Acetone Vapor Smoothing

I know we are all interested in vapor smoothing and i thought that i would post my process that i am currently using.

Im sorry, i had it all typed out in bbcode and my pics were to big. sorry but im feeling lazy, put all my notes in the imgur gallery though. here is the link. http://imgur.com/a/T4zHW

I plan to further experiment with the base, ultimately i want to have a PLA printed base to rest ABS parts on for the acetone and a ABS one to rest PLA parts on for the tetrahydrofuran vapor bath. i really must research that more first though as that chemical is completely foreign to me. I also plan in notching some grooves into the tall bolts in order to be able to suspend multiple rows of small parts from them. I really feel that having a base with holes in the bottom is a plus but let me know what yall think. It may eliminate the need for the internal fan that some guys are putting in their jars. Doing it outside like i have been has plenty of airflow circulating the vapors around from what i have seen so far.

Cool, thanks!

Thanks for sharing your experience.

Most of the attached descriptions are cut off mid-sentence.

I just use a large Presto Deep Frier.

yeah yeah lol, really lazy. i spent forever making the post and was very disapointed when it didnt work and just halfassed it lol. i will get ya a more comprehensive guide i promise. was making that post at my last print start time of the day about 3am.

EDIT: i fixed it up a little and put the descriptions where they are supposed to go. sorry guys.

Thanks!

I thought the cutoff sentences were because there was some text length limitation on Imgur.

sorry for the laziness once again. for a little more clarification on my process i am just pouring about a quarter inch of acetone in the the bottom. place pieces on stand and turn heat past low on burner to get to a slow boil. you can decrease heat once you get a full boil in order to make a longer bath but i have been doing small parts now and leaving the heat to boil it all off. when its done, i remove beaker and put it on the side of burner that isnt hot. now these parts will stick to the foil a bit so if they have holes i recommend hanging them on wire between the bolts. they stick to the wire also but i use a very thin wire so i call it good. the finished parts are much much stronger than the original print so you can get away with a little less infill. i have a couple pieces that i have given multiple short baths to and the finish just keeps improving. long baths 15min+ seem to make the part start to drip and melt so be warned. multiple short baths have resulted in parts that i can take a key to and not even scratch though.

i will be updating the imgur with more pictures as i go, have been bad about documenting things lately in my excitement.

has anyone been experimenting with other chemicals and abs yet either?

Here is a sample of what I did with my acetone setup, a simple presto deep fryer and no extra parts. Printed with color changing filament, goes from current color to yellow/green.