price.
 
If the surface hasn't been finished and the print lines removed, the piece shouldn't be sold for anything less than dirt cheap. When minimal effort has been put into it, then it should not be able to charge a premium for it for the buyer to finish. It's lazy, in my opinion.

Duncanator said:
It is so disappointing when someone tries to use a 3D printer to do everything.
It's terrible when something that could have been cut cleanly on a tablesaw, or built up from sheet material is instead 3D printed with a gazillion print lines on it that have to be filled and sanded out - often spending more time and energy trying to make the part presentable than it would have taken to make it a different way.
Click to expand...

Not everyone has the room or the money to afford many different tools to get the job done, so even though it takes longer, sometimes a 3D printer is all you have. But not even finishing that piece to a non-print line finish is not acceptable, unless that's what was agreed upon with the buyer and it was sold for cheap.



I only use my printer to make prototypes for refining or to further work on before I get to what I would consider sellable. Just selling prints directly off the print bed just seems iffy to me, unless that's what was agreed upon with the buyer. And as mentioned above... the quality and how much work is left for the buyer should reflect in the price - low.
 
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