Waterproofing PLA

[John Ulvr]

Does anyone know how to waterproof pla?  I'd like some of my prints to hold various fluids for at least a couple of months, but so far everything leaks over time.

Thanks,
John

[Joseph Chiu]

Laquer?  Urethane conformal coating?

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[David Kessner]

You could use silicone, but thinned with mineral spirits.  Camping/backpacking people do this all the time to make a "seam sealer" for tents and stuff.  They use a 1:1 ratio.

One word of warning:  Normal silicone caulk that you buy at a hardware store has anti-mold/fungal/etc stuff in it.  This makes it unsuitable for living things, like a vase.  You can get caulk made for aquariums that doesn't have this stuff in it.

-David K

On Thursday, March 20, 2014 4:30:32 PM UTC-6, Joseph Chiu wrote:

Laquer?  Urethane conformal coating?

[Ryan Carlyle]

Printing hotter, and over-extruding a bit, will help the layers adhere without gaps. You need the plastic to be sticky and mashed into place. Sometimes doing more shells/floors helps.

Coatings are easy though.

[James Avery]

We have been printing of tanks of water etc. for while now and we just use 100% infill to make the object solid and this seems to work fine. We keep meaning to find some better solution, and the "seam sealer" sounds like a good one to try out. The thing is we are trying to keep the geometry as precise as possible, so the coating would have to be either very very thin, or of a roughly uniform thickness so that we can adjust our prints to match. 

[John Ulvr]

Thanks, I'll give this a try.  This is actually to hold silica gel, so I'm not worried about living matter.  One trick is that I'm not sure I can get a paint brush in there, so I'll thin it out a bit, swoosh it around, and empty.

John

[Brian33433]

I think your best solution would be plasti-dip spray paint. I've used it to water proof all sorts of things from cell phones to gutters. It lays a nice smooth surface if you take your time and do it right. you can pick it up at any home improvement store, come in both clear and an assortment of colors

B.

[PrintedSolid]

I just came across some options for vapor polishing PLA that should leave it pretty well sealed.  

http://www.printedsolid.com/smoothpla/