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Superlambanana
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Southackton test out the Acetone smoothing process
The safety conscious folks at SOUTHACKTON, a UK based hackerspace, have been keen to test out the DIY acetone vapour smoothing process penned by RepRapper Neil Underwood.
There were concerns from the four corners of the world about the safety of this procedure, which basically involves heating a glass jar of highly flammable liquid on a 3D printer’s build plate and placing your 3D print in for it to be smoothed by the vapour.
Though Neil Underwood did post a follow up video with the worst-case scenario for the heated acetone, the Southackton fellows wanted to run further tests. By shaking the jar and setting fire to it they show the process to be fairly safe so long as you don’t do it close to an open flame!
The guys smooth out a couple of items with different layer resolutions and the results are pretty pleasing. The red Superlambanana (which we thought would be more suited to DOeS Liverpool) comes out superbly and looks like a genuine finished, retail ready product.
Though they do stress safety first on the video we wouldn’t recommend putting your hands in a boiling hot metal container filled with a substance that melts plastic any time soon!
