Recently did a test print with Creality Pla-wood. The smell during the print is amazing, I’m kind of hooked. I printed something flat, was easy to sand and stain looks incredible, 100% looks like wood. It’s been 48h and no matter how much I wipe the thing it’s still tacky / leaves a little residue on my hands. Do I just need to wait longer? Is this normal? Is it OK to clearcoat before absolutely bone dry / residue free?
What about sanding more complex structures? Do I need to get a sand blaster for this? Is there a dremel brush I could use?
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You should probably remove excess stain before it turns tacky. Remember, stains seep into the wood, they provide no protection being on the surface.
You want the surface absolutely dry before clear coating. If the stain doesn’t dry off, I would suggest applying some solvent- whatever is recommended for thinning by the product to remove the tacky stuff if you were trying to recover it.
For sanding complex shapes, you might be able to get a tumbler or vibration tank. Sand blasting is very aggressive, even using finer grits; and plastic is very soft. I’ve had good luck with spongey dremel wheels, if one’s in a hurry, or, using foam sanding pads.
Thanks. I’ll have to try those foam pads.
What did you use to stain it? It’s possible you applied it too thick and it isn’t going to ever dry. If you clearcoat over tacky stain, you’re just going to create a bigger mess. You can let it sit longer and sand if off, or use a solvent and try to remove the excess. But the more you mess with it, the more of a mess it is going to be.
Might need to make some smaller test prints and experiment with finishing.
What type of stain did you use? I imagine it makes a difference considering the part is plastic.
Just regular Minwax, I’ve seen some reccomend gel stain
I found this Reddit post after a Google search.
I think you went too much on the stain from the get go. I’m finding I have to be patient between coats on all my PLA prints.
How long did you leave the stain on before wiping it?
8min
I think that might be your issue. Gel stain from minwax should be wiped off after 3 minutes. Anything longer can cause the issue you are experiencing. I would try to wipe/sand off the finish and start again. On a side note, we need to do that to our banister/railing in this house. The previous owner of the house apparently liked the THICK look of the gel stain.
For what it’s worth, I’m not using gel, just standard Minwax stain
Oh dang, I misread another comment you made. With regular stain the longer you leave on usually the darker it just makes it appear. But as long as you fully wiped off the excess after it should have worked out. That said I’ve only used stain on actual wood. Haven’t tried printing wood PLA yet.
I’ve worked with a lot of Wood PLA (almost exclusively Amolen). It stains fine, but I always apply a very small amount to a fine bristle brush and use that to apply it to the parts. I don’t use much, and then I let it air dry in a room that’s at least 70° overnight before doing anything else with it.
I don’t know that I’d ever sand blast. I’ve manually sanded (which has allowed me to better fake “grain” before applying stain.
