Tired of endless hours of sanding your rough 3D prints? There is a better way to make your 3D prints smooth: XTC-3D.
What is it? It’s a “protective coating for smoothing and finishing 3D printed parts”. Basically you paint your print with XTC-3D, which is a mixture of two liquids that gradually solidify upon mixing. The liquid application fills the tiny layer gaps and develops a smooth finish after four hours of curing.
The company behind XTC-3D, Smooth-On, says the resulting painted prints can be “sanded, primed and painted”, or even apply metal paint effects. They say the product can be used to coat almost any type of plastic print, including SLA, SLS, PLA, ABS, LayWood, and more. Check out this video where they mix XTC-3D with brass powder to apply a beautiful metallic finish to a printed PLA object.
We think this could be a very simple way to achieve smoother prints. Most of the other techniques are labor-intensive (manual sanding), require extra equipment (tumbled with vibratory media) or possibly toxic/dangerous (hot acetone vapor bath).
You can pick up a 24oz (700ml) jug of XTC-3D for only USD$24, which, according to Smooth-On, should cover 100 square inches (645 sq cm), good enough for at least a few reasonably sized prints. They’ll also sell you a US Gallon of XTC-3D for USD$130, which should be good for 533 square inches (3,440 square cm).
Via Smooth-On
