A part coming off the bed still carries the marks of how it was made. Finishing is what closes the gap between a print and a product. We run three treatments in the Melbourne studio, and each suits a different material and a different end use.
01 Decide What the Finish Is For
Before choosing a treatment, be clear about what the finish has to achieve. The answer usually rules out two of the three options immediately.
Appearance
A part someone will look at closely: a client presentation model, a retail product, a display piece. Surface uniformity matters more than anything else.
Protection
A part that has to survive moisture, abrasion or handling. You are after a sealed surface, not a pretty one.
Paint preparation
You are painting it yourself. What you need from us is a flat, even substrate that will not telegraph layer lines through the topcoat.
Nothing at all
A functional bracket hidden inside an enclosure does not need finishing. Skipping it saves cost and a day or two of lead time.
02 Sanding and Smoothing
Progressive grit sanding, coarse through to fine, removes FDM layer lines and resin print marks by hand. It is labour intensive, and it is also the only method that works on every material we run and on any geometry.
Sanding shines on flat and gently curved surfaces. On deeply recessed or highly detailed geometry, abrasive access becomes the limiting factor, and fine detail can soften before the layer lines are gone. If a part is destined for paint, sanding is the correct preparation step.
03 Vapour Smoothing (ABS and ASA Only)
The part sits in a controlled chamber with acetone vapour. The vapour melts a thin outer skin of the material, which flows and re-solidifies into a near injection-moulded surface. No abrasive touches the part, so complex geometry finishes as evenly as a flat face.
Material lock-in
Vapour smoothing only works on ABS and ASA. PLA, PETG, TPU and resin do not respond to acetone. If a glossy consumer finish is the goal, that decision has to be made at material selection, not after the part is printed.
04 Epoxy Coating
A two-part clear epoxy is brushed on and self-levels into the layer lines before curing hard. It seals the surface against moisture, adds a little structural reinforcement, and improves abrasion resistance, which makes it the treatment of choice when protection matters more than a factory-smooth face.
It works on PLA, PETG, ABS, ASA and all our resins. It does not belong on TPU or any flexible part: the coating is rigid, and it will crack the first time the part flexes.
05 Compatibility at a Glance
06 If You Are Painting It Yourself
Plenty of customers take a sanded part and finish it in their own workshop. Two things make that go well. Ask for sanding rather than epoxy, since a sealed glossy surface needs keying back before primer will bond. Then use a filler primer, which fills the fine scratch pattern left by the final grit. Between coats, a light pass with high grit paper is what separates a smooth finish from a slightly grainy one.
Orientation beats finishing
The cheapest way to improve surface quality is to print the part in the right orientation. Tell us which face is the visible one in your order notes and we will lay the part down accordingly, which often reduces how much finishing you need at all.
Finishing can be added to any FDM or resin order. See the full post-processing service, or mention it in the notes when you upload your file.
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