I’m just starting to use tough resin on my form2 for engineering prototypes, I’m wondering what people have been doing to get a clean surface once it’s been washed and cured? I don’t want to spend an age gradually sanding down, has anyone tried fine grit polishes like brasso to smooth out the scuffs and scratches from support removal?
Plan your support points on a flat, accessible surface or on areas where the presence of support marks isn’t important.
Well cured resin sands very very well. A belt sander for flat surfaces and a Dremel do help in getting parts ready faster.
Files for quick, precise removal of support “nubs”. Proper file selection and use will get you to the point where only final hand sanding will be needed to have the surface finished desired. Sounds like you also want to have a polished finish…? I have only ever polished clear not tough so I can’t comment on the polishing stage with tough. But learning to select the correct files (shape, length and cut) will improve the finishing of your prints with respect to both speed and precision.
Thanks guys. I’m familiar with placing supports in the ‘right’ place and so on, TJFejka was right about wanting that polished finish - not really polished, just clean of scratch marks and such, I guess I’ll use the sanding method as per ususualand maybe experiment with abrasive polishing pastes and see what results I get.
You may have figured this out, but if you just rip the supports off by hand (which is really appealing since it can be so quick) you risk having indentations in the surface rather than pips sticking out (if you snip supports off with cutters). Having indentations will lengthen your sanding time considerably.
Also, you can wet sand the resin after post-cure.
You can also experiment with smaller supports, there is usually a ‘sweet spot’ where the support is robust enough to work while printing but weak enough to break easily when they are removed. I generally use two sizes of supports, a heavier, ‘structural’ one and a lighter one to deal with minima on details.