When you make something that’s too big for your printer, how do you hide the seams from bonding when aesthetics are a priority?
3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.
The r/functionalprint community is now located at: !functionalprint@kbin.social or !functionalprint@fedia.io
There are CAD communities available at: !cad@lemmy.world or !freecad@lemmy.ml
No bigotry - including racism, sexism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia. Code of Conduct.
Be respectful, especially when disagreeing. Everyone should feel welcome here.
No porn (NSFW prints are acceptable but must be marked NSFW)
No Ads / Spamming / Guerrilla Marketing
Do not create links to reddit
If you see an issue please flag it
No guns
No injury gore posts
If you need an easy way to host pictures, https://catbox.moe may be an option. Be ethical about what you post and donate if you are able or use this a lot. It is just an individual hosting content, not a company. The image embedding syntax for Lemmy is ![](URL)
Moderation policy: Light, mostly invisible
The cutting tool from prusaslicer works pretty well for this. For the aesthetics, I just try to align the cuts as natural as possible in the model.
I have been working on costume parts, my process with split pieces is first assemble with painter’s tape to get a test fit, disassemble, super glue the pieces together with locktite gel control, sand with 80 and then 220 grit, paint with rustoleum 2-in-1 sandable filler, fill in gaps and seams with bondo glazing spot putty, sand the entire thing with 220, and then repeat paint-bondo-sand until I am happy with the surface before I move onto actually painting.
Basically this process.
If I don’t want to paint something, and don’t care too much about layer lines, I’ll usually use super glue and then a wood burner to melt the edges together. It isn’t the prettiest, but it works fine.
I’m a big fan of welding parts together using a 3D pen and the filament I printed with. Then, if it’s not super clean, I make the edge flush with a small chisel.
That or uv adhesive to tack parts together and then CA glue and remove the adhesive.
Make the seams to print in one place in the slicer and grind the place off
I just bought a bigger printer. No more seams! Realistically though, plastic welding or epoxy and paint, and a whole lot of sanding.