Top Ten Ways to Elevate your 3D Prints

If you’ve taken the time to troubleshoot, calibrate, and tune your 3D printer, then the print quality you can achieve should be clean and refined. However, there are still options available for those 3D printing afficionados that are looking for the next step in print performance. There are many different accessories and add-ons that can improve and elevate the capabilities of your 3D printer or the finished look of your 3D prints. In no particular order, here are 10 different approaches to improving your 3D prints.

PrintDry

There are many different materials you can 3D print with to achieve better wear resistance, heat resistance, or even better flexibility, however, a lot of these materials have the unfortunate tendency to absorb water - so much so, that they can even absorb water from the air. Materials like these are hygroscopic and will need to be dried out before printing for optimal print quality and strength -  even if they’ve been properly sealed up with dessicant, it’s still solid advice to make sure they are dried properly. The PrintDry makes that an easy process: simply set the dial, place your spools inside, and wait several hours and your filament will be dried out, and the longer you leave it the better! Once it’s dry, you can even print directly through the ports on the side to make sure materials like nylon aren’t soaking up more water while you’re printing. Or if you’d like to store your filament and move onto drying the next spool, use PrintDry’s vacuum sealed containers to maintain your filament.

PolySmooth and the Polysher

Depending on the geometry of a finished 3D print, it may be incredibly difficult at best or impossible at worst to smooth out every nook and cranny by hand. If smoothness is the goal, then using PolySmooth filament and the Polysher by Polymaker may be the solution you’ve been looking for. PolySmooth is a unique filament with the chemical name PVB, and it prints like PLA, but can easily be vapor smoothed like ABS using isopropyl alcohol. The Polysher features a lifting and lowering platform, a nebulizer to vaporize the alcohol into a fine mist, and a timer so you can start smoothing your prints without worrying about forgetting them in it for too long. You should note that the Polysher only works with PolySmooth, or at least PVB based filaments, and is not suitable for vapor smoothing ABS (as most of the housing is made of ABS and will dissolve itself to pieces).

Enclosure Kits

PLA is known for being a very beginner friendly, easy-to-print material, but it’s uses are limited to low-stress applications. Materials like ABS, nylon, and PETG are usually better suited for technical 3D printing, however they can behave a bit erratically depending on the printer’s environment. They can be affected by things like room temperature, air conditioners, and drafts. ABS is notorious for needing a bed temperature near 100°C or it will warp off the bed, and even still it can split along layer lines from the slightest change in room temperature. You can get lucky and print these materials with success, but an enclosure kit for your printer can remove any sort of worry of temperature consistency. These kits will usually feature different pieces that can be punched out to allow for after-market fan installations, moving the main board, LCD, or power supply out of the enclosure, and relocating the spool holder to a more reachable position. All this means is you can customize an enclosure to be as basic or complex as you want it to be.

XTC-3D

When time is not on your side, XTC-3D is a great solution to quickly smooth out 3D prints. When looking to achieve the smoothest parts possible, most finishing methods rely on sanding 3D prints across multiple grits of sandpaper and using various fillers and primers to help fill in and clean up the striations inherent in FDM 3D printing. Simply mix up Part A with Part B in the included measuring cups and brush it on. After a couple hours, the epoxy will harden and be ready to go! From here you can leave it as is to have a super glossy finish on your part, apply a second coat to smooth out any spots you may have missed, paint over it to make your part the color your want, or if you’re interested in really cleaning things up, XTC-3D is significantly easier to sand than regular PLA. If you don’t intend to paint over the XTC-3D and want to utilize the original color of the 3D print, make sure you stay accurate to the necessary amount of Part B. Too much Part B and it will harden just fine, buy may have a yellow tint if you aren’t careful.

