Cold acetone vapor polishing

There is a video on Youtube, but I can't find it again because it has some weird title, maybe someone else can find and link it. Copied my reply to the question in "Look what I made" forum thread.

Take a clean 1 gallon metal paint can, line the inside with a couple of paper towels and hold them in place with magnets. Soak the paper towels with 2 or 3 ounces of acetone, just enough to soak the paper towels but not puddle at the bottom of the can.

Place the can, open side down, over top of your print sitting on a piece of glass and leave it set for 40 minutes. Remove the can and let the part dry overnight.

I suggest doing test pieces at 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 minutes or longer as time may vary with ABS from different suppliers, layer heights, and ambient environment variables.

When first removed, the print may still have visible layers but they will smooth out as it drys.

When polishing this way, do not lift the can to check the progress, as this will release the vapor from the can. To avoid this, you can place your print down inside the can and cover it with glass, but then you have the problem of lifting the print out of the can while the print surface is still soft from the vapor.

Great technique, no heated vapor risks, and much easier to do larger prints. Also seems to polish much more evenly over the height of the print, where as the heated vapor polishing has a tendency to polish more on the lower parts of the print than it does toward the top.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2014 12:49AM by Dirty Steve.

Nice.. I have also been trying different methods for doing cold vapor treatment, as boiling Acetone really isn't my favorite.. But havent really had any sucess yet.

Wouldn't it be possible to just use a glass jar, and have the paper towel in the top? Acetone vapor seem to seek down anyway, or so it looks when you heat it.

[www.youtube.com]

After seeing that video months ago I have been using a large soup can with paper towels around the inside, works great.

That's the video!

You need the paper towel in order to hold enough everyone and increase the surface area available for evaporation while"cold". This is the only method I use as it works great!

If it were me, I'd just drink the acetone and burp it up on my prints.
Cause I'm hardcore.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/02/2014 11:20PM by flashjordan.