How to Prepare and Prime 3D Printed Parts for Painting - My methods

hey guys it's up all to my channel my name is Frank and today we'll talk about priming [Music] so everybody wants this nice smooth glossy finish on their 3d prints they want to know how to get rid of all the layer lines out of prime it how to paint it how to polish it and in the series of videos really however many I feel like making I'll be talking about different tips and tricks I've learned throughout you know years of painting different things models cars 3d prints and just kind of explaining to you the things I look out for and different you know techniques I apply to this this isn't a tutorial because there's I could spend days teaching you guys how to paint the perfect print and then you can go and apply that in whatever area you live in but you're using different paint how long did that paint sit on the shelf what kind of primer did you use how long did you shake it how long do you shake it the last time you use it what did it say in the hot environment a cold environment how far away are you spraying there are just so many variables when it comes to this stuff that even if I give you a step-by-step guide it may never actually work out for you so you kind of have to get out there and experiment by yourself with testing you know crappy old broken prints and that's what actually were gonna be doing I was able to get my hands on five different types of primers and that was just a one store and they all have different kind of applications and results and they all have to be kind of handled a different way so we're gonna go through and kind of sand down and play with a couple of my old like throw away crap prints and we're gonna see different applications and what the primer actually does and how to actually handle it and deal with it so whether you want to believe it or not there is no filler primer anywhere on this part this was all sanded down normally primed painted clear coated polished buffed waxed all right so you can get this type of finished without dumping absolute but loads of filler primer on a print because if you start using too much filler primer you're gonna start to lose some of these details but there are ways to get those details back once you've you know started doing it that way now this is just the tech way I do it you can use filler primer all you want but again experiment with it and see what it gets you so I've already showed you guys how I sand it you can go watch my PLA smoothing tutorial on how to use an electric palm sander and smooth really big 3d prints and get them nice down without any layer lines and it really doesn't take long that's actually what I'm gonna be doing to all these prints but that's a whole different tutorial go watch that come back to this so you're kind of caught up for this I'm gonna be messing with five different types primers we have normal automotive primer and this is more made for metal but it does actually interact pretty well with plastic and it's a it comes out just fine I build the filler primer which it does exactly what it says it does it fills up you know it builds up on the layers it fills up gaps this is really good for hiding layer lines but again it can kind of hide and ruin your detail I've actually never used this stuff before I found this at the store it's just straight up plastic primer so I'm actually excited to see how this turns out compared to the other primers I'm used to using this is the one I use more than anything this is just normal sandwiches then when you actually sand it even with 200 grit sandpaper it actually makes it really smooth and ready for painting and this is actually what I used on my entire suit this is flat white rust-oleum primer and I want to say this is a little bit denser than the sandable primer but nowhere near as dense as the filler primer and this stuff goes on great it covers beautifully it'll cover almost any color and if you ever painted something like a red plastic or you know try to cover red paint this white paint will cover it just fine and without any of the red bleeding through so we're gonna pay attention to which ones we use and we're gonna get some things sanded down I'm gonna half-ass sand some of them I'm gonna stand some of the metter because we're gonna want to show you guys the effects of layer lines bleeding through and what your prep work can look like and how it can impact you I'm gonna use these parts for the entire tutorial series when we're gonna we're going to paint them we're gonna clearcoat them we're gonna buff and polish them and you'll able to see a different range of finished products depending on the prep work you put into it if you've ever ever done any type of automotive body work or heard anybody talk about it prep is key if there is a if there is a the most important step in painting it is right now it is your prep and primer stage how well did you sand it how well did you prime it and you will rinse and repeat that because if you did a crap job sanding your print and your layer Alliance and it looks like Dookie painting it is not gonna hide that that is gonna bleed through especially if you can still see it in the primer stage so let me get this sand it down we're going to the paint booth and we'll start alright guys so we're in little paint booth couple things I wanna cover real quick I can't speak to your painting area I can't tell you hey you need a paint booth like this you might not be able to make a paint booth like you want as air current and breeze free and dust free of an environment as possible it could be in a shear shed you can get a little storage container and make a little paint booth be well ventilated get it and make sure you have a good mask on this is not a good mask I don't know where my respirator is don't use a surgical face mask like this this is good for like wood