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I have some transparent resin parts printed with a polyjet printer. Where the support contacted the part it has a matte finish. The recommended finishing technique for these parts is to sand them with sandpaper, but the geometry of my part makes that very difficult. What alternatives to sanding do I have, to give these parts a glossy finish?

I'm looking for techniques appropriate to a home or small office environment. A technique that needs special equipment bigger than a desk is probably not going to work for me.

Trish
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Dan Hulme
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    "paint" with a solvent? or, paint a thin layer of resin and re-expose? – Carl Witthoft Jun 25 '19 at 14:34
  • i've used a rock tumbler to smooth prints, but that smooths the whole thing. maybe you could tape over the areas that need detail preserved... – dandavis Jun 25 '19 at 21:17
  • @dandavis A tumbler is a good idea, but what i'm trying to do is turn my small, flat, matte surfaces into glossy surfaces, so taping over those surfaces in the tumbler won't help with that. – Dan Hulme Jun 26 '19 at 09:05

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desktop tumbler/brass polisher, rotary rock tumblers are probably a better option than a small sandblasting cabinet. choose your abrasive material from there, a coarse sand is probably not what you want but there are walnut based things and finer grit materials that should be able to get a nice shine. if you would rather do it manually and geometry allows you can try a dremel-type rotary tool with a buffing wheel or similar

entropicCreator
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  • The rotary rock tumbler method has not worked for me, neither has the acetone bath – K Mmmm Dec 12 '19 at 20:35
  • @KMmmm, Try different media until you get a result you can live with. Some people use Silicon Carbide in their tumbler. – user77232 Dec 13 '19 at 13:46