Carbon Looks So... Carbon!

Forgive my phone's camera, it's only an iPhone SE and its camera only does digital zoom. However, take a look at this 3D print, currently coming "out of the glass."

That is NOT the "fuzzy skin" setting in my slicer! That's the natural look of the carbon fibre impregnated PETG I'm printing with. The tiny carbon strands are fizzing up in the hot paste and making such a matte finish that you can't see the layer lines! This printer has never printed so well before! This is my first, serious structural part print since I upgraded this machine from the stock v-wheels to linear rails. This was an AU$200 upgrade kit, so I expected good quality prints but I also expected more linear layers, too, more prounounced in other words. And they sort of are with plain, glassy PLA. A little bit.

To me, this print, side-on at least, looks like it's been printed in a laser 3D printer - laser melted nylon granules. This finish is one of the attractions in the 3D community to "SLS" or "selective laser scintering" machines, $8000+ behemoths that turn nylon "sand" into precise, functional and strong parts and tools. You can make a workable adjustable spanner using SLS! However, for the cosplay maker set, SLS has that scifi industrial look, which also doubls as a functional surface for holding paint. Something nylon isn't usually known for. Something just about impossible with PETG.

I'm so going to try paint on my next PETG-CF print from this machine! This surface feels beautifully lush, gently abrasive and grippy. My drum kit, that I'm making into a MIDI controlled drum robot, has chrome hardware. If I can print all my parts for the robotics mechanisms in PLA-CF or PETG-CF and get this "scintered" look, I can possibly hit them with a coat of plastic primer, then a couple of coats of chrome finish enamel. Maybe it'll even stay the distance and look the part!

Meanwhile, the art in the picture was never destined for paint. It's part of a prototype, but more on that project later.

Update:
It turns out that this may be exclusively the preserve of PETG-CF, as the Sunlu PLA-CF I'm running up a kick drum beater bracket with, for the robo kit, looks like semi-matte/satin dark grey PLA looks without the carbon fibre, only way better quality, because it's running on my Ender 3 linear rail converted machine. Way better quality at twice the speed the pre-mod machine could do, 160mm/s.