After Having experimented in Making Perfectly Smooth Surfaces for about a Year now within the Print Process itself, Its time I Capitulate and start putting in some more Work and Sand it all smooth!
Just a bit of an Issue… Whenever I sand Coloured PETG, it looses its Colour and turns into that Broken Plastic White.
As someone who hasn’t had to Fix something like that before, I’m not sure where to even start Fixing this? Can it be Avoided in the Sanding Process, or can the Colour be Regained afterwards?
I have heard of People Treating it with Heat and Vasaline to get the Colour Back, what kind of Methods do you all use and how reliable are they?
I just use a heat gun or a quick pass with a torch. Sanding makes small imperfections that light reflects into, giving it that matte look. Heating it melts those little scratches back together so it reflects light properly again
The Prints I’m working on at the moment are rather small, I think a Torch or Heatgun could also melt other spots that aren’t supposed to be melted because of needed Surface Patterns… I wonder if there is something a bit more Controlled?
There are lighters with a blue flame, these work quite well and controlled.
Practice on a scrap piece.
Couldn’t you use a soldering air gun? Actually I don’t know if there are cheap ones that can get a nice low temp, but the nozzle tends to be a fine tip.
I have tried using a Regular Soldering Iron to smooth out the surfaces, to not a lotta luck tho. At what temps can the Plastic Colouring be regained? Because I think I had mine set too high
I’ve used my soldering iron at 200c to re-attach broken off pieces, to much success.
Edit: it strengthened the layer to layer lines as well. Pretty neat for small bits.
I got a cheap 862D combo soldering iron from Amazon for $50 about 5 years ago. It goes down to 200°C.
Just remember to put it on a separate power strip and turn off the strip when you are done. These are super cheap, and I wouldn’t recommend leaving them plugged in unattended.