What would it take to make these usable (3D-printed items)

[Monty]

First, my intention is not to slam the vendor.  I've never used anything that was 3D-printed, and these C3 Corvette wheels looked decent, but the "graininess" of the tire sidewalls gives me pause. 

What would make them presentable as realistic tires?  I couldn't imagine trying to sand that out, especially around the letters.  Light coats of primer? 

[stitchdup]

you could try dusting on primer but you'd need to be very light. i'd sand between each dusting with sanding sponges at 800 grit or higher and repeat until your happy. even just a light go with the sponges might work as they look worse than they really are. maybe even a dusting of filler primer but i'd try the sponges alone first

[Ace-Garageguy]

If it was me, I'd elect to do without the raised lettering, which I'm not much of a fan of on real cars either...unless they're period Dunlop or Goodyear or Firestone racing tires.

Advertising for somebody on my street ride doesn't appeal to me, I don't care if everybody knows I paid a lot for "name" tires, and so many of the tire names and texts are just dork-o-tronic anyway.

After sanding the lettering off, I'd primer and sand as usual, probably masking the tread edges so they wouldn't get filled too.  

 

Edited 19 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy
punctiliousness

[mcs1056]

Personally, I'd return them. 

I've said I would be unlikely to buy 3D stuff too often.

These look unsalvageable. You paid for Cooper tires with those wheels. Even the lettering is bad. If you're so happy with the wheels, it may be a different story. However, those tires are, in my opinion, not good enough.

That is, of course, unless the were presented as shon and you still bought them. 

[Monty]

1 hour ago, mcs1056 said:

Personally, I'd return them. 

I've said I would be unlikely to buy 3D stuff too often.

These look unsalvageable. You paid for Cooper tires with those wheels. Even the lettering is bad. If you're so happy with the wheels, it may be a different story. However, those tires are, in my opinion, not good enough.

That is, of course, unless the were presented as shon and you still bought them. 

I haven't bought them, I was just sniffing around for model stuff on eBay when I came across them.  TTBOMK, no kit manufacturer offers raised letter Cooper Cobra tires, so I was intrigued until I saw the sidewalls.

If I decide I really need Cooper Cobras for a build, I can always get sidewall decals from Fireball Modelworks.

My query here was just to find out if these could be easily salvaged.

[Swamp Dog]

their is nothing you can do if you want the raised lettering. that is just the way 3D printing looks. you gotta sand it. if you buy them do as Bill said said..

[Mothersworry]

Fireball Modelworks has the Cooper Cobra Radial G/T decals, #WL-09.

Fireball Modelworks also offers many different sizes of generic tires, which do not have layering lines as they are cast rubber.

Edited 15 hours ago by Mothersworry

[Bugatti Fan]

3D printed items are so variable I suppose depending on so many factors. Machine, materisl, design etc.

Those tyres are showing quite bad layering marks in my opinion. As you are stuck with them it might be best to smooth the outer tyre walls completely and use those decals suggested in an earlier post.

These tyres aside when I see a number of 3D printed items on this forum, many have so many support pieces to be cut off and clean up the parts made afterwards that it looks like really hard work to me.

[stitchdup]

39 minutes ago, Bugatti Fan said:

These tyres aside when I see a number of 3D printed items on this forum, many have so many support pieces to be cut off and clean up the parts made afterwards that it looks like really hard work to me.

if you dip the parts in HOT water the supports leave less marks. my tyres printed in black dont even need painted. the spare tyre on this isn't painted, just 85% black resin and 15% grey and its a great match for tamiya rubber black paint

[Bugatti Fan]

Referring to the first line of my post, it would appear that you have some quite sophisticated machinery as you mentioned that you can set black and grey resin percentages to get the tyre colour looking realistic straight off the mechine.

[stitchdup]

11 minutes ago, Bugatti Fan said:

Referring to the first line of my post, it would appear that you have some quite sophisticated machinery as you mentioned that you can set black and grey resin percentages to get the tyre colour looking realistic straight off the mechine.

any resin printer can do it. its just a case of mixing the resin before putting it in the tank the same way we mix paints

[iamsuperdan]

13 hours ago, Swamp Dog said:

their is nothing you can do if you want the raised lettering. that is just the way 3D printing looks. you gotta sand it. if you buy them do as Bill said said..

Will respectfully disagree with you here. 

Layer lines can be virtually non-existent, depending on how thick you make each layer, and how you position the print on the build plate.

Here are some recent prints, prior to any sort of cleanup.

 

You still need to do a little sanding and cleaning, but I don't think there's any excuse for a vendor to be selling prints with layer lines as pronounced as the OP's example.

 

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

14 hours ago, Swamp Dog said:

their is nothing you can do if you want the raised lettering. that is just the way 3D printing looks. you gotta sand it.

Well suh, I have some 3D prints in my possession that have zero "layering lines".

I also have some that look like Fido's backside, and I'll NEVER buy from those guys again...even if they fix their junk.

There's a lot to be said for actually knowing what you're doing, and learning to make a quality product prior to selling it....though that's an idea that's apparently now considered old-fashioned. SEE: Microsoft, just about every LLM AI product out there, etc.

EDIT: Also see Dan's post immediately above.

Edited 2 hours ago by Ace-Garageguy

[peteski]

Yes, those striations or artifacts of how the printer prints the item one layer at a time, are due to the thickness of the printed layers.  It could be that the layer thickens is configured to be too coarse, or it might just be that the specific printer simply does not have the capability to print thinner layers. I suspect that it is the latter reason.  Vendor's printer is likely a lower resolution printer.