Paint for PLA?

[Turbojoe]

I finally have my Ender 3 printing beautifully and decided to invest 50+ hours printing a very detailed birdhouse I found on a DIY website. It's so cool I'm going to want to paint it so the birds have a really snazzy place to kick back and relax. The details will require using a brush. I'm not sure what may provide the best (and hopefully cheap) coverage without having to do multiple recoats. It also needs to stand up to 110+ degree temps here in Arizona. It will be mounted under a large covered porch out of direct sunlight. I'm thinking maybe a finish coat of spray on WBPU might give it a little extra protection? ANY suggestions will be appreciated!

Joe

 

[JasonK]

every paint that I have used on PLA has worked fine, as long as it doesn't have a solvent that would damage the PLA, I think you should be fine.

 

[Turbojoe]

Thanks. I was just talking to my daughter and she is going to bring over a bunch of acrylic craft paint on Monday for me to try. Free is ALWAYS good. LOL.

I'll test the WBPU spray on a test piece.

Joe

 

[sprzout]

You can always hit it with a primer and then paint over it with acrylics.

I'd also recommend, since it's out of PLA - put it in a spot where it's in the shade. I had several Versa Wing motor mounts that got warped in 101 degree heat here in San Diego, and that could likely happen there if it gets direct sun. I'd hate to see it drooping or warping on you!

 

[Turbojoe]

Worst possible thing could have happened. 24+ hours into the print of the largest section that was going to need at least another 12 hours the print stopped with a "Failure, bed high temp" or something close to that. I should have written it down. Never seen it before I upgraded to this LINK at Amazon: BIGTREETECH SKR Mini E3 V2.0 Control Board 32Bit with TMC2209 UART Driver New Upgrade 3D Printer Parts Motherboard for Creality Ender 3. Using my Fluke laser temp gun there were no temp issues at either the bed or the nozzle. Not sure what cause the print halt but no matter what I did I couldn't resume the print. All that time and filament wasted. What did print of that large section was beautiful though....

Everything has printed great before and since I installed the new board so I don't know if the board is to blame or if something on the early Ender 3 just gave out after so many hours of straight printing. I'm not going to print anything that big again until I know I won't be wasting time and a LOT of filament. Too many happy printers of this birdhouse with successful prints so It's likely not a problem with the file.

Joe