PolySmoother Automatically Removes Your 3D Print’s Layer Lines and Leaves a Shine

The most common complaint people have with 3D printing, especially FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) 3D printing, is that the parts look, well, 3D-printed. Assuming you have a decent 3D printer that is properly calibrated and you use well-tuned settings, the most obvious indicator of 3D printing is visible layer lines. Even the smallest layers can easily be seen with the naked eye and give the part a rough finish that is easily distinguishable from a shiny injection-molded part. Vapor polishing can smooth out those layer lines and leave a nice reflective finish, but that’s difficult and potentially dangerous to do on your own. The new PolySmoother machine handles the dirty work of vapor polishing so you can easily achieve great finishes on 3D-printed parts.

PolySmoother just recently launched through Kickstarter, but already the campaign has raised a few hundred thousand dollars. The PolySmoother machine is essentially an enclosed chamber with a built-in heated vaporizer. You fill its reservoir with the appropriate solvent and then place your 3D-printed part inside of the chamber. That solvent will then be heated and vaporized to fill the chamber around your part. The solvent gently melts the outer surfaces of the part, which smooths out the layer lines. In 15 minutes or so, the process is done and you can remove your part. Give it a day or two to fully dry and you’re left with a nice, shiny part without any visible layer lines.

This is very similar to the Polymaker Polysher that I reviewed a couple of years ago. But the Polysher only works with isopropyl alcohol and Polymaker’s proprietary filament. Because many of the Polysher’s parts are made from ABS, you cannot use it with acetone solvent. PolySmoother is made of metal and therefore can be used with a wide range of solvents. Acetone can be used to smooth ABS parts, chloroform can be used to smooth PLA parts, and you can use isopropyl alcohol with the Polymaker PolySmooth filament. PolySmoother is also significantly more affordable than the Polymaker Polysher, though it does look a bit less refined from a consumer device design prospective.

This isn’t specific to the PolySmoother, but you should be aware of the fact that all vapor polishing can have an undesirable effect on fine details. The solvent vapor can’t tell the difference between layer lines and tiny details, and will smooth them all out. It will also round off any hard edges on the part, so everything will end up with a soft appearance. For those reasons, vapor polishing isn’t ideal for mechanical parts that need to retain their dimensions. But for aesthetic purposes, it is hard to beat vapor polishing.

If you want a PolySmoother machine, the Kickstarter campaign will be running until February 27th. Super early birds can get one PolySmoother for $129. Rewards are expected to be delivered in June of 2021.