Hi Guys After hearing about cracking acrylics i panicked and changed my acrylic frame upgrade to a plywood version, and to be fair ply wood work great, at least it did in my good ol´ultimaker original. That said i would really like to give it a personal touch in form of a semi transparent paint job so im still able to see the engravings. I was planning on lite coating the parts before assembly with a paint gun and some thinned acrylic based paint. Do you guys have any advise before i go ahead? Something to look out for to avoid screwing with the plywood? Cheers Jesper
Just make sure you seal it to help prevent warp with weather/climate changes. And if you have the printer by a window, the sunlight will change the color over time. But that is mainly with stain.
Just found this, they painted with "interior semi-gloss latex water based paint, diluted 2:1" http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Painting_Your_Ultimaker Could warping an issue when painting?
No. Plywood is a stable material for the most part and you aren't going to penetrate all the plywood layers, just the outer skin. Now if you dump it in water, yes it will warp. Same goes for them being in heat then cold. Deal with it all the time at work and other shops.
You may know this already, but if not: whichever finish you choose, be sure to coat both sides. Coating only one side will likely cause the plywood to warp (i.e the unfinished side will tend to bow out slightly, the finished side to bow in.
Pretty much any paint is fine for plywood. The thinner the coat the better to prevent any sort of issues when reassembling. I'm planning on painting mine with a candy coat green water based paint with an airbrush.
