Has anyone had much luck reducing the surface roughness of CF or GF parts?
I am well aware it’s the nature of the beast with the material and how it prints
Basically the part in question is okay to be rough (or, as printed) on the outside and in fact the finish is great for my needs as it hides the layer lines.
But on the inside I need the part to be smooth whether that finish is to be machined, sanded/polished or coated.
I was wondering what kind of post-processes anyone has done to achieve this if they have please?
I am not sure how it will get smoother if you perform post-processing that reduces surface area (sanding etc) as it does nothing to smooth something that has this texture attribute throughout the body.
You could perform an additive change, by filling in the tiny gaps with a coating. A resin or epoxy for example. The issue is how to contain it while it dries may prove difficult depending on the complexity of the model.
So for ABS-GF we get a really nice finish right off the machines (Bambu filament), for more smoothing you can dip or vapor smooth with acetone. Same applies with ASA fiber filaments. Dipping smoothing is less than 10 seconds, closer to 5 seconds in pure acetone. For a slower smoothing process, acetone can be mixed with 99%, isopropyl alcohol (these are completely soluble with each other, so are other alcohols and water with acetone).
Petg-GF and CF I’m typically satisfied with the printed finish, especially GF I’m a big fan of here, it’s a slick surface but has that technical sheen which really looks nice. You can clear coat parts for more gloss of course (with a PETG substrate I would try for a rattle can like Plutonium, air dry then maybe oven cure slowly, clear primer first if more durability is needed).
ABS/ASA fiber filament materials can also be machined, assuming these are solid plastic (no infill). This works very well. I haven’t tried this with PETG-GF, but it certainly works with PET-GF, as well as PPS-GF.
Feel free to DM me for more material/process specific.