Two-faced nanoparticles help make stickier, more water-repellent paint

Researchers in the US and UK have found a new way to improve paints and coatings, by adding “two-faced” nanoparticles. With one face that attracts water and another that repels it, the particles arranged themselves into a flat layer on a painted surfac… Continue reading Two-faced nanoparticles help make stickier, more water-repellent paint

Titanium Coating Is Actually Pretty Straightforward

[Justin] enjoys tinkering in his home lab, working on a wide variety of experiments. Recently, he’d found much success in coating objects with thin layers of various metals with the help of a DC sputtering magnetron. However, titanium simply wouldn’t work with this setup. Instead, [Justin] found another way.

As …read more

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3D Printering: Print Smoothing Tests with UV Resin

Smoothing the layer lines out of filament-based 3D prints is a common desire, and there are various methods for doing it. Besides good old sanding, another method is to apply a liquid coating of some kind that fills in irregularities and creates a smooth surface. There’s even a product specifically for this purpose: XTC-3D by Smooth-on. However, I happened to have access to the syrup-thick UV resin from an SLA printer and it occurred to me to see whether I could smooth a 3D print by brushing the resin on, then curing it. I didn’t see any reason it shouldn’t …read more

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