Does anyone have any suggestions on how to smooth out/polish stuff from Shapeways. I'm thinking guns and things like that mostly. thanks guys.
For weapons you can start out by getting them printed in Frosted Ultra detail. It will still need a little sanding and time to get it anywhere near ABS smooth, but it's a lot better than white strong flexible. iDD
You can also wash the hell out of swf and lightly sand it, then coat it with future. Makes a huge difference and also keeps the part from soaking up all the paint.
Milliput superfine with a little water has a really smooth finish, wear a glove over your hand so you don't put your finger's texture over it. Then after it's fully cured you can polish it more with fine sand paper.
Tried using acetone on WSF. I didn't soak it, but I didn't notice any melting of the plastic. Acetone on ABS will cause some definite softening as I found out much to my chagrin, when trying to strip paint off of my Whirls legs.
Literally the brush on loctite superglue, I say this one as it has a slightly longer dry time. Thin coats and use wet and dry when you've got a few layers on
I have the Pyro kit from shapeways, I heard an easy way to do it is light sanding, paint, clear coat, and repeat will smooth it out. Anyone tried this route?
If you can get parts in the fine detail options it's worth the extra money. Primer, paint and topcoat on FUD or FED is great. Unfortunately a lot of parts are only available in the so called "polished". For these get a hold of Mr Surfacer or Mr Dissolved Putty. Paint it on,allow to dry and then a light sand. A few coats will smooth it out amazingly. You may lose some surface detail but sanding or thick paint will do the same. I have Javacos Whirl kit which only comes in polished and the Mr Dissolved Putty made a massive difference. I also have some Tom Servo cassettes that are also in the polished that I didn't use the putty on. Sanding, Primer, 3 coats paint and 2 coats Future and you can still see the grainy surface.
Yes, although it doesn't need to be these exact steps. The reason you can't just sand the "strong flexible" materials into smoothness is that they're extremely porous. Sanding down the rough porous material on the surface only reveals more rough porous material underneath. So you just have to fill in all those pores and gaps with something of your choosing and then smooth it out. Frosted Ultra/Extreme Detail is much easier to work with, and I use it whenever I can. But it can also be brittle and isn't suitable for parts that will take a lot of stress. You could use it for the ball in a ball joint, but not the socket. Same for pegs. Never use it for anything that needs to ratchet or flex at all.