Road To Major Fud Improvements Starts With Repricing

Yes, it's not the nicest stuff. I use it inside a sealed container (large jam jar for smaller parts, a tub with a lid for bigger bits) as it evaporates easily as well. Used that way I don't think it's too dangerous although I do usually fish bits out after a soak outside or near an open window to be on the safe side. Having said that it's no worse than many other common household cleaning products so I wouldn't worry too much.

At the end of the day you have to make a choice, do you want to use something strong enough to clean and set the plastics, or do you use something weaker and less effective and risk crystals appearing later, possibly after a model has been painted and finished. I know which route I take,

Mark

These are one part but eight shots of Anchor chain in Z scale! and each link move like a real chain!

Hey all,

I'd like to give you an update on the ready to print FUD offering.

After further testing and getting feedback from the community testers we've concluded that Shapeways isn't ready to offer a ready to paint option for FUD.

the reasons being:

• The community members we shared sample Ready to Paint FUD products to were turned off by the surface quality of the treated and preferred regular FUD.
• Many painting hobbyists told us they'd still prefer to wash the parts themselves because its already part of the process for cast models, making the overall need for a ready to paint option a lower priority to other aspects of the material we'd rather be working to improve

Thank you to everyone for your interest and feedback in this the development post-processing option!

Tested Cleaning (and Paint?) Instructions

Andrew,

Thanks for the update.

One thing I would appreciate, is tested cleaning procedures (and painting?), posted and maintained by Shapeways as a part of the materials page. Perhaps a "Prepare Received Model for Use" link on the materials page.

It is really tedious trying to find succinct cleaning instructions. This seems important if there is a problem like the effervescence of residues from the material after the passage of time. This effervescence making a mess of painted models.

The instructions might also include the characteristics of various primers and painting techniques. Even if it does not otherwise cover painting.

Thanks again,
Charles Sloane

PS, I have finally started a store at: (not much there yet)
https://www.shapeways.com/shops/tfs-trains

second Charles' request. A lot of new prospective buyers are put off by all the various opinions on cleaning, or just the messages that say FUD is very hard to paint. A little guidance would be very helpful.

This sounds like he is got to were some of us are as shop owners with 3D printing! He like the details and with all the rules shapeways has and price changes make it hard to design a real to scale model. You have to put a high price to make any good money! Shapeways then takes a percent also off each model and the shop owner gets a cut to what the shop owner marked up so he makes less for all his work. Most people that do models don't have that kind of money to spend on a piece of plastic some of us aren't here to make money we have fun in drawing and helping other getting things they can't buy in other places. But the changes made my shapeways. I have been to the point where I'm also ready to leave. I have spent to much on these models at a high price and most of mine are in 1:220 scale and the cost is still up there so you can't detail to much and the QA in checking is not there after printing. How do I know I have gotten many models were parts were not in the bag so where did they go and who checked the model to make sure it was good before wasting money sending it! Spruces are OK but when models show up with parts missing and not in the bag and their not check with drawing to make sure there all there. I'm really Sorry that some might not like what I have said but I have been here a While and really haven't seem much in changes for anything except for higher prices, bigger wall sizes and support wire sizes and model that print once then can't be printed again! which is going to knock out some of the miniatures if you want them to look right!!!!

Your are totally correct. We design something and it sells for months then new changes and now the cost is double or want print at all. I don't understand all the changes.

But hey look on the bright we have a new banner font. Ha

Matt

So, this thread is more then one year old ...

Except of repricing, what are the major improvements of FUD we supposed to take the road to?

Yes, there is a printing orientation setting. That is one.
ImprovementS somehow implies, there is more of them.

So, what are the others? Has anyone seen anything? Quality consistence? Bigger volume? Smaller layer thickness? Quantity discount?

Ano NO, renaming is NOT improvement.

There is a problem with FUD when printing boxes with vertical sides: two sides are fine, but the other two get a spurious pattern of hatching. That makes FUD printing unsuitable for 90% of my larger, planned models and I would have to get those done at another print bureau. Fix that problem and many things become possible.

@guyrixon sounds like an orientation issue - sides that need support wax applied will almost always be patterned.
@czhunter in that year we saw the founder step down and be replaced by a marketing guy from a wholly different, non-technical background.

My problem is not due to support wax. I have a model with 4 vertical sides - perfectly vertical, explicitly oriented that way. Two of the sides have embossed detail and yes, there are marks from the wax below these details; I can live with that. The other two sides have little detail but have the hatched pattern; they have the pattern in areas where the model is perfectly smooth and there is no overhanging detail. The hatching is a much deeper pattern than that due to the support wax.

This problem persisted over three re-prints and was never solved, and I've seen similar with models bought from other shops. The latter models also had a problem where embossed detail on the sides was simply not printed at all; the sides were smooth where they should have had detail. Shapeways cannot reliably print in FUD a model where vertical sides combined smooth areas with embossed detail. These are expensive prints, so I've given up trying to get or sell these things.

I will say part orientation is huge. Its something I wanted since I started using shapeways in 2012. All my parts are designed to take advantage of printing orientation to get the cleanest surfaces and details and prevent support material from scaring up my A surfaces.

That being said, print quality and how well the parts are cleaned seems to be a crap shoot for the last year. I've had to have several orders of FUD reprinted because of deep grooves and rough surfaces where there should not be. I've gotten orders in the last year that have been really clean and orders that were not so clean.

I've ordered doubles of certain models in the same order. Following tracking, the same part is printed in two different batches. Proper QC would dictate that the parts should have identical print quality. But that is not what happened. One of the prints had to be reprinted while the other was fine.

One thing I'll add, check the support material view option before you print your parts. It shows exactly where the support material will effect your model. So if you have issues with messed up surfaces, you can prove to shapeways its not a support material issue.

Where were the parts printed? Or at least, shipped from.

From Eindhoven.