sawdust and stuff but the fumes and chemicals from spray paint not good don't worry about me do as I say not as I do I'm fine okay also print quality I didn't really cover that before I can't also cannot also speak for how good are your prints coming out now on some of these you can still see some of the layer lines I sanded this down real quick with a sandpaper but you know if your prints are coming out really bad there's a lot of layer lines you're having under extrusion or over strip I can't I can't help you with that in this video I have other videos explaining you know troubleshooting and tutorials and builds and settings so you can go look at those but if your prints are coming out 'über bad I this isn't the tutorial for you um some of it can be saved with filler primer really bad prints sometimes can maybe be saved with like bondo and you know really big high build stuff but that's not what this is I'm trying to teach you guys to how to avoid that kind of stuff so get your prints coming out nice or and not really helps you with the sanding process the less layer lines that are on your prints when you print them the less sanding and feeling you'll have to actually do I do have a multitude of a couple prints that came out with different qualities so we're gonna see how it goes i sanded half of the parts so once they're done I'll be able to compare like how well do certain things cover layer lines i sanded half of them with my electric sander but I went over all of them with 150 grit sandpaper this is like my go-to before priming it cuts just enough where it smooths everything down but it doesn't actually it won't take forever and it doesn't gunk up always shake your can spray paint read them that's the probably the best advice I can give you for any type of painting tutorial read the back of the can the instructions on it are typically pretty good so for something like a sandable primer this can go I'm pretty wet and it really doesn't run too bad again distance you want to kind of pay attention at distance if you're starting to run stop let it dry sand it back down but what's nice about the primer stage is if it runs a little bit it's not the end of the world I did I just wanted to spray some kind of low detail things just to show you the eyes the the surface that this gives you in the end because like I said this is kind of my preferred primer to use this automotive primer goes on beautifully this is why you want to be in a dusty environment while I was spraying I was actually kicking up some dust onto the print but we're in a the primer stage so I really don't care now you can actually already see hopefully I only sanded half of this the same way I sanded this you can decide it's kind of smooth like you there's already reflection obviously this is still wet it's a little bubbly that's fine but if you go over to this side with the reflection you can still see the layer lines so this isn't really a high build at all but it is gonna give you a nice prime surface this is the plastic primer I haven't used yet so I'm actually kind of excited to see how it comes out it has some very pretty good coverage to it actually and it's not running too easily it's actually when I'm pretty good these parts were already primed in white I just want to see what the texture feels like if they actually would cover up any more of the layer lines I had in it but it actually did a pretty good job same same with this piece half of it was sanded and then not bad a little heavy and then this side you still got the lines not too bad it covered this pretty good now hey our first problems are real so you see all these bubbles forming this part I actually did something on I rubbed I rubbed my hands all over this part and what that does is it gets oiled oil from your hands and fingers stays on the plastic and then it makes the paint fail if you ever have these little dots and bubbles pop up it's an adhesion problem typically and most of the time it comes from oils or your prints your parts not being clean before painting and it I wasn't sure which one I did I did one or the other and this one was nice and clean this one wasn't and there is the problem so when it dries we can sand it down sometimes you can chase it and you can actually discover back up with more primer but we're gonna see how it goes now these are the important parts these are very high detailed parts this was done with my electric palm sander this was done by hand sanding and I'm gonna use the filler primer on these because I want to see just how much detail I can retain or lose so these are gonna get covered but your finger is getting tired a little cheap paint down they cost about five dollars and it gives you a nice grip so that covered pretty good I still got some layer lines hiding in there but not too bad and this is the part I didn't use the electric sander on right off the bat this one has so many worse layer lines sitting on it because really there was really not much sanding prep done for this you could continue to build this up with filler primer layer and layer and coat after coat already the difference between sanding want taking time to sand one and not the other is I mean might not be able to see it in this but it is absolutely a night-and-day last up is this double coverage ultra flat white primer and it's going over red uh-oh I went too heavy and there's a drip what are we gonna do we're gonna leave and sand it down later so I use the electric sander on this side the sides actually nice and smooth this tough cover is very very very well it has a lot of misting it's going to give you a rough kind of finish but when you sand it down it'll be nice I have some lines showing through this side really no lines showing through this side but oh no you can see where all of my supports were on the top of the prim and we show you how to cover that up usually