Wood PLA Coffee Espresso Tamper

cults3d

This is a fully printable wooden PLA coffee / espresso tamper. The original design is for a 52mm portafilter, specifically for the breville barista express. This being said the design is quite adaptable because it is 2 parts that screw together, the base and the handle, so I can take requests for specific portafilter sizes. This is a pretty simple design and print but what sets it apart is in the filament used and the work done post print. I must say this Wood PLA is quite amazing and the things you can do in post printing open a lot of new possibilities. This HatchBox Wood PLA is highly sand-able, stainable and takes a polyurethane sealing coat very well. I highly recommend checking it out, it can be found here: HatchBox Wood PLA - https://amzn.to/2L9eeMO The other filament I used for the "metal" base was prusament grey, I plan to test more interesting metaling finish PLA soon. Prusament PLA Pearl Mouse - https://amzn.to/2Zit747 Materials for post printing are: Sand Paper - https://amzn.to/2Hjxk1i Here is a great assortment from 120-3000 grit Wood Stain - https://amzn.to/2TTKGqg Any color works, this brand worked great. Spray on polyurethane finish - https://amzn.to/2KQybss To seal and provide a nice gloss to the prints Post-Print Procedure After printing I started with a heavier sand paper to get rid of obvious layer lines, although with printing at 0.1mm this wasn't much of an issue. Started with 150 - 200 grit. Progressed with lighter sand paper around 320 grit until very smooth. Then use very light sand paper and wet sanded to almost polish the finish. This was 1000-2000 grit. After the sanding process I applied the stain, I coated the piece pretty heavy and let it sit and soak in then wiped the remaining stain off. I let the piece sit and dry until it was no longer wet to the touch. I then applied the polyurethane in small coats allowing about 30 min to dry in between. 2-3 coats did the trick. Once this was completely cured 3-4 hrs later I did a quick wet sanding again to polish the finish with 2000 grit paper. This same process can actually be done for the silver piece to make it look more like metal.