Palette & Canvas Hub

For demonstration 3D prints, being able to show the intricacies of your 3D model and describe them in a way that is quickly understood is a powerful capability. The Palette 2 Series paired with a Canvas Hub can bring that utility to any printer that uses 1.75mm filament, allowing single-nozzle printers to create 4-color models. Printing models like this animal cell in color can make it a lot easier to explain how it works, or like this architectural model, makes it a lot clearer what each part of this building is supposed to be. And the Palette 2 isn’t just limited to multiple colors, you can print and splice multiple materials together to be able to print with soluble supports, flexible, and rigid materials all in the same print!

Loctite Universal Bonder

I’m sure you’ve also run into the issue of trying to print out a 3D model and it just won’t fit in your printer’s build volume, no matter how much you try and rotate it to fit. Splitting a model into multiple pieces works, but sometimes there’s just no way to elegantly fit any sort of fastener into the assembly to hold them together. Loctite Universal Bonder is a fantastic way to hold two parts together, even if there’s nothing mechanical reinforcing the joint, like a dovetail or aligning pins. I’ve glued together two flat surfaces and had the 3D print break before the bond between the two parts. I’ve even glued together two pieces of nylon and had them actually stay bonded together, unlike normal super glue I had on hand.

Texturing

As much as I love the look of a 3D printed part, especially with really thick layers, there are still times when disguising that something is 3D printed is necessary. One of the easiest ways to do that is to add some texture to the surface of the 3D print to help obscure it. You can use LayerLock PowderCoated PEI to give a textured surface finish to a 3D print, or some stone-textured spray paint from the hardware store can help obscure any other surface of a 3D print without needing to do any sanding. Once the paint dries, you can then go back over it with any other paint to make it the color you want. I like to use it to add a grip-like texture to something I may be holding like a game-controller or a camera grip, and I can either spray the whole thing or mask it off to only add texture to select parts of the print.

PRO Series Materials

3D printing with bargain filament works well for many projects and users, but occasionally there’s that important project that needs to work well: that’s where PRO Series materials come in. PRO Series is MatterHackers’ high-quality line of filaments made to tight tolerances and features a wider and more vibrant color range. Burgundy, Translucent Violet, and Emerald Dream are just a few of the available bright colors, but of course you can still find clean, neutral colors in PRO Series filaments for when you need need a more subdued prototype color. For projects that demand more out of the technical specifications, engineering-grade materials like nylon, RYNO, or Flex are made to be used for the tough stuff where corner cutting isn’t an option. When reliability counts, PRO Series materials are an excellent solution for results-driven 3D printing. 

Ultrasonic Resin Wash Kit

Resin-based SLA printers take a bit more post-processing to reach a usable stability. Fresh out of the vat, SLA 3D prints will be gooey and still a little flexible. The first step is cleaning off any of the uncured resin off the surface of the 3D print and washing any resin out from a hollowed out model. The Photocentric Ultrasonic Resin Wash Kit uses Photocentric’s cleaning solution (a non-flammable solvent that doesn’t discolor prints like IPA) to wash off any resin left behind. It uses ultrasonic soundwaves to vibrate the resin off of the finished 3D print and provides a gentle heat to help the uncured resin flow a little easier. After the timer goes off, you simply lift the parts out of the bath and are ready to post-cure them.

Peopoly Light

While the Ultrasonic Resin Wash Kit removes resin off the surface of the model, another step is needed to completely harden the 3D print. Peopoly’s Curing Light provides intense UV light to completely cure the model. Without a UV light, setting your print out in the sun is your other option, but if you live somewhere without a lot of direct sunlight like Seattle it may take some time to fully harden or if you live somewhere dusty you may have particles become embedded in the print. Be sure to wear eye protection any time you are using the light, as it is really intense and can damage your eyes if you look at it directly, so be careful!

While each of these accessories aren’t essential for a successful 3D printing experience, they certainly make things easier, give you a better chance for success, or give your printer more capabilities. These aren’t the only ways you can elevate your 3D prints, so if you have something different that you do I’d love to hear about it in the comments. I’m Alec from MatterHackers, thanks for watching.