My name is Dave and I am based in Bristol, South West UK.
I took delivery of a TAZ 5 about a week ago and have been having big fun getting used to it. It is my first every printer
and therefore experience with 3D printing.
I thought the equipment was amazingly well packaged and shipped and have done an out of the box video and first test print.
My first non test print was a Chinese Cellular Vase by the amazing designer Dizingof. I printed the vase 12cm high which took
about 12 hours using the Cura fine config using HIPS. I then built a forced air vapour polisher to improve the finish before
finally spraying with a pewter effect paint.
It’s my first output but I was quite pleased and very impressed with the printer & software !
I didn’t really have a point of reference - just went for it
I had come across some guys vapour smoothing ABS but I had also heard that HIPS was more forgiving not
requiring an enclosed printer - not sure how true that is but that is what I had to print with.
Anyway I tried acetone with a little bit of green ABS (supplied with the TAZ 5) in a test tube and sure enough it dissolved
it at room temperature in about an hour. However the acetone didn’t make a dent in the HIPS not even warmed up. I
had some MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) (which I use for making and photographing organic crystals). MEK dissolved the
HIPS again in about an hour.
I found the MEK vapour (being quite dense) tends to pool at the bottom of the container. The fan at the top draws
air and vapour UP and circulates it making for much more even smoothing. The print stays in at room temperature
for about 45 minutes and then I left to dry for 24 hours before spraying.
The MEK is soaked into a wad of kitchen towel above the fan at the top - only about 20ml was used.
The print is sat on a sheet of glass smeared with Vaseline for very easy removal.
Here is a design I have recently printed. This object is called a Gyroid and was quite tricky to print due to the thin
and fragile nature of the print plus the large amount of overhang.
I tried various methods to support the overhanging parts of the structure. In the end I added custom support using Meshmixer. I
have attached a bunch of screen shots showing the support added.
The design was printed in ABS and spray finished with a bronze spray paint.
