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3D printed throttle grip painting/finishing

sparkcrafter

Active Member
I bought the new blade-style throttle grip for my RV-12iS and while the quality of the part is pretty good for a 3D printed part the overall fit, finish, and feel has room for improvement. Anyone have recommendations for the best way to finish this part? Any suggestions on paint/coatings that would have a good feel when gripped? Anything to be cautious of when sanding?

Thanks!
Jerald
 

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How about Plasti-Dip? The rubberized coating stuff you can buy to dip your screwdriver handles in for a better grip. It's fairly durable as far as I can remember.
 
Some kind of soft-touch paint might be nice, but possibly expensive. Maybe even a cheap rubberized undercoating spray? (EDIT: Or plasti-dip as Rob suggested)

Start with maybe 320 grit and adjust up or down from there. You don't necessarily need it perfectly smooth, especially if you use a high-build primer, or plan to use the undercoating spray. **Wipe down with rubbing alcohol, prime, wait for longer than it says to on the bottle, then sand with a higher grit. Repeat sand/prime steps until happy, then paint within the primer's recommended time window.

**If you're brave and careful, you can kiss the bare plastic with a torch to increase the surface energy and improve adhesion before the first priming step. https://www.epoxyworks.com/index.php/flame-treating-plastics/
 
To add to Bobby's suggestion, I would advise against soft-touch paint. I haven't seen one yet that can last more than ten years without turning to goo, and the last half of that lifetime won't be the best user experience with it as it starts to go off. Your RV will be around a lot longer (I hope!).
 
PLASTIC PAINT

Aerosport interior recommended a can of paint for their interior panels that has been extremely durable on my plastic panels. The only pic I could find was plastic cap with part no. 15713 and color LADERA. It is available at professional auto paint stores.

Wish I had more detailed info. If you find it, you won't go wrong.
 
Aerosport interior recommended a can of paint for their interior panels that has been extremely durable on my plastic panels. The only pic I could find was plastic cap with part no. 15713 and color LADERA. It is available at professional auto paint stores.

Wish I had more detailed info. If you find it, you won't go wrong.

Google says it's SEM Color Coat.
 
paint doesn't like to stick to plastic. Many special paints and adhesion promoters to help with this, but I would consider options that don't include paint. You can progressively sand with finer grits and should be able to use polishing compound with cotton wheels to get a full gloss finish if that is what is desired. I have even polished plastic and acrylic with the same buffing equipment and liquids that I use on paint with good results. I painted all the interior panels in an old corvette with the SEM paint mentioned above and it held up well except for the steering wheel. It didn't stand up to that kind of wear and would expect the same problems with a throttle handle.
 
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I bought the new blade-style throttle grip for my RV-12iS and while the quality of the part is pretty good for a 3D printed part the overall fit, finish, and feel has room for improvement. Anyone have recommendations for the best way to finish this part? Any suggestions on paint/coatings that would have a good feel when gripped? Anything to be cautious of when sanding?

Thanks!
Jerald

You can have it electroplated giving it a chrome or shiny finish.
You can have a rubberized TPU "sock" printed for it.

Or, you can sand it, prime it and paint as other have mentioned. If you want tips on painting it, look up the Cosplay people on YouTube that make Iron man and star wars helmets and suits. They have some great tutorials.
 
I bought the new blade-style throttle grip for my RV-12iS and while the quality of the part is pretty good for a 3D printed part the overall fit, finish, and feel has room for improvement. Anyone have recommendations for the best way to finish this part? Any suggestions on paint/coatings that would have a good feel when gripped? Anything to be cautious of when sanding?

Thanks!
Jerald

One other option is to print the grip in ABS and then smooth it with acetone (Look up "ABS Acetone Vapor Smoothing" on YouTube).
 
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