Smoothing off tool

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Anyone ever used one of these? *Link*

Useful or not?

 

Edited By Nick Clarke 3 on 08/02/2021 13:27:12

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

[Grindstone CowboyParticipant @grindstonecowboy]

Just looks like a soldering iron with a smooth flat tip – can imagine it would take a steady hand and a lot of care to get anything like a good finish.

Rob

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Seems like a very effective tool for quickly ruining a nice 3D print

John

[Tim StevensParticipant @timstevens64731]

I once saw a big casting (over 6 x 6 x 6 feet) being smoothed using the same principle, but with a big electric arc and an air jet. Very spectacular and – I guess – more effective that this soldering-iron thingy.

Tim

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Looks very like the tool I bought years ago for sticking plastic film to model airframes, though that was mains powered. Being USB powered this must be a bit limited in heat output.

[Dave HalfordParticipant @davehalford22513]

Posted by John Haine on 08/02/2021 14:50:01:

Looks very like the tool I bought years ago for sticking plastic film to model airframes, though that was mains powered. Being USB powered this must be a bit limited in heat output.

Where I come from they were called mini travel irons, teflon coated base and a only fiver

[Nick Clarke 3Participant @nickclarke3]

Posted by John Haine on 08/02/2021 14:50:01:

Looks very like the tool I bought years ago for sticking plastic film to model airframes, though that was mains powered. Being USB powered this must be a bit limited in heat output.

I used a similar mains powered device as a tacking iron for photo mounting tissue to hold the tissue in place before mount, print and tissue were all placed in a mounting press and fixed for good.

Old tech now I suspect.

My own first thoughts were with Journeyman's above, hence my question.

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I can imagine it's handy for ornamental jobs and maybe welding thermoplastics, but I suspect that it's not too useful for anything where dimensional accuracy or small detail is involved.

Neil

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