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PLA Sealing

Discussion in 'Printing Filament' started by Michael DiFilippo, Nov 19, 2013.

  1. Michael DiFilippo

    Michael DiFilippo Active Member

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    So like anyone else with a 3D printer I have made up a few different vases since getting my Robo3D but found that no matter my layer height or number of perimeters a vase made of PLA will always wick water. So I was out on a mission... a very very short lived mission.

    I had some water-based polyurethane laying around (what you would typically use to seal wood). I poured some into the vase and rotated it to get even coverage, poured out the excess and let it dry. Well I can now fill a pla vase with water and have no water wick out of it. Furthermore I have even "washed" the vase using dish soap (just some soap and warm water) as a test to see if that would render the polyurethane useless but to my satisfaction it does not seem to have affected it.

    If polyurethane didn't work my next try was going to be a 2 part epoxy resin which I would think would work and probably provide a more "protective" seal.
     
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  2. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    Hey Mike I am not sure what I may be doing differently but I have made several vase or cups or holds and have actually tested them all and none wick water even after two or three days full of water I set them on toilet paper to make sure anywater that does happen to wick through will be noticed but absolutely nothing as ever wicked on me since I got the printer tuned in

    most of my prints are 200 but I have tested the others as well
    all the tornados and the colored vases all of it. Maybe we should compare notes as to our settings or something
     
  3. Michael DiFilippo

    Michael DiFilippo Active Member

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    Hmm interesting. For example: I printed two of these, one in Robo3D Blue PLA and one in colorfabb filament. The colorfabb was fine, no leaking at all, the Robo filament leaked
    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:37327

    Printed up two others (can't find the model now on thingiverse) in robo3d abs and they leaked, I sealed them and after 3 days not a single drop. Funny I do the same thing to test them, set them on some toilette paper so i'll see any water.

    Do you think it could have to do with the level at which my machine is calibrated or is it more likely settings?
     
  4. tesseract

    tesseract Moderator
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    The calibration settings are generally to get the print to stick to the bed in the first place that's what I call calibration the rest of it is all settings so I would think that it is somewhere in your settings
     
  5. Michael DiFilippo

    Michael DiFilippo Active Member

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    Well I can come back now and say this, yes my original idea of "sealing" worked but is not a long term solution. After about 3 days of being filled with water I emptied the vases. Once they dried the polyurethane pretty much dried and came off. So this was a fail. I am working on getting my prints water tight right out of printer though
     

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