I won't put any filler putty or any type of filler product on my supports areas until i prime it at least once this way when I sand it I can see where everything is and I get a little bit better adhesion so everything's in there Prime's drying we're gonna let that go for a little bit and then we'll get to the sanding and seeing how they look afterwards so I just came back in and I just hit these with a second coat it was pretty much the same process I did for the first one just spraying them trying to get any of the little problem areas or you know spots that didn't look like they got covered well the first time and while this dries I want to show you guys two things one I want to show you what to kind of look for when you're actually spraying and we can use this little analogue here so we'll use which one do I have way too much of which one runs the easiest you we're going to spray on the little wall right here I always do like a little test shot now you can go for coverage right what I look for you go and you can see I'm a splatter comes from this one alone right not all they're gonna be like this so you want to get good coverage but don't you don't want to be too close because then you'll start to build up too wet and then you can see it start to run real bad once it starts running you're kind of dead in the water so you really just want to be careful maintain a good distance little spurts work out the best light coats and then as you can start to build up you can aim to make a more wet coat and good lighting helps this a lot being able to actually see and look around and see where it's that has that nice glossy shine you know that's a nice wet coat it's gonna dry nice and smooth but if you stay too far back it will start to build up and mist and splatter let's see how this black turns out over top with a nice fresh wet white those do not like mixing and you can see where all my runs and my drips were I can force one on myself you can actually see it running just fine I stay far enough away it actually doesn't it doesn't run too bad but I can really stay close to make it run that's not what you want you never want to spray paint that close I would just be bad if you're too far away you're not gonna get good coverage so in my infinite wisdom I totally forgot to fill myself filling the top cap right there with a little bit of wood filler so I'm gonna show you guys how I actually spread it on with this little crappy faceplate so you can get it in a tube or a tub open it up wear gloves I have a good cleaning solvent that takes this stuff off my fingers but what I'll do is I'll grab a little bit something like that that's roughly what I used on the the top of the dome and all you do just spread it around it actually it'll stick pretty well especially the sanded and especially to primed parts and I'll smooth it around and I'll build it up as high as possible in those real bad problem areas and more is more in this situation because this stuff sands very very easily so you're not gonna be sitting there for hours just trying to cut this down like you would with bondo or a super glue and baking soda which are both great to use if you're comfortable using them but it's just a little quick fill analog this stuff is amazing so and then you can actually kind of use another part of the prints you can't wipe your finger off if you need to but I don't recommend doing it like that wear gloves so and smooth Don and this will stand out perfectly and this has already applied to the top of the dome over there I applied it did my second coat it realized it in filament it's all rough and bumpy up here but where the layer lines were and that were the support material broke off it's all covered up so this is actually dry already actually all this primers dry this is the white primer dried really quickly this stuff dries on like half an hour an hour if you get on there really really smooth and thin it'll dry 10-15 minutes so actually this paint still just a little tacky so we're gonna let this dry a little bit more and then we're gonna go through and kind of sand all these down and see what they do to the sandpaper as we send them alright guys so we're all good everything's dry so I'm gonna go through we're gonna look at how everything laid down the pros and cons of it and then we're gonna actually try to sand some of it down I apologize for the flashing I was able to mitigate it a little bit with my frames per second but hopefully it's not giving anybody any you know seizures or anything but when I get up close it kind of mitigates it so this is the black Sanibel primer this is what I like to use more than anything and it covers really nicely and this is unsanded the primer these diamonds handed it yet so still some layer lines there but not too bad and then this part came out really nice you can still see some of the lines on the unsanded side but the smooth side looks great and you can see that one deep layer line so I could fill that with like some wood filler now the automotive primer I like how this stuff laid down they say this this came out the smoothest by far just right Fred at the can and I got a little bit of gunk right in there so that's that's my fault but not too bad as for covering layer lines not too effective at it let's see yeah not too bad they're filled in a little bit but for a nice smooth finish I'd probably go with this one to this plastic primer I'm still really excited to use this on some paint on on some get some paint on this because it feels different than all the other primers it's a little bumpy a little little texture not too bad though but it just it feels different than the others so more to come on this and then the infamous filler primer yeah so I went pretty heavy on the part I didn't really sand too well just to see how it filled everything in and it didn't feel too bad of a job but