this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2023
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3D Printing

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Quality of 3D printing versus injection molding (lemmy.ml)
submitted 1 year ago by citytree@lemmy.ml to c/3dprinting@lemmy.ml
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Are consumer level 3D printers able to print plastic objects of similar quality to ones produced using injection molding? Or is 3D printing useful mostly for the prototyping stage before a design is finalized and a steel mold is produced for injection molding?

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[โ€“] zwerdlds@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

nearly impossible with FDM

I'm not in the space, but what's your opinion of acetone vapor treatments to get a bit higher polish for fdm?

[โ€“] Lampenoel@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

I haven't tried it myself yet but from the results I've seen online it seems like a good way to decrease roughness. But you still you have to print with a low layer height since larger layers result in deeper crevices which can't be mitigated by the vapor. And its nothing I would try without proper safety measures. Of course you can also sand and polish your surfaces by hand but especially larger surfaces get really tedious really quick :D