Finishing Torture Test

PLA (Polylactic Acid) filament is one of the two most commonly used desktop 3D printing materials (with the other being ABS filament). It is the ‘default’ recommended material for many desktop 3D printers, and with good reason - PLA is useful in a broad range of printing applications and can be produced in a variety of colors. Cool, but what do you do to finish a PLA print to make it truly good?

To help showcase the benefits and problems that can arise with each technique, We’ve designed a “Finishing Torture Test.” This simple model has sharp corners on the outside of the cube and the inside of the hole, along chamfers, and the edges of the pyramid. It also has round faces, fillets, and a cylinder. We chose to include all these in the model as they are different examples of some common features you might find in the various models you can print, and to show how some of the features can be lost or diminished.