you can still see a pretty clear difference in the in the actual quality of them so not too bad so yeah I'm not the worst thing and then the side I actually did sand came out much better but it is starting to kind of fill in some of those detail lines that I was talking about especially where it bleeds and builds up but it did a real good job of filling in here the spots that you really otherwise wouldn't be able to sand and then you can see where I had some some crud and stringing and then this ultra cover - flat white primer I like this stuff a lot you can see on this side you can still see a lot of the layer lines and not too bad Wow this uh this is kind of annoying isn't it I got to figure this out why it's making why it's reflecting and doing all this so that's not bad I think if I get closer it gets worse yeah kind of art so this sides pretty smooth this is the side I sanded and actually erased all the layer lines and you can see them pretty bad on this side and that filler primer is all nice and dry so we're gonna look at that - so we'll start off with this black the Sanibel primer not bad actually this smooths out very well this is 150 grit and it's really not leaving too many scratches at all it's you can still see the line so I could probably get rid of these layer lines with another coat of this but pre sanding it really made a big difference yeah that looks great actually that has a nice smooth finish and I could I'd be okay putting some color right on this side this side however yeah maybe one more layer and it's not gunking up my sandpaper too bad at all so far the automotive primer this came out actually smoother than the black primer I might actually have to start switching to this this feels great this is it covered really good came out really smooth and it has a really nice surface to it already so I'm excited to see what happens when I get some color on this one the plastic primer and again my sandpaper is not clogging up at all really it makes a good amount of dust but it's fine dust and it's not clogging at all so it left a little bit of a rough texture on this one this one's really nice and smooth already and it didn't really do much for filling in layer lines this one was already pretty smooth as it was as for adhesion goes I'm really excited to see what this one does very easy to sand to again sandpaper still looks great now I'm gonna skip the filler primer because I know what's gonna happen a little bit with this one we're gonna go right to the ultra two-in-one flat white primer so you can almost hear the scratching right and then on this side it's it I don't know if you can hear that difference between it rubbing on the layer lines and rubbing on the smooth primer so that's sanded down I got that actually pretty smooth but it might be a little hard to see there's still a couple little little tiny imperfections in here and I can do two things I can keep keep going on and sanding actually do three things I can keep sanding this because there is still some I can cut down and I can sit here and just cut it down cut it down put it down I can throw more wood filler on it a very thin layer and sand it down again or I can keep building a primer on it now a nice little trick to do because since this is all white it's a little hard to tell where your low spots are and this is a little trick from my doing bodywork and stuff all you do it's always a good idea to maybe keep two different colors of primer around so what I'm gonna do is taking the same eye sandable primer it's black and I'm gonna dust just kind of dust top the top of it we're gonna let that dry and it should dry pretty quickly since it was such a light coat and while that's drying let's go and take a look at the filler primer and again my sandpaper my 150 grit is still pretty much brand new still feels great I've only been using that side so let's do the side that we pre sanded so that actually dunked on my sandpaper a good amount already however this is nice and smooth now at certain angles you can still see a lot of a layer line so they didn't spend too much time sanding this down I only got the really update trouble spots and this really wasn't the best print quality you can with however it still doesn't look that bad I think another coat or two a filler primer and this would be pretty smooth as it is but throwing filler wood filler or any type of epoxy or bondo on this would just be a nightmare with all this detail now the side we did in to actually prep real well it's not uh not treating the sandpaper too well so that really didn't make much of a difference at all it really let the lower lines bleed through pretty bad I would need to coat this up and build this up a lot more rinse repeats and rinse you know it would have to be a you actually see where one of my lot my layer separate a little bit of under extrusion was happening there so that's a little bit of a problem and actually I could probably crack this part in half too so it's gonna wear that and uh now if I think for filler primer like you're gonna have to use a little bit more it kind of goes with your sandpaper but for all these little detailed parts it might kind of be necessary because it's gonna be just a nightmare getting in here and sanding so if you're already using it and you like using it that's fine but being able to just go and priests and your parts and I have to use something like filler primer which can add up pretty quickly I think is a pretty worthwhile benefit of this so we're gonna come back over here to the black primer and it's actually looks like it's pretty dry already so the reason I did a separate color was now I can do this and as you stand away what's going to happen is this it's going to leave the black paint and all the recesses that we need to continue to stand down so it's actually already coming out kind of uneven it wasn't