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 Tuesday at 09:40 PM 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 yesterday at 01:33 AM 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 yesterday at 03:00 PM 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.

 

[Swamp Dog]

3 hours ago, iamsuperdan 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.

 

 

respectfully disagree with me... did you read the part that i said you got to sand it ??...his rims was what i was talking about and their is  nothing you can do with them but sand the letters off that's just the way a lot of 3D looks. i should have said that in my post so even you would understand that.  i also have a lot of 3D parts that required none to little sanding. the rims you have are not raised letters they are counter sunk inside the rim for easy clean up. also if you have never bought anything big like printed trucks or cars beware who you buy from or you will see what sanding 3D parts id all about.

[stinkybritches]

22 hours ago, Monty said:

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? 

Those layer lines look odd to me. I wonder if this was printed using a flexible resin. The tires I print in ABS - like resin look like Dan's pics. 

[Big John]

Higher resolution printed parts take longer (more passes) to print the fine surface parts. In printing for sale business time is money and large surface area parts like tires will take longer.  Time verses cost, would you pay 50% more for better finish parts if it took twice as long to print?

[NOBLNG]

2 hours ago, Big John said:

Higher resolution printed parts take longer (more passes) to print the fine surface parts. In printing for sale business time is money and large surface area parts like tires will take longer.  Time verses cost, would you pay 50% more for better finish parts if it took twice as long to print?

Ask me when I’m halfway through sanding those things.😬 In other words…yes.

[Xingu]

5 hours ago, Swamp Dog said:

respectfully disagree with me... did you read the part that i said you got to sand it ??...his rims was what i was talking about and their is  nothing you can do with them but sand the letters off that's just the way a lot of 3D looks. i should have said that in my post so even you would understand that.  i also have a lot of 3D parts that required none to little sanding. the rims you have are not raised letters they are counter sunk inside the rim for easy clean up. also if you have never bought anything big like printed trucks or cars beware who you buy from or you will see what sanding 3D parts id all about.

I am confused (happens a lot) are you talking rims or tires? Everyone is talking about the raised lettering on the tires, you keep mentioning rims. 

I have seen good and bad printed parts, tires, bodies, engines. Too many people are trying to make a quick buck and print garbage. 3D printing, for the model industry, isn't where it needs to be just yet (IMO), at least not on a broad scale.

However, it does keep getting better and sometimes cheaper.

[iamsuperdan]

6 hours ago, Swamp Dog said:

respectfully disagree with me... did you read the part that i said you got to sand it ??...his rims was what i was talking about and their is  nothing you can do with them but sand the letters off that's just the way a lot of 3D looks. i should have said that in my post so even you would understand that.  i also have a lot of 3D parts that required none to little sanding. the rims you have are not raised letters they are counter sunk inside the rim for easy clean up. also if you have never bought anything big like printed trucks or cars beware who you buy from or you will see what sanding 3D parts id all about.

 

That's a lot of sass to direct at someone that said nothing about you. Unless of course you're the vendor that hasn't set up their printer properly.

Did you read the part where I said that my printed tires had not been sanded, and will need sanding? Do you see any prominent layer lines on any of my printed tires?

That's what I'm talking about. Whatever files that vendor used for the tires are probably fine, but that vendor has no clue how to set up a 3d printer to avoid layer lines that require a ton of sanding.

 

[peteski]

3 hours ago, iamsuperdan said:

that vendor has no clue how to set up a 3d printer to avoid layer lines that require a ton of sanding.

As I mentioned in my last post, another possibility is that the seller used an older, low-res printer which is incapable of printing thinner layers.  3D printing technology evolves continuously. They might own a older printer or one of the less expensive models which have lower print resolution.

[Bugatti Fan]

If one is going to sell 3D printed items, the buyer rightly had an expectancy that the parts will be high quality.  Period!

Anyone selling stuff off a low grade printer or set a higher grade one to process stuff faster to keep costs down and compromising quality as a result will be doing themselves and their customers no favours whatsoever. In fact those guys will quickly find that their sales will be one offs as the word gets around not to use them.

Like anything else, quality costs !     Fact of life !

 

 

 

[NOBLNG]

With 3d printers being relatively new and priced so that anyone can afford one, It seems highly likely that opportunistic and inexperienced people will attempt to sell anything to anyone. Best to stick with vendors that have a solid reputation and references….or take your chances.

[mcs1056]

Uh oh...

Peteski used the word, "striations."

Uproar in 3...2...1...

[peteski]

13 minutes ago, mcs1056 said:

Uh oh...

Peteski used the word, "striations."

Uproar in 3...2...1...

Ah yes, that was a quite a rant from Mr. Texas3D (including several PMs to me), but that will not stop me.  Striations, striations, striations! See, I did it again.

To me the visible lines of 3D printing layering look like striations, regardless of what others think.