perfectly dry but it's still giving us a pretty good idea now as you stand this and you start to cut through it you're gonna be able to sand the black away but what you can't reach yet is gonna stay it might be hard to see but there's some spots here that are still very dark black like right there a little bit in there a little over here and those are spots that my sandpaper isn't touching because it's not actually going into those holes so you keep standing away and eventually you'll start to get rid of all this black and if you kind of what they do is go back and forth between colors and it builds on layers so you'll put a little bit of white on it sand it put a little black on it sand it and it will start to build up these layers where you can see where your imperfections are so this one wasn't too bad but there's still some spots I definitely need to cut down a little bit more and eventually you'll be able to get rid of all of that and this is already looking pretty good I think if I did one more coat of primer of white primer on this it would actually fill in a lot of those little imperfections and this would be pretty good and ready for paint and I'll probably do that before we actually go into the painting process for all of these so guys I think that does it kind of for the sanding and the priming and the prep just come please I want to iterate again if I haven't already this is paddle arm video prep is key however much time you spend in this stage it will pay in spades on your final product if there are imperfections and if there's layer lines now painting it and clear coating it it's not gonna hide it they're gonna bleed through especially if you're doing something on like a face plate where it's gonna be a metallic metallics love just absolutely love to show hairline so you have to be really careful with this stuff put time in now fix your imperfections now because once you start painting it you're gonna have to strip that paint down it's just it becomes a nightmare so take your time in this just do good prep work that's really where it's key now if any on what I was gonna do I've kind of lumped these two in with each other the Sanibel primer and the automotive primer they went both one I'm pretty smooth there weren't really good at filling layer lines but they came out really nice and smooth and are easy to sand and easy to apply the filler primer is filler primer that just it's a high build formula you can bulk up sandpaper quick but for really detailed hard-to-reach areas it's really not the worst thing in the world for hiding letter lines so you're gonna have to go out there and experiment with this stuff this ultra flat white primer from rest oleum it operates I'd say one step under the filler primer it still fills it pretty good it's easy to sand away and I kind of like using this stuff it covers really well and cover really any color you wanted to so I'll kind of put these into a grouping together almost says like a more high build kind of all um-- this plastic primer were I'm yet to see I've yet to see its benefits so I'm excited to get some color on these to see just how it bonds it in kind of adheres to itself and what kind of like adhesion we get for the paint and if it helps at all with our smoothness and finish so we're gonna I'm not excited for this now as we go through this I'm gonna paint these in different colors we're gonna do some parts in like a nice gloss we're going to do some parts in probably like a satin and we'll do some parts in a metallic that's why I hated a couple different parts in the same primer so keep an eye out for that video where we go through and actually start painting and throwing some base color on these and as you probably already noticed I sanded some parts better than ice and in others because I want you guys to see how the layer lines bleed through and what you can see with different colors now that doesn't say doesn't mean that a base coat can't cover up a little or let's layer lines I think the red gloss red I used this actually fills in layer lines a little bit by itself too because it's that high build ultra coverage primer kind of stuff the same as the white and it does it will help a little bit but you need to know what paints do and don't do that like I said metallics are thin and they don't fill in well at all so thank you so much for watching guys if you want to go talk more nerd and learn more painting cosplay 3d printing anything like that there's a link from my discord down below 3 to join go and talk nerd there's stores are already a hundred or something people in there all exchanging tips and tricks and it's a great place for beginners it's a great place that if are you know you want to expand your knowledge so if you want to be part of that community please join it's really it's been a lot of fun already and it's a very active little discourse so far if you're interested in more of these videos and you like this kind of content and you want to support me I did start a patreon account there's a link down below go look at it if you're interested if not totally fine thank you so much for watching I think that's it stay tuned for the second part of this video where I go over painting and then we'll build up from there that's it thanks for watching every day [Music]

Channel: Frankly Built

Views: 13,408

Rating: 4.8149781 out of 5

Keywords: 3d, 3dprinting, 3d printing, 3d printed, diy, at home, cosplay, props, replica, creality, cr-10s, cr-10, ultimaker, cura, creawesome, comicon, comic-con, painting, sanding, armor, armour, update, maker space, 3d model, d03d, budget, CR-10Max, ender-3, PAINT, PRIME, PAINT 3d prints, painting prints, paint plastic, how to prime 3d prints, painting 3d printed parts, painting parts, priming, primer

Id: FKjVPYnqDug

Length: 26min 33sec (1593 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